xref: /freebsd/libexec/bootpd/Problems (revision 641a6cfb86023499caafe26a4d821a0b885cf00b)
1# $FreeBSD$
2
3Common problems and ways to work around them:
4
5Bootpd complains: "bind: Address already in use" and fails to start.
6	You are already running something that has bound the
7	BOOTP listening port number.  Check /etc/inetd.conf or
8	the equivalent for a bootp line (or in startup files).
9
10Bootpd complains that it "can not get IP addr for HOSTNAME"
11
12	If the entry is a "dummy" (not a real host) used only for
13	reference by other entries, put '.' in front of the name.
14
15	If the entry is for a real client and the IP address for
16	the client can not be found using gethostbyname(), specify
17	the IP address for the client using numeric form.
18
19Bootpd takes a long time to finish parsing the bootptab file:
20
21	Excessive startup time is usually caused by waiting for
22	timeouts on failed DNS lookup operations.  If this is the
23	problem, find the client names for which DNS lookup fails
24	and change the bootptab to specify the IP addresses for
25	those clients using numeric form.
26
27	When bootptab entries do not specify an ip address, bootpd
28	attempts to lookup the tagname as a host name to find the
29	IP address.  To suppress this default action, either make
30	the entry a "dummy" or specify its IP numeric address.
31
32	If your DNS lookups work but are just slow, consider either
33	running bootpd on the same machine as the DNS server or
34	running a caching DNS server on the host running bootpd.
35
36My huge bootptab file causes startup time to be so long that clients
37give up waiting for a reply.
38
39	Truly huge bootptab files make "inetd" mode impractical.
40	Start bootpd in "standalone" mode when the server boots.
41
42	Another possibility is to run one bootpd on each network
43	segment so each one can have a smaller bootptab.  Only one
44	instance of bootpd may run on one server, so you would need
45	to use a different server for each network segment.
46
47My bootp clients are given responses with a boot file name that is
48not a fully specified path.
49
50	Make sure the TFTP directory or home directory tags are set:
51	:td=/tftpboot:	(or)
52	:hd=/usr/boot:	(for example)
53
54My PC clients running Sun's PC-NFS Pro v1.1 fail to receive
55acceptable responses from the bootp server.
56
57	These clients send a request with the DHCP "message length"
58	option and the (new) BOOTP "broadcast flag" both set.
59	The bootp server (on SunOS) will send a fragmented reply
60	unless you override the length with :ms=1024: (or less).
61	The "broadcast flag" is not yet supported, but there is
62	a simple work-around, just add :ra=255.255.255.255:
63	for any clients that need their reply broadcasted.
64	You may need to use a differnet broadcast address.
65	(Thanks to Ivan Auger <ivan.auger@wadsworth.org>)
66
67