There are many situations when you need to manually set your MAC address. I have previously showed you 3 ways for temporary changing the MAC address.
In this article I will explain you how configure the MAC address permanently, on Debian, Ubuntu and other Debian based distros.
To set the hardware address (MAC), open the /etc/network/interface file in your favourite text editor:
$ sudo vim /etc/network/interfaces
After the network interface configuration, paste this line: hwaddress ether AA:BB:CC:11:22:33.
Note: AA:BB:CC:11:22:33 is just a sample, replace it with the MAC address you want to set for your interface.
Example, with dhcp enabled network interface:
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp
hwaddress ether AA:BB:CC:11:22:33
Example, with a network interface having a static ip:
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.0.100
netmask 255.255.255.0
network 192.168.0.0
broadcast 192.168.0.255
gateway 192.168.0.1
hwaddress ether AA:BB:CC:11:22:33
To apply the MAC change, restart the network interface:
$ sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart