eth0 timeout

tskuzzy · n00b Joined: 13 Aug 2008 Posts: 70

About 50% of the time, eth0 will timeout during boot. Is there any way to specify a longer timeout time?
Also, what is an IPv4LL address? It gets assigned whenever eth0 times out

Hu · Administrator Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 23371

Depending on which DHCP client you use, yes. You are probably using dhcpcd, in which case you can adjust the timeout using the -t option. See man dhcpcd for other options that may be useful. See /etc/conf.d/net.example for how to pass the options to the DHCP client.

An IPv4LL address is a "link local" address. It is a way to allow systems to be automatically assigned addresses in the absence of a DHCP server. See RFC 3927 for the full details. Some DHCP clients, such as dhcpcd, can be instructed not to assign an IPv4LL address when no DHCP server is available. In that case, the DHCP client will simply fail to assign any address to the interface.

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sat Sep 13, 2008 5:04 pm Post subject:

tskuzzy,

The timeout defaults to 60 seconds (-t 60) if you don't get a DHCP lease in this time, something is broken.
To change the timeout, look in /etc/config.d/net.example for the syntax.

A Link Local address is a self assigned address. Your system makes up an address in the link local range and broadcasts it to ensure no other system is using it too. Its almost totally useless except in the case where your want to auto configure a network when there is no DHCP server on the network. In this way it provides interoperability with Windows.

However - if you do have a DHCP server, getting a Link Local address is a verybadthing.

What network hardware do you have and what kernel module are you using ?

Also some 1Gbit network cards do not reliably negiotiate 100Mbit connections. This can be addressed by passing a module parameter to force the link settings, if the kernel module supports it.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

tskuzzy · n00b Joined: 13 Aug 2008 Posts: 70

Thanks for the replies

Yes, I'm using dhcpcd as my DHCP client
The interface times out after about 10s, definitely not 60s.

Here's my lspci for my ethernet controller (kernel driver is listed at the bottom):

Etal · Veteran Joined: 15 Jul 2005 Posts: 1932

I actually had the same problem a year ago. Someone here told me to add the following line to /etc/conf.d/net and it worked:

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sat Sep 13, 2008 9:30 pm Post subject:

tskuzzy,

Some users have problems with Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B and the r8169 module, varying from total non operation to taking several goes to get started.
It does not have options for link setting.

I suspect your /etc/conf.d/net alrady contains