On Mon, Oct 28, 2002 at 06:02:43PM -0800, Joe Emenaker wrote:
| I've got a built-in ethernet jack on my laptop. Being a laptop... this jack
| is often not plugged into anything (aka: I don't want it coming up
| automatically on boot). However, being a laptop, when it *is* plugged in, it
| gets plugged in at a variety of places (aka: I need DHCP).
|
| The problem is that, if I set up my /etc/network/interfaces like so:
| iface eth0 inet dhcp
|
| then Debian seems to try to bring up eth0 *anyway*. /etc/network/interfaces
| claims that I can use a "noauto <interface>" directive, but I get an error
| message on the console (about a syntax error in /etc/network/interfaces, of
| course) at boot time when I try that.
Are you using potato or woody? I think the ifupdown package changed
the behavior between those releases. In the old release, everything
was "auto" by default unless you said 'noauto'. In the current
release it is not auto unless you say 'auto'.
| Am I missing something here? Is it the prescribed behavior for the "dhcp"
| directive to imply "auto"?
Not that I am aware of.
The solution I have on this laptop is the following in
/etc/network/interfaces :
~~~
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp
# only try DHCP if there is a physical link
pre-up /usr/local/sbin/check-link.sh eth0
~~~
/usr/local/sbin/check-link.sh is attached. It requires the
'net-tools' package.
The only problem with this is that in the case I don't have a link
while the system boots, ifup still thinks eth0 is configured. If I
later insert a NIC and connect it, I need to '--force' ifup to bring
the interface up.
-D
--
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you
rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and
humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke
is easy and my burden is light.
Matthew 11:28-30
http://dman.ddts.net/~dman/
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