Edubuntu does not work with DHCP Konfiguration on port 1067

[Gavin McCullagh]

Hi,

On Wed, 09 Aug 2006, mailing-joergd at gmx.net wrote:

> thank you for your help - it works!

Great.

> Of course, it would be sensible to merge edubuntu and the other system in 
> the long run. Then the floppy-disk (which is currently necessary) could
> be left out. But step by step...

As you mentioned before a PXE multi-boot which produced a menu might be the
ideal solution but it modifies the existing system that may not be allowed
just now.

> Useful information for a newbie like me anyway :-)

I think you're well ahead of newbie if you know how to rebuild kernels and
ramdisks!

> > You can modify this script to read as follows:
> > 
> > 	# For DHCP
> > 	modprobe -q af_packet
> > 	ipconfig -p 1068 ${DEVICE}
> > 
> > and then run mkinitramfs to rebuild your initrd image (this is in the ltsp
> > chroot obviously).  I've tested here and that ipconfig does recognise the
> > -p option.
> 
> YES! That's it. Solves my problem really perfectly. Thank you,
> after spending days with the problem this was the decisive hint.

Excellent.

> > Obviously you'd need to redo this every time initramfs-tools got upgraded.
> 
> Are the initramfs-tools upgraded via the Update Manager?

As far as I'm aware the update manager could upgrade any package including
this one and in the process would likely overwrite scripts/nfs.  This would
only usually happen due to an upgrade to a new distribution (ie Edgy) or
due to a security issue in that package, which seems fairly unlikely.  Just
something to watch out for.

> > I guess I understand, it's just that (as I understand) the kernel doesn't
> > do the dhcp do it must then pass this info on to whatever does.
> 
> Yes, the option is actually caught by the script called 'linuxrc' and then
> passed to the dhcp client. Easy to comprehend with the ltsp_initrd_kit...

I see.

> It does work. I'll invite you to some beer if you sojourn somewhere in
> bavaria/germany :-)

I look forward to it ;-)

> > PS If you get your thin client up and running on the nfs root, dhclient
> > probably takes over the ongoing dhcp responbilities so you may need to
> > convince it to use the other port too.
> 
> Seems to be not a problem during boot process. Maybe it becomes one when
> the client's lease expires (Maybe the client will ask for a new one using
> the dhclient?)

Without checking an Edubuntu machine, I'm not sure but that's my guess.
You might not notice for quite a while (maybe 24 hours is lease length) but
something will have to renew the dhcp lease and I would guess that'd be
dhclient (though it's possible the thin clients continue using that
ipconfig program).  You should ensure that whatever renews the lease
(possibly dhclient) also uses port 1067/1068.

Gavin