Re: 6.0.1 upgrade dhcp problem

[Ray Phillips <r.phillips%uq.edu.au@localhost>]

I've just realised I've slightly mislead you.  Most of the time I've 
been troubleshooting using a NetBSD/i386 boot CD made from the 
boot-com.iso file so I can copy and paste console output into emails, 
and that's the disc I used when I reported that the sk0 NIC in the 
problem PC doesn't work.  Since I didn't need to capture console 
output on the other PC with an fxp0 NIC, I used a CD made from the 
boot.iso file for it.  (Just to make sure I wasn't tricking myself I 
had also used that CD in the problem PC, and its fxp0 NIC does 
misbehave the same when booting from both CDs.)  However, I mustn't 
have tried configuring sk0 in the problem PC with the 
non-serial-console CD because when I tried it today it worked fine.

After writing the paragraph above I move the sk0 NIC to the "good" PC 
and found ... sk0 wouldn't work with either boot CD in it (using 
dhcpcd that is), and when I put it back in the original PC it 
wouldn't work in it with either boot CD either.  :(  Using dhclient 
though, gave a reliable connection to the network.

Continuing on with replies to your suggestions...

I can't replace the power supply in the problem PC; its a small form 
factor box and I don't have a spare.

Both PCs have one fxp0 NIC on their motherboards.  The problem PC's 
motherboard is an MSI MS-6557 VER: 1.0 while the other's an Intel 
D915GAG.  The sk0 NIC is a D-Link DGE-530T PCI card.

Yes, I used the same UTP cable when testing both PC's NICs.

After configuring fxp0 with dhclient (on the problem PC) I ran

  while :; do ifconfig fxp0; done | grep status: | grep -v active

for thirty seconds or so but there wasn't any output, so the carrier 
was there continuously.

Using dhcpcd's -K switch worked (without attempting to configure the 
NICs from sysinst's menu first):

# dhcpcd -K fxp0
dhcpcd[47]: version 5.5.4 starting
dhcpcd[47]: Kernel is not configured to accept IPv6 RAs
dhcpcd[47]: fxp0: broadcasting for a lease
dhcpcd[47]: fxp0: offered 192.168.36.135 from 192.168.36.1
dhcpcd[47]: fxp0: ignoring offer of 192.168.36.135 from 192.168.36.24
dhcpcd[47]: fxp0: acknowledged 192.168.36.135 from # dhcpcd -K fxp0
dhcpcd[47]: version 5.5.4 starting
dhcpcd[47]: Kernel is not configured to accept IPv6 RAs
dhcpcd[47]: fxp0: broadcasting for a lease
dhcpcd[47]: fxp0: offered 192.168.36.135 from 192.168.36.1
dhcpcd[47]: fxp0: ignoring offer of 192.168.36.135 from 192.168.36.24
dhcpcd[47]: fxp0: acknowledged 192.168.36.135 from 192.168.36.1
dhcpcd[47]: fxp0: checking for 192.168.36.135
dhcpcd[47]: fxp0: leased 192.168.36.135 for 604800 seconds
dhcpcd[47]: forked to background, child pid 52
# ifconfig fxp0
fxp0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
        capabilities=1400<TCP4CSUM_Rx,UDP4CSUM_Rx>
        enabled=0
        address: 00:10:dc:7b:92:a9
        media: Ethernet autoselect (100baseTX full-duplex)
        status: active
        inet 192.168.36.135 netmask 0xfffffe00 broadcast 192.168.37.255
        inet6 fe80::210:dcff:fe7b:92a9%fxp0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x3
#
# while :; do ifconfig fxp0; done | grep status | grep -v active
^C
#
#
# dhcpcd -K sk0
dhcpcd[47]: version 5.5.4 starting
dhcpcd[47]: Kernel is not configured to accept IPv6 RAs
dhcpcd[47]: sk0: broadcasting for a lease
dhcpcd[47]: sk0: offered 192.168.37.82 from 192.168.36.1
dhcpcd[47]: sk0: ignoring offer of 192.168.37.82 from 192.168.36.24
dhcpcd[47]: sk0: acknowledged 192.168.37.82 from 192.168.36.1
dhcpcd[47]: sk0: checking for 192.168.37.82
dhcpcd[47]: timed out
dhcpcd[47]: allowing 8 seconds for IPv4LL timeout
dhcpcd[47]: sk0: leased 192.168.37.82 for 604800 seconds
dhcpcd[47]: forked to background, child pid 52
#
# ifconfig sk0
sk0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
        address: 00:22:b0:6b:60:49
        media: Ethernet autoselect (1000baseT full-duplex)
        status: active
        inet 192.168.37.82 netmask 0xfffffe00 broadcast 192.168.37.255
        inet6 fe80::222:b0ff:fe6b:6049%sk0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1
# ping -n 192.168.36.30
PING 192.168.36.30 (192.168.36.30): 52 data bytes
64 bytes from 192.168.36.30: icmp_seq=0 ttl=255 time=3.995 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.36.30: icmp_seq=1 ttl=255 time=0.938 ms
^C
----192.168.36.30 PING Statistics----
2 packets transmitted, 2 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 0.938/2.467/3.995/2.161 ms
#
# while :; do ifconfig sk0; done | grep status | grep -v active
^C
#


> I don't suppose there's any kind of authorisation issue at the switch...

I'm confident that's not the case and that the switch isn't 
configured to discriminate against certain MAC addresses.

I've checked, and spanning tree protocol is enabled on our switches, 
and the people who control them won't disable it.

Sorry this has dragged on for so long.  Thanks for your tenacity. 
It's looking like sticking with dhclient might be the best solution 
for this machine.


Ray