Bug 64507

Another nice feature is a possibility to have alternative network configuration when 
DHCPc doesn't get an answer.

Best regards,

Josi

I believe initscripts has some sort of alarm for dhcpcd now...

*** Bug 66283 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/history/19491

I altered the /sbin/ifup file to allow you to add DHCP_CLIENT_TIMEOUT to any 
ifcfg-eth* file (such as /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0

Can you please build this into the Redhat distribution (and possibly add this 
to the kernel for all distributions)? (I'm not entirely sure if its 100% 
correctly done, but it works for me ;-)

excerpt /sbin/ifup

if [ -n "${DYNCONFIG}" ]; then
PUMPARGS=$PUMPARGS
#--------------------------------------
# Brian Bober
# Hacked to add ability for DHCP_CLIENT_TIMEOUT (in seconds)
# variable to /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth* scripts
#--------------------------------------
if [ -n "${DHCP_CLIENT_TIMEOUT}" ]; then
DHCPCDARGS="${DHCPCDARGS} -t ${DHCP_CLIENT_TIMEOUT}"
fi
#--------------------------------------
# End Hack
#--------------------------------------
DHCPCDARGS="$DHCPCDARGS -n"
if [ -n "${DHCP_HOSTNAME}" ]; then
PUMPARGS="${PUMPARGS} -h ${DHCP_HOSTNAME}"
DHCPCDARGS="${DHCPCDARGS} -h ${DHCP_HOSTNAME}"
fi
if [ -n "${NEEDHOSTNAME}" ]; then
PUMPARGS="${PUMPARGS} --lookup-hostname"

Why hasn't anyone replied with a statement like... "I am adding this into the
new Linux Kernel"? ;-)

I was actually wondering in my previous comment if it was adequate or needs 
work. I didn't mean to sound rude. I was assuming it wasn't adequate because 
no one has responded.

It worked for me, but might not work 100% of the time.

Can't you just add it to DHCPCDARGS (or the equivalent for your client of choice?)
It inherits any *ARGS settings from the environment.

Yes... it could be added to DHCPCDARGS.

But it seems like this is -such- a big complaint... that the timeout is
unbearably long when sitting in front of a booting machine.

I guess the question is:  Is it worth adding something like "DHCPTIMEOUT="30" to
ifup and /etc/sysconfig/network by default?  I would vote "yes", but I'm sure
you already have a lot on your plate.

Please close this ticket if you don't want to add the feature.

How often is this normally run into? With the link check, the only
places where it should currently time out would be where there's no
DHCP server available. I suppose a shorter return could help there,
but it should really be rare.

I agree.  Now with the link check, this isn't a problem that is all
that important to address.