From Bugzilla Helper: User-Agent: Opera/7.60 (Windows NT 5.1; U; de) Description of problem: The DHCP client should run in the background. When powering on the system without a network cable connected it takes quite a long timeout value until one can logon. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): How reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: Boot system without networking cable connected. Additional info:
What kind of network card do you have? (I wonder if the long timeout is because the driver is failing to recognize that there is no link.) Perhaps doing DHCP in the background could be implemented as an option, but the option of keeping it in the foreground *must* remain. DHCP can change the machine's hostname, and if (for instance) X happens to start before DHCP finishes and the hostname changes, it can wreak havoc. There may be some network daemons that also need the network link to already be up before they start, too. (For instance, it's desirable to have network time stuff up and running before anybody logs in, for the sake of having accurate timestamps in system logs.)
Okay, that is a point. However, allowing the backgrounding as an option would be nice. The docs then should contain that hostname setting is NOT recommended via DHCP. I have a Intel PRO/1000 Mobile Connection card.
Where do you specifically see delays? There are checks in the initscripts; it will not run dhclient if there is no link seen. But there could be driver bugs that imply the presence of a link when there isn't one.
I started my ThinkPad T42p, it *HAD* a link. However, there was no DHCP server as it was at home and so it took me about 60 seconds until I could boot on. Maybe an option like "Press Ctrl-C to skip DHCP search" would be an idea?
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 120427 ***
Changed to 'CLOSED' state since 'RESOLVED' has been deprecated.