From Bugzilla Helper: User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030705 Description of problem: If anaconda is started using boot.iso to do a network install or a network based rescue environment it does not check to see if the IP address entered by the user is already in use on the network. This allows users to easily create an IP address conflict ( which is currently wreaking havok on my RHCT/RHCE exams ) if they plug in the IP address of the server. In addition, the network configuration dialog should say something like "Automaticly obtain an IP address using DHCP". Currently there is no mention of using DHCP and I think this might improve the clarity a bit. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): US Distro ( didn't check the respin ) How reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1.Boot off boot.iso or off disc1 and enter askmethod at boot: prompt 2.At network info dialog enter ip address that conflicts with another ip on the network. 3.Watch all hell break loose. Actual Results: The machine who's ip was dup'd was bounced off the network. Expected Results: The installer should have returned an error to the user indicating that the ip was in use and then chastise them for their ignorance. Additional info:
Umm, it says "Use dynamic configuration (BOOTP/DHCP)". I don't know how much clearer that can get. It's even what's selected by default. And yes, you have all the rope to shoot yourself that you want with static IP. There's no real good standard way to tell if an IP is "in use".
/sbin/ifup already reliably checks this using arping: if ! arping -q -c 2 -w 3 -D -I ${REALDEVICE} ${IPADDR} ; then echo $"Error, some other host already uses address ${IPADDR}." exit 1 fi I can see that this bug may seem trivial at first but I have at least 2 out of 16 students a week do this. That 12.5%. Many of them are experienced SAs coming from another Unix. Thats a good indication that they're doing it out there in the field as well. I agree that it is sheer ignorance that would drive them to do it. However, that doesn't mean some sanity checking isn't in order. One ignorant person and a boot cd should not have the power to bring down an entire site. BTW - you were right about the dialog. I got my wires crossed. Its Friday.
Unfortunately we do not have room to include arping in the stage 1 of the installer, as it is already pretty tight on space.