Linux-kernel mailing list archive 1998-49,: Configuring a net if for BOOTP requests in 2.1?

# Configuring a net if for BOOTP requests in 2.1?

David Wragg (dpw@doc.ic.ac.uk)
09 Dec 1998 03:38:11 +0000

- Messages sorted by: [ date ][ thread ][ subject ][ author ]
- Next message: Paul Rusty Russell: "Re: Logging unserved ports"
- Previous message: Andre M. Hedrick: "Re: ATA standard"

In 2.0, a network interface could be configured appropriately for
querying a BOOTP server (i.e. without a particular IP address, so it
can just send and receive broadcast packets) with:

ifconfig eth0 0.0.0.0 broadcast 255.255.255.255 netmask 0.0.0.0

Under 2.1 (131 and earlier), this doesn't work; it complains:

SIOCSIFBRDADDR: Cannot assign requested address
SIOCSIFNETMASK: Cannot assign requested address

Looking through net/ipv4/devinet.c, it seems that attempts to assign
the address 0.0.0.0 to an interface are silently discarded (in
inet_insert_ifa()), and an "ifconfig eth0" confirms
this. SIOCSIFBRDADDR and SIOCSIFNETMASK don't work on an interface
without any addresses, hence the errors.

(And sure enough, the machine never sees the BOOTP response. I haven't
checked whether the BOOTP request makes it onto the network or not.)

So is it broken, or does 2.1 have a new way to set this up that I
can't find?

Dave Wragg

-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/

- Next message: Paul Rusty Russell: "Re: Logging unserved ports"
- Previous message: Andre M. Hedrick: "Re: ATA standard"