Occasionally-- "connected with self-assigned address," "deactivating device eth0"

MaxIBoy · 10-03-2009, 11:02 AM

Sometimes I have an issue wherein nm-applet will say I'm connected with a "self-assigned address" if I try to connect by the ethernet port on my laptop. In those cases, I am NOT connected to the Internet. Doesn't matter how many times I restart the "networking", "dbus", "dhcdbd", "network-manager", or "network-manager-dispatcher" services, or in what order, I cannot get the darn thing connected. The only way to get connected is to reboot and hope that it doesn't glitch out again. This leads me to believe it is a problem with my boot order.

Looking at my daemon.log, here is some boot-process output which I only ever see when it has glitched out:

Code:

Sep  1 13:19:08 MaxToTheMax-Lappy-Debian init: Entering runlevel: 2
Sep  1 13:19:09 MaxToTheMax-Lappy-Debian acpid: starting up with netlink and the input layer
Sep  1 13:19:09 MaxToTheMax-Lappy-Debian acpid: 57 rules loaded
Sep  1 13:19:09 MaxToTheMax-Lappy-Debian acpid: waiting for events: event logging is off
Sep  1 13:19:09 MaxToTheMax-Lappy-Debian dhclient: Listening on LPF/eth0/00:1e:ec:06:55:59
Sep  1 13:19:09 MaxToTheMax-Lappy-Debian dhclient: Sending on   LPF/eth0/00:1e:ec:06:55:59
Sep  1 13:19:09 MaxToTheMax-Lappy-Debian dhclient: Sending on   Socket/fallback
Sep  1 13:19:13 MaxToTheMax-Lappy-Debian dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 6
Sep  1 13:19:14 MaxToTheMax-Lappy-Debian dhclient: DHCPOFFER from 10.220.32.4
Sep  1 13:19:14 MaxToTheMax-Lappy-Debian dhclient: DHCPREQUEST on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
Sep  1 13:19:14 MaxToTheMax-Lappy-Debian dhclient: DHCPACK from 10.220.32.4
Sep  1 13:19:16 MaxToTheMax-Lappy-Debian acpid: client connected from 3002[107:115]
Sep  1 13:19:16 MaxToTheMax-Lappy-Debian acpid: 1 client rule loaded
Sep  1 13:19:16 MaxToTheMax-Lappy-Debian dhclient: bound to 10.220.34.11 -- renewal in 280848 seconds.
Sep  1 13:19:17 MaxToTheMax-Lappy-Debian NetworkManager: <info>  starting...
Sep  1 13:19:17 MaxToTheMax-Lappy-Debian NetworkManager: <info>  New VPN service 'vpnc' (org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.vpnc).
Sep  1 13:19:17 MaxToTheMax-Lappy-Debian NetworkManager: <info>  New VPN service 'openvpn' (org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.openvpn).
Sep  1 13:19:17 MaxToTheMax-Lappy-Debian NetworkManager: <info>  Found radio killswitch /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/pci_8086_4222_rfkill_phy0_wlan
Sep  1 13:19:17 MaxToTheMax-Lappy-Debian NetworkManager: <info>  Found radio killswitch /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/iwl_wlan_switch
Sep  1 13:19:19 MaxToTheMax-Lappy-Debian NetworkManager: <info>  wlan0: Device is fully-supported using driver 'iwl3945'.
Sep  1 13:19:19 MaxToTheMax-Lappy-Debian NetworkManager: <info>  wlan0: driver supports SSID scans (scan_capa 0x01).
Sep  1 13:19:19 MaxToTheMax-Lappy-Debian NetworkManager: <info>  nm_device_init(): waiting for device's worker thread to start
Sep  1 13:19:19 MaxToTheMax-Lappy-Debian NetworkManager: <info>  nm_device_init(): device's worker thread started, continuing.
Sep  1 13:19:19 MaxToTheMax-Lappy-Debian NetworkManager: <info>  Now managing wireless (802.11) device 'wlan0'.
Sep  1 13:19:19 MaxToTheMax-Lappy-Debian NetworkManager: <info>  Deactivating device wlan0.
Sep  1 13:19:19 MaxToTheMax-Lappy-Debian NetworkManager: <info>  eth0: Device is fully-supported using driver 'r8169'.
Sep  1 13:19:19 MaxToTheMax-Lappy-Debian NetworkManager: <info>  nm_device_init(): waiting for device's worker thread to start
Sep  1 13:19:19 MaxToTheMax-Lappy-Debian NetworkManager: <info>  nm_device_init(): device's worker thread started, continuing.
Sep  1 13:19:19 MaxToTheMax-Lappy-Debian NetworkManager: <info>  Now managing wired Ethernet (802.3) device 'eth0'.
Sep  1 13:19:19 MaxToTheMax-Lappy-Debian NetworkManager: <info>  Deactivating device eth0.
Sep  1 13:19:19 MaxToTheMax-Lappy-Debian NetworkManager: <info>  Will activate wired connection 'eth0' because it now has a link.
Sep  1 13:19:19 MaxToTheMax-Lappy-Debian NetworkManager: <info>  SWITCH: no current connection, found better connection 'eth0'.
Sep  1 13:19:20 MaxToTheMax-Lappy-Debian acpid: client connected from 3187[0:0]
Sep  1 13:19:20 MaxToTheMax-Lappy-Debian acpid: 1 client rule loaded
Sep  1 13:19:21 MaxToTheMax-Lappy-Debian NetworkManager: <info>  Will activate connection 'eth0'.
Sep  1 13:19:21 MaxToTheMax-Lappy-Debian NetworkManager: <info>  Device eth0 activation scheduled...
Sep  1 13:19:21 MaxToTheMax-Lappy-Debian NetworkManager: <info>  Error getting killswitch power: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.UnknownMethod - Method "GetPower" with signature "" on interface "org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.KillSwitch" doesn't exist#012

