Slow boot waiting for eth0?

[Thomas Beckett]

On Wed, 23 Feb 2005 10:30:38 -0500, Graham Fawcett
<graham.fawcett at gmail.com> wrote:
> When I boot Ubuntu Hoary on my Dell Inspiron 8200, and I'm not
> connected to the LAN, the boot is delayed for a few minutes as it
> tries to bring up the eth0 interface. Frequently, I *am* connected to
> our LAN when booting; but when I'm not, the very long delay is
> frustrating.
> 
> What's the correct way to reduce the time spent blocking for an eth0
> connection during boot?
> 
> Thanks to the Ubuntu team for a great Linux distribution.
> 
> -- Graham
> 
> Graham Fawcett
> University of Windsor
> Windsor, Ontario, Canada
> 
> --
> ubuntu-users mailing list
> ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com
> http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users
> 

This is due to DHCP timout when it recieves no signal back in response
to its broadcast. An easy way to stop it is to use a static IP
address. Obvioulsy this isnt suitable for every case. Sometimes you
have to use DHCP (work network etc). If you want you can alter the
DHCP Timeout. edit /etc/sysconfig/network (might not be this exact
place in ubuntu) and set DHCP_TIMEOUT=15

This will make it only wait 15 seconds. Its best not to set it lower
as dhcp can often take that long to respond to a request normally.
The other thing that i found after a bit of looking was ifplugd. This
is a daemon than stops the network starting if the cable isnt plugged
in and starts it when it is.

http://www.stud.uni-hamburg.de/users/lennart/projects/ifplugd/

you can get the sources from the site or I gather that it is available
in the repositories
(can anyone confirm this - im not at home at the moment)

Hope it helps...

Tom


-- 

Q: How many freudians does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: Two - one to change the bulb - the other to hold the penis...

.... I mean ladder!!!