The first time I run "/etc/init.d/networking restart" after a reboot I
get the same message I would if I ran "ifdown eth0" about eth0 releasing
its dhcp address, and I no longer have network connectivity, i.e. the
/etc/init.d/networking script does not seem to call ifup -a to restart
all network connections. (I have only one nic on this computer.) To
get network connectivity back I must manually run "ifup etho".

However, ever after that first time event running
"/etc/init.d/networking restart" I get the message "reconfiguring
network interfaces" but no ifdown or ifup messages showing the releasing
and acquiring of an ip address through dhcp. If I run "ifdown eth0" at
this point it tells me that eth0 is not configured, but I have network
connectivity and ifconfig -a confirms that eth0 is configured.

If I run "/etc/init.d/networking stop" I get the correct message that
eth0 is releasing its dhcp address. However, then running
"/etc/init.d/networking start" does not run ifup on eth0 as eth0 remains
unconfigured, although I receive the message that the network interfaces
have been successfully reconfigured. I must manually run ifup eth0 to
configure it again and regain network connectivity.

My question is, is this behavior by design, or have I stumbled across a
bug?

I'm running an up-to-date Sid install.


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Is the following line in /etc/network/interfaces :

auto eth0

If not, eth0 will only be brought up when manually instructed to do so
with an ifup command.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Andrew J Perrin - andrew_perrin (at) unc.edu - http://perrin.socsci.unc.edu
Assistant Professor of Sociology; Book Review Editor, _Social Forces_
University of North Carolina - CB#3210, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3210 USA
New Book: http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bi.../00/178592.ctl



On Fri, 15 Jun 2007, Freddy Freeloader wrote:

> The first time I run "/etc/init.d/networking restart" after a reboot I get
> the same message I would if I ran "ifdown eth0" about eth0 releasing its dhcp
> address, and I no longer have network connectivity, i.e. the
> /etc/init.d/networking script does not seem to call ifup -a to restart all
> network connections. (I have only one nic on this computer.) To get network
> connectivity back I must manually run "ifup etho".
> However, ever after that first time event running "/etc/init.d/networking
> restart" I get the message "reconfiguring network interfaces" but no ifdown
> or ifup messages showing the releasing and acquiring of an ip address through
> dhcp. If I run "ifdown eth0" at this point it tells me that eth0 is not
> configured, but I have network connectivity and ifconfig -a confirms that
> eth0 is configured.
>
> If I run "/etc/init.d/networking stop" I get the correct message that eth0 is
> releasing its dhcp address. However, then running "/etc/init.d/networking
> start" does not run ifup on eth0 as eth0 remains unconfigured, although I
> receive the message that the network interfaces have been successfully
> reconfigured. I must manually run ifup eth0 to configure it again and regain
> network connectivity.
>
> My question is, is this behavior by design, or have I stumbled across a bug?
> I'm running an up-to-date Sid install.
>
> --
> To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-REQUEST@lists.debian.org with a subject
> of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@lists.debian.org
>
>


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Freddy Freeloader wrote:
> The first time I run "/etc/init.d/networking restart" after a reboot I
> get the same message I would if I ran "ifdown eth0" about eth0 releasing
> its dhcp address, and I no longer have network connectivity, i.e. the
> /etc/init.d/networking script does not seem to call ifup -a to restart
> all network connections. (I have only one nic on this computer.) To
> get network connectivity back I must manually run "ifup etho".

The problem is rooted in Bug#300937. It is about how to handle
hotplug network devices.

http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=300937

The default Etch installation configures networking such as you are
seeing now. But let's back into it from the side. The configuration
is:

allow-hotplug eth0

You noted "ifup -a". But /etc/init.d/networking does call ifup -a.
But looking at the man page for ifup shows:

-a, --all
If given to ifup, affect all interfaces marked auto.

So 'ifup -a' only brings up interfaces marked auto but a default Etch
installation sets all interfaces to allow-hotplug. Now you can see
why restarting networking does not bring up networking.

And in the man page for interfaces it says:

Lines beginning with the word "auto" are used to identify the
physical interfaces to be brought up when ifup is run with the
-a option. (This option is used by the system boot scripts.)
...
Lines beginning with "allow-" are used to identify interfaces
that should be brought up automatically by various
subsytems. This may be done using a command such as "ifup
--allow=hotplug eth0 eth1", which will only bring up eth0 or
eth1 if it is listed in an "allow-hotplug" line.

> My question is, is this behavior by design, or have I stumbled across a
> bug?

