Deconfiguring network interfaces failure on shutdown

[John Ashley Burgoyne <burgoyne@sas.upenn.edu>]

Ever since I upgraded to kernel-image-2.4.19-686 and
kernel-pcmcia-modules-2.4.19-686 in sid on my Dell Latitude C600,
shutdown (halt or reboot) hangs for four minutes while it is
"Deconfiguring network interfaces:" Unfortunately, the problem remains
even when I boot into my old 2.4.18 kernel. I still have
kernel-image-2.4.18-686 and kernel-pcmcia-modules-2.4.18-686
installed. I have never compiled my own kernel on this partition.


Uncommented lines from /etc/network/interfaces:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
iface eth0 inet dhcp


>From /etc/init.d/networking:

    stop)
        if sed -n 's/^[^ ]* \([^ ]*\) \([^ ]*\) .*$/\1 \2/p' /proc/mounts |
          grep -q "^/ nfs$"
        then
            echo "NOT deconfiguring network interfaces: / is an NFS mount"
        elif sed -n 's/^[^ ]* \([^ ]*\) \([^ ]*\) .*$/\1 \2/p' /proc/mounts |
          grep -q "^/ smbfs$"
        then
            echo "NOT deconfiguring network interfaces: / is an SMB mount"
        elif sed -n 's/^[^ ]* \([^ ]*\) \([^ ]*\) .*$/\2/p' /proc/mounts |
          grep -qE '^(nfs|smbfs)$'
        then
            echo "NOT deconfiguring network interfaces: NFS/SMB shares still mounted."
        else
            echo -n "Deconfiguring network interfaces: "
            ifdown -a
            echo "done."
        fi


Selected shutdown messages (incomplete, but in order):

INIT: Sending processes the TERM signal.
Stopping internet superserver: inetd.
Shutting down PCMCIA services: unloading Kernel Card Services done.
Sending all processes the TERM signal... done.
Sending all processes the KILL signal... done.
Saving random seed... done.
Unmounting remote filesystems... done.
Deconfiguring network interfaces: Failed to connect to
localhost:bootpc. Connection timed out.


Other notes (all tested in run level 2):

  - ifup -a and ifdown -a work normally.
  - /etc/init.d/networking start|restart|stop all work normally.
  - /etc/network/if-down.d/ is empty.
  - /etc/network/if-post-down.d/ is empty.
  - I use pump, and it continues to work normally.


It seems to be a different problem than Andrew Dixon's debian-user
posting "slow shutdown" from 2001-04-14 as I haven't touched NIS/NFS
nor RPC and ifdown works normally in run level 2. At the
recommendation of another post, I have read the shutdown man page and
Chapter 10 of the policy manual, obviously to no avail. I can't tell
whether my problem is similar to old bug 119292.

Ultimately, I can't tell whether my is a bug period. Should I report
it? If so, for which package?

Many thanks,

John Ashley Burgoyne