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bigcat

Member

Registered: 2023-05-10

Posts: 30  

[SOLVED] post-install problems: dhclient

I ran into a problem after installing on all four of my machines that I converted from debian, would appreciate some advice.

I installed Chimaera from a cdrom, and updated to testing.  I chose to use runit as init.  This is /etc/apt/sources.list that I used:

deb http://deb.devuan.org/merged testing main contrib non-free
deb-src http://deb.devuan.org/merged testing main contrib non-free

then I ran apt-get update; apt-get dist-upgrade.

I don't use NetworkManager which is disabled (chmod 644 /etc/init.d/network-manager - this took a mental effort after many years on systemd :) ). The /etc/network/interfaces file has

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

allow-hotplug eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

root@kot:/home/user# ip a
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 70:85:c2:74:eb:5d brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 192.168.1.2/24 brd 192.168.1.255 scope global dynamic eth0
       valid_lft 84535sec preferred_lft 84535sec
    inet6 fe80::7285:c2ff:fe74:eb5d/64 scope link 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

You can see that the interface is up with a valid IP, but
syslog is filling up with messages from dhclient:

2023-05-18T20:29:53.150541-05:00 kot dhclient[23535]: Failed to get interface index: No such device
2023-05-18T20:29:53.150548-05:00 kot dhclient[23535]: 
2023-05-18T20:29:53.150551-05:00 kot dhclient[23535]: If you think you have received this message due to a bug rather
2023-05-18T20:29:53.150554-05:00 kot dhclient[23535]: than a configuration issue please read the section on submitting
2023-05-18T20:29:53.150557-05:00 kot dhclient[23535]: bugs on either our web page at www.isc.org or in the README file
2023-05-18T20:29:53.150560-05:00 kot dhclient[23535]: before submitting a bug.  These pages explain the proper
2023-05-18T20:29:53.150563-05:00 kot dhclient[23535]: process and the information we find helpful for debugging.
2023-05-18T20:29:53.150566-05:00 kot dhclient[23535]: 
2023-05-18T20:29:53.150569-05:00 kot dhclient[23535]: exiting.

(also, the strange thing is that /var/log/syslog was rotated to syslog.1 but /var/log/syslog is now empty, and the log continues to go into syslog.1).

If anyone knows what could be the problem, either with the logger or dhclient, please post, thanks.

bigcat

Member

Registered: 2023-05-10

Posts: 30  

Re: [SOLVED] post-install problems: dhclient

I think I found the problem a few minutes after posting.    Apparently the system starts dhclient when I have what I have in /etc/network/interfaces; however there is a dhclient service (under runit) in /etc/service.  After I removed it, things went back to normal.

Last edited by bigcat (2023-05-19 01:59:24)

xinomilo

Unknown

Registered: 2017-07-02

Posts: 315  

Re: [SOLVED] post-install problems: dhclient

had a similar error, with dhclient+runit, and @Lorenzo (debian runit maintainer) fixed it in a runit-services 0.6.0 version in debian experimental.. maybe you should try that package, see if it helps.
removing service isn't a fix, you're just removing service so it doesn't run..

bigcat

Member

Registered: 2023-05-10

Posts: 30  

Re: [SOLVED] post-install problems: dhclient

Thanks.

I think something starts dhclient if I have

allow-hotplug eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

in /etc/network/interfaces, I am guessing one of init scripts runs ifup which starts dhclient.

Removing the runit service prevents dhclient from starting twice.