I don't know the full history behind this but looking at the
Bug#300937 I assume the design is that network events are now moved
from boot time action to network event time action to support hotplug
network interfaces. Looking in /usr/share/doc/udev/README.Debian.gz I
see:

After receiving events about network interfaces, net.agent will call
ifupdown using the --allow=hotplug option. This makes the program act
only on interfaces marked with the "allow-hotplug" statement.
E.g: "allow-hotplug eth0" instead of the usual "auto eth0".

I have not researched further what it would take to trigger udev to
restart networking but I presume there is a path through it that would
do so. To return to the previous behavior you may change the
allow-hotplug stanzas into auto stanzas and then restarting networking
will restart the network interface. I would welcome further
information on this area.

Bob


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On Fri, Jun 15, 2007 at 09:44:53PM -0600, Bob Proulx wrote:

> I don't know the full history behind this but looking at the
> Bug#300937 I assume the design is that network events are now moved
> from boot time action to network event time action to support hotplug
> network interfaces. Looking in /usr/share/doc/udev/README.Debian.gz I
> see:
>
> After receiving events about network interfaces, net.agent will call
> ifupdown using the --allow=hotplug option. This makes the program act
> only on interfaces marked with the "allow-hotplug" statement.
> E.g: "allow-hotplug eth0" instead of the usual "auto eth0".
>
> I have not researched further what it would take to trigger udev to
> restart networking but I presume there is a path through it that would
> do so. To return to the previous behavior you may change the
> allow-hotplug stanzas into auto stanzas and then restarting networking
> will restart the network interface. I would welcome further
> information on this area.
>

It may be that the init.d/networking script needs to be a lot smarter
when called with 'restart'. Perhaps it should try to bring all
interfaces up that have 'auto' or 'allow-hotplug' but capture the errors
generated by non-existing interfaces so that they fail silently. It
could even put an info notice in syslog to explain any subsequent error
lines there. Or, is there a way for the script to get a list of
available (hot-plugged) interfaces from somewhere in /proc and only try
to configure ones that exist?

Doug.


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Bob Proulx wrote:
> Freddy Freeloader wrote:
>
>> The first time I run "/etc/init.d/networking restart" after a reboot I
>> get the same message I would if I ran "ifdown eth0" about eth0 releasing
>> its dhcp address, and I no longer have network connectivity, i.e. the
>> /etc/init.d/networking script does not seem to call ifup -a to restart
>> all network connections. (I have only one nic on this computer.) To
>> get network connectivity back I must manually run "ifup etho".
>>
>
> The problem is rooted in Bug#300937. It is about how to handle
> hotplug network devices.
>
> http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=300937
>
> The default Etch installation configures networking such as you are
> seeing now. But let's back into it from the side. The configuration
> is:
>
> allow-hotplug eth0
>
> You noted "ifup -a". But /etc/init.d/networking does call ifup -a.
> But looking at the man page for ifup shows:
>
> -a, --all
> If given to ifup, affect all interfaces marked auto.
>
> So 'ifup -a' only brings up interfaces marked auto but a default Etch
> installation sets all interfaces to allow-hotplug. Now you can see
> why restarting networking does not bring up networking.
>
> And in the man page for interfaces it says:
>
> Lines beginning with the word "auto" are used to identify the
> physical interfaces to be brought up when ifup is run with the
> -a option. (This option is used by the system boot scripts.)
> ...
> Lines beginning with "allow-" are used to identify interfaces
> that should be brought up automatically by various
> subsytems. This may be done using a command such as "ifup
> --allow=hotplug eth0 eth1", which will only bring up eth0 or
> eth1 if it is listed in an "allow-hotplug" line.
>
>
>> My question is, is this behavior by design, or have I stumbled across a
>> bug?
>>
>
> I don't know the full history behind this but looking at the
> Bug#300937 I assume the design is that network events are now moved
> from boot time action to network event time action to support hotplug
> network interfaces. Looking in /usr/share/doc/udev/README.Debian.gz I
> see:
>
> After receiving events about network interfaces, net.agent will call
> ifupdown using the --allow=hotplug option. This makes the program act
> only on interfaces marked with the "allow-hotplug" statement.
> E.g: "allow-hotplug eth0" instead of the usual "auto eth0".
>
> I have not researched further what it would take to trigger udev to
> restart networking but I presume there is a path through it that would
> do so. To return to the previous behavior you may change the
> allow-hotplug stanzas into auto stanzas and then restarting networking
> will restart the network interface. I would welcome further
> information on this area.
>
> Bob
>
>
>

Thanks for your answer, Bob. Changing allow-hotplug to auto did change
the behavior, and I now have a better understanding of how all this works.


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