Debian 7.5.0 dhcp

S_M_A · 06-18-2014, 04:21 PM

I've just installed (eh, well several times since I thought I did something wrong when rebuilding the kernel for my needs) debian 7.5.0 i386 on an old Toshiba Satellite A100.

The installation works alright except when it comes to dhcp where I had to try several times to get an ip. The installation eventually did complete but now I rarely get an ip for that machine.

I have several machines (win & debian6) connected to the router and have never had any issues before. Is dhcp unstable in 7.5 or is it just my hardware (Intel PRO/100 VE)

Debian 6.0.9 is still available, shall I get that instead or is this a fixable issue?

Oh, I don't think it should affect things to the worse but I'm not installing any gui, it's just a console install. I intend to run the machine as a server and manage it via Putty.

Amazing... while typing this the machine actually did get an ip! Anyway, it should be more or less instant so something isn't as it should.

Any ideas on what to check/alter?

evo2 · 06-18-2014, 07:28 PM

Hi,

the dhcp client should be rock solid. Can you check the logs of your dhcp server? Also, can you post the output of dhcp while it is struggling to get an IP address? Either of these may provide clues about possible settings you could tweak in /etc/dhcp/dhclient.conf (or on your dhcp server) to make it work better.

Evo2.

S_M_A · 06-19-2014, 12:15 PM

Thanks for responding.

Today I got ip directly at boot so I tried to force the issue by running ifdown/ifup but of course without any "real success".
Messing around a bit however revealed something that might be significant. I removed the cable and did ifdown. I then inserted the cable again and did ifup and now I get (without the leading copyright and so on)

Quote:

DHCPDISCOVER on ETH0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 3
DHCPDISCOVER on ETH0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 7
DHCPDISCOVER on ETH0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 8
DHCPDISCOVER on ETH0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 20
...
NO DHCPOFFERS recieved

and this with no trace of any activity in the router log.

A shutdown -r 0 didn't resolve anything and neither did a shutdown -h 0 with a following power button start. Since this is an old laptop with a bad battery and I left it unconnected yesterday I now suspected that removing the battery might help and, voila!, it did!

To me it seems like the hardware isn't properly handled/resetted and thus may end up in some invalid state. What to do about it is another story...

My dhclient.conf is just as it is from a fresh install but here it is anyway

Quote:

# Configuration file for /sbin/dhclient, which is included in Debian's
# dhcp3-client package.
#
# This is a sample configuration file for dhclient. See dhclient.conf's
# man page for more information about the syntax of this file
# and a more comprehensive list of the parameters understood by
# dhclient.
#
# Normally, if the DHCP server provides reasonable information and does
# not leave anything out (like the domain name, for example), then
# few changes must be made to this file, if any.
#

option rfc3442-classless-static-routes code 121 = array of unsigned integer 8;

#send host-name "andare.fugue.com";
send host-name = gethostname();
#send dhcp-client-identifier 1:0:a0:24:ab:fb:9c;
#send dhcp-lease-time 3600;
#supersede domain-name "fugue.com home.vix.com";
#prepend domain-name-servers 127.0.0.1;
request subnet-mask, broadcast-address, time-offset, routers,
domain-name, domain-name-servers, domain-search, host-name,
dhcp6.name-servers, dhcp6.domain-search,
netbios-name-servers, netbios-scope, interface-mtu,
rfc3442-classless-static-routes, ntp-servers;
#require subnet-mask, domain-name-servers;
#timeout 60;
#retry 60;
#reboot 10;
#select-timeout 5;
#initial-interval 2;
#script "/etc/dhcp3/dhclient-script";
#media "-link0 -link1 -link2", "link0 link1";
#reject 192.33.137.209;

#alias {
# interface "eth0";
# fixed-address 192.5.5.213;
# option subnet-mask 255.255.255.255;
#}

#lease {
# interface "eth0";
# fixed-address 192.33.137.200;
# medium "link0 link1";
# option host-name "andare.swiftmedia.com";
# option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
# option broadcast-address 192.33.137.255;
# option routers 192.33.137.250;
# option domain-name-servers 127.0.0.1;
# renew 2 2000/1/12 00:00:01;
# rebind 2 2000/1/12 00:00:01;
# expire 2 2000/1/12 00:00:01;
#}

S_M_A · 06-20-2014, 04:42 AM

Well, when starting today the battery contained some power and I didn't get an ip. Unplugging it resolved the issue again so I think it's quite safe to say that the root cause is some driver or hardware bug. Even though the issue isn't really solved I mark the thread as so. Fixing the driver would be the proper thing to do but without the necessary hardware documentation it's probably quite a task.

Hm, marking the thread as unresolved again since today it's impossible to get an ip even when doing a full power reset.

The eth0 is an Intel PRO/100 VE and it seems that it has caused headaches to a lot of people...