xref: /freebsd/libexec/bootpd/Problems (revision d0b2dbfa0ecf2bbc9709efc5e20baf8e4b44bbbf)
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244099b7bSPaul TrainaCommon problems and ways to work around them:
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4e08ac58bSPaul TrainaBootpd complains: "bind: Address already in use" and fails to start.
5e08ac58bSPaul Traina	You are already running something that has bound the
6e08ac58bSPaul Traina	BOOTP listening port number.  Check /etc/inetd.conf or
7e08ac58bSPaul Traina	the equivalent for a bootp line (or in startup files).
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944099b7bSPaul TrainaBootpd complains that it "can not get IP addr for HOSTNAME"
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1144099b7bSPaul Traina	If the entry is a "dummy" (not a real host) used only for
1244099b7bSPaul Traina	reference by other entries, put '.' in front of the name.
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1444099b7bSPaul Traina	If the entry is for a real client and the IP address for
1544099b7bSPaul Traina	the client can not be found using gethostbyname(), specify
1644099b7bSPaul Traina	the IP address for the client using numeric form.
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1844099b7bSPaul TrainaBootpd takes a long time to finish parsing the bootptab file:
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2044099b7bSPaul Traina	Excessive startup time is usually caused by waiting for
2144099b7bSPaul Traina	timeouts on failed DNS lookup operations.  If this is the
2244099b7bSPaul Traina	problem, find the client names for which DNS lookup fails
2344099b7bSPaul Traina	and change the bootptab to specify the IP addresses for
2444099b7bSPaul Traina	those clients using numeric form.
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2644099b7bSPaul Traina	When bootptab entries do not specify an ip address, bootpd
2744099b7bSPaul Traina	attempts to lookup the tagname as a host name to find the
2844099b7bSPaul Traina	IP address.  To suppress this default action, either make
2944099b7bSPaul Traina	the entry a "dummy" or specify its IP numeric address.
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3144099b7bSPaul Traina	If your DNS lookups work but are just slow, consider either
3244099b7bSPaul Traina	running bootpd on the same machine as the DNS server or
3344099b7bSPaul Traina	running a caching DNS server on the host running bootpd.
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3544099b7bSPaul TrainaMy huge bootptab file causes startup time to be so long that clients
3644099b7bSPaul Trainagive up waiting for a reply.
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3844099b7bSPaul Traina	Truly huge bootptab files make "inetd" mode impractical.
3944099b7bSPaul Traina	Start bootpd in "standalone" mode when the server boots.
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4144099b7bSPaul Traina	Another possibility is to run one bootpd on each network
4244099b7bSPaul Traina	segment so each one can have a smaller bootptab.  Only one
4344099b7bSPaul Traina	instance of bootpd may run on one server, so you would need
4444099b7bSPaul Traina	to use a different server for each network segment.
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4644099b7bSPaul TrainaMy bootp clients are given responses with a boot file name that is
4744099b7bSPaul Trainanot a fully specified path.
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4944099b7bSPaul Traina	Make sure the TFTP directory or home directory tags are set:
5044099b7bSPaul Traina	:td=/tftpboot:	(or)
5144099b7bSPaul Traina	:hd=/usr/boot:	(for example)
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53e08ac58bSPaul TrainaMy PC clients running Sun's PC-NFS Pro v1.1 fail to receive
54e08ac58bSPaul Trainaacceptable responses from the bootp server.
55e08ac58bSPaul Traina
56e08ac58bSPaul Traina	These clients send a request with the DHCP "message length"
57e08ac58bSPaul Traina	option and the (new) BOOTP "broadcast flag" both set.
58e08ac58bSPaul Traina	The bootp server (on SunOS) will send a fragmented reply
59e08ac58bSPaul Traina	unless you override the length with :ms=1024: (or less).
60e08ac58bSPaul Traina	The "broadcast flag" is not yet supported, but there is
61e08ac58bSPaul Traina	a simple work-around, just add :ra=255.255.255.255:
62e08ac58bSPaul Traina	for any clients that need their reply broadcasted.
63e08ac58bSPaul Traina	You may need to use a differnet broadcast address.
64e08ac58bSPaul Traina	(Thanks to Ivan Auger <ivan.auger@wadsworth.org>)
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