time to bring up network
 

I am running linux on a laptop...which is not always connected to a network...but when it's not...it takes forever to boot because that "bringing up /eth0" freezes for minutes...can I shorten the wait time?

The only time that I found the 'bringing up eth0' bit appearing to freeze was when I had my machine setup as a DHCP server when there was already a DHCP server on the network. Try disabling dhcpd on startup.

leave the boot protocol on dhcp if that's what you use. Change ONBOOT=yes to no

]# pwd
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts
[root@Micro network-scripts]# cat ifcfg-eth0
DEVICE=eth0
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
ONBOOT=no

To start it when you connect to a lan use...

ifup eth0