Here is my boot order for runlevel 2:

Code:

~$cd /etc/rc2.d/
/etc/rc2.d$ls
K01acct           K01rc.local       S01netdiag
K01anacron        K01saned          S01oss
K01apmd           K01ssh            S01preload
K01atd            K01stop-bootlogd  S01sudo
K01console-setup  K01x11-common     S01vboxdrv
K01cpufrequtils   K02avahi-daemon   S04bootlogs
K01cron           K02exim4          S25dbus
K01gdm            K04rsyslog        S30hal
K01hdparm         K06nfs-common     S40dhcdbd
K01jackd          README            S50network-manager-dispatcher
K01kerneloops     S01acpid          S60network-manager
K01ntop           S01acpi-support   S90rmnologin
K01openbsd-inetd  S01cups           S95xdm
K01openvpn        S01fancontrol     S99bootchart
K01randomsound    S01loadcpufreq
/etc/rc2.d$

I am running Debian Sid/Squeeze. Can anyone help me with this?

AlucardZero · 10-03-2009, 11:57 AM

Quote:

Sep 1 13:19:09 MaxToTheMax-Lappy-Debian dhclient: Sending on Socket/fallback
Sep 1 13:19:13 MaxToTheMax-Lappy-Debian dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 6
Sep 1 13:19:14 MaxToTheMax-Lappy-Debian dhclient: DHCPOFFER from 10.220.32.4
Sep 1 13:19:14 MaxToTheMax-Lappy-Debian dhclient: DHCPREQUEST on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
Sep 1 13:19:14 MaxToTheMax-Lappy-Debian dhclient: DHCPACK from 10.220.32.4
Sep 1 13:19:16 MaxToTheMax-Lappy-Debian acpid: client connected from 3002[107:115]
Sep 1 13:19:16 MaxToTheMax-Lappy-Debian acpid: 1 client rule loaded
Sep 1 13:19:16 MaxToTheMax-Lappy-Debian dhclient: bound to 10.220.34.11 -- renewal in 280848 seconds.

Not seeing the problem, unless you're not expecting a (perfectly valid) 10.x address?

When you get that problem, try running

Code:

dhclient eth0

MaxIBoy · 10-03-2009, 02:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlucardZero

Not seeing the problem, unless you're not expecting a (perfectly valid) 10.x address?

When you get that problem, try running

Code:

dhclient eth0

So you're saying that the problem might be somewhere else in the boot process?

I just copied a big block of text from the log file, I don't know if it's all from the same boot (but I think it is, it's contiguous.) I thought maybe the problem had something to do with this message:

Code:

Sep  1 13:19:21 MaxToTheMax-Lappy-Debian NetworkManager: <info> Error getting killswitch power: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.UnknownMethod - Method "GetPower" with signature "" on interface "org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.KillSwitch" doesn't exist#012

I will try your suggestion next time I boot and that happens, thanks!

AlucardZero · 10-03-2009, 05:01 PM

If you're getting a self-assigned address, then DHCP isn't working on your network for some reason, be it a frayed wire or a misconfigured router or a number of things.

Or, it could just be Sid being Sid.

MaxIBoy · 10-04-2009, 11:50 AM

Well, it happened again. Dhclient did get me connected to the Internet though, so that's good. NM-applet still shows the other icon, but no biggie.

This has happened with multiple ethernet LANs so I think it's a software issue with my laptop.

Naturally, I know that Sid isn't supposed to be stable, and I've had plenty of experience to back that assertion up. But that doesn't meen it can't be fixed.

Thanks for posting, THANKS FOR THE DHCLIENT TIP!

EDIT: Yeah, so my cable got jostled loose (don't you just hate it when the little locking tab breaks off?) And for the life of me it would not re-connect. I would run "sudo dhclient", it would say "bound to 192.168.1.xxx, renewing in three thousand-odd seconds," but I would not be connected.

The icon in NM-applet for "self-assigned address" is a cable with a little triangle-exclamation point on it. But when I tried to reconnect after jostling the cable loose, the nm-applet didnt even get past the "green balls" stage. Killing NM-applet didn't work. So I wound up needing to restart anyway.

Sorry if this rough description is, uh, rough, but NM-applet is kinda sparse on information about what it's actually doing.

The dhclient program still lets me connect once, which is still a major improvement under circumstances where the locking tab is NOT broken. So it's still very helpful! (Yeah, the WiFi network at my school has been taken down since last year. Some kid with a virus connected and things kinda went downhill from there...)