Boot slow at DHCPDISCOVER on Debian Etch

jkh107 · 05-20-2007, 08:11 AM

I have Debian Etch installed on my laptop, which connects to the Internet using an ethernet cable. When the ethernet cable is plugged in, the boot process is very fast. However, when the ethernet cable is not plugged in (ie when I'm not at home) the boot process is very slow at the DHCPDISCOVER stage. Is there any way to speed it up when it's not connected to the Internet?

Dutch Master · 05-20-2007, 08:36 AM

Yep, give the wired interface a static addres.

jkh107 · 05-20-2007, 11:47 AM

Thank you for the prompt reply. I don't suppose you could be a bit more specific about that. Exactly which setting needs to be changed?

Jongi · 05-20-2007, 12:03 PM

In KDE it is in - Settings --> Networking --> Ethernet Connection --> Properties. Change DHCP to Static IP. You will probably have to change settings on your router if you have one. Not sure about the last part.

JimBass · 05-20-2007, 04:39 PM

Manually edit the /etc/network/interfaces file. You'll need to know what the network scheme is, which if you don't know can be found by typing /sbin/ifconfig at the terminal. Your /etc/network/interfaces file probably looks like this at present:

Code:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# This entry was created during the Debian installation
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

And assuming your network assigns addresses in the 192.168.1.0 network, you could edit the file to look like this:

Code:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# The primary network interface
#allow-hotplug eth0
auto eth0

iface eth0 inet static
        address 192.168.1.2
        netmask 255.255.255.0
        gateway 192.168.1.1

Peace,
JimBass