Topic: DHCP and Cable Modems

[Charlie Brady]

Dan Brown wrote:

> How is it limited to PCI machines?  I know they list that in
> their system requirements, but AFAIK, RedHat 6 doesn't have
> any such requirement.

There is some automatic detection code which fails ungracefully
on non-PCI machines. If you are adventurous, you can get e-smith to run on an ISA bus machine. E-mail me for details if this is what you want to do.

> I seem to recall a statement from E-smith (maybe on this board
> somewhere) to the effect that PCI wasn't really needed, but it
> made device detection much easier.

The installation doesn't complete correctly.

> > No, if the options line is, e.g. "options ne
> > io=0x300" then it won't be overwritten.
>
> However, if you've set "alias eth0 ne", _that_ will
> get overwritten (since ne is an ISA driver, which doesn't show
> on the list), and the options will then be a moot point.
> However, Bengt seems to have given a fix for this, which is
> cool.

Indeed. Set the right driver name in the configuration and you won't lose that information.

[Shawn Pack]

If you can help me it would be massively appreciated.  I am visiting my friend for the weekend in Souther California.  He has a cable modem with Cox @Home cable/internet service.  I have not used e-smith before, but the president of our Linux Users Group back home in Washington state told me about it.  He said it was easy to use.  So far I'm fairly impressed but it would be nice to connect to the internet.  I have read through the bulliten board discussion group and have not seen a final follow showing that your problem was solved.  I've got the same problem.

The only settings that my friend has are the computer or system name to get the IP address.  Joe of e-smith wrote to give the e-smith system the same name in the web based manager.  I did that.  I also had the problem of the 3Com 3c900 card on eth1 and a different card on eth0... I switched the cards and now I don't get the eth1 failed anymore on bootup, but I can't connect.  Can you help?  If only have till Monday morning to get this running.

Shawn Pack

[Kim Morrison]

Shawn,

I'm sorry to say that our leading explanation for this behavior is an incompatibility between the DHCP client we used in our e-smtih server (dhcpcd) and the DHCP server being used by some ISPs.  

We are working on this and, in particular, spending a lot of cycles providing individualized assistance to any supported customers impacted by this, but don't have a simple fix for you at this time.  

Switching from dhcpcd to pump (which is another DHCP client already installed on the e-smith server) seems to help achieve connectivity in some cases.  

Sorry for the frustration you must be experiencing.  

Best of luck,

Kim

[Shawn Pack]

Kim,

I appreciate the quick response.  I did see the posting about using pump.  But will that take into account the system name (which I gather is hostname) that the ISP needs?  Also, the suggested using of a different version of the DHCPCD RPM was interesting.  Would I get this from using a Red Hat 5.2 package, or just going out on the net to find the latest update.  I'm a total Linux newbie.

Shawn

[Joseph Morrison]

Charlie Brady has sent us an updated dhcpcd RPM. At least one ADSL user (US West, Cisco 675 router/bridge) was able to get running in NAT/router mode using this RPM - when they couldn't get an IP address using the original version - it would hang while setting up eth1.

For anyone who wants to try updating their RPM, here are the instructions:

1. At the e-smith console, type Ctrl-Alt-F3. Then at the prompt, log in as "root" using your current system password.

2. Type the command "ftp ftp.e-smith.net"

3. When it prompts you for a name, enter "anonymous"

4. When it prompts you for a password, enter your email address

5. It should say "guest login ok". Type the command "binary"

6. Type the command "cd pub/e-smith-3.0/updates/RPMS"

7. Type "get dhcpcd-1.3.18pl1-2.i386.rpm" to download the file

8. When the transfer is complete, type "quit"

9. Type the following command to upgrade the RPM (you should see a number of hash marks printed across the screen):

rpm -Uvh dhcpcd-1.3.18pl1-2.i386.rpm

10. Finally, switch back to the e-smith console using Ctrl-Alt-F1 and reboot the e-smith server. (No need to log out of the other screen, since the reboot will take care of that.)

If anyone has had trouble with DHCP, please let us know whether this fixes it. Thanks very much,

- Joe Morrison

[Robert Magyar]

I downloaded the dhcpcd rpm you suggested and installed it.  On my first try it didn't work.  I then edited the ifup script and removed the -h {hostname} from the command line and everything worked.  I remember trying this with the original version and it didn't help.  My ISP is AT&T Cable Services(MediaOne).  Thanks for your persistence in finding a solution.  If I can provide any other information, just ask.

Bob Magyar

[Joseph Morrison]

Hello Bob,

Thanks very much for your post. I'm surprised the -h option caused problems, but am glad to know it. We may have to offer an option in the e-smith interface to turn this option on and off.

- Joe