Description of problem: presence of HWADDR= in ifcfg-ethX cause dhclient runs two time on this interface. How reproducible: full reproductible. Steps to Reproduce: 1. make sure you have only one NIC configured in /etc/sysconfig/network-script ( for example ifcfg-eth0 ), with ONBOOT=yes and BOOTPROTO=dhcp. It's to be sure that DHCP will not be used by another NIC of your server. 2. add HWADDR=<your MAC addr> to this file. 3. reboot your server. 4. There are two dhclient's running process. Actual results: Two dhclient running processes, on the same interface 1856 ? Ss 0:00 /sbin/dhclient -1 -q -lf /var/lib/dhcp/dhclient-eth0.leases -pf /var/run/dhclient-eth0.pid eth0 2447 ? S<s 0:00 /sbin/dhclient -1 -q -lf /var/lib/dhcp/dhclient-eth0.leases -pf /var/run/dhclient-eth0.pid eth0 Expected results: One dhclient process by interface. Additional info: If you comment the concerned line HWADDR= with a "#", you'll find two dhclient running processes too !
Here it is by deduction the workaround : 1. Remove the line which contain HWADDR= in ifcfg-eth0 2. reboot your server 3. There is only one dhclient running.
This is likely fixed with hotplug-2002_04_1-20.4, which should be in the beta channel for the next update soon.