ObviousGuy's Journal: FreeBSD, my LAN card, and my router

This weekend I downloaded the FreeBSD 5.2 .iso and tried installing it on my new used PC. I'm having some trouble with setting up the DHCP client.

The LAN card is a 3Com card that is detected properly by the FreeBSD installation script. During installation, it asks me whether the card will use IPv6 or DHCP and I choose DHCP. The script then goes off to contact the DHCP server and retrieves what appears to be an appropriate IP address. 192.168.xx.3. The router is 192.168.xx.1, and my other PC (Win2K) is 192.168.xx.2 and works fine. So the .3 IP seems to be correct.

However, when the OS boots up, I am unable to make contact with anything. I can't ping the router, much less anything on the internet.

I went through the installation again and tried to install via FTP rather than from CD. That didn't work either, though the DHCP client seemed to retrieve an appropriate IP address from the router.

Besides a network connection, I seem to have everything installed correctly. My video needs a little tweaking, but I'm not sure how much I can do with that, it's an old system.

What can I do to get DHCP working?

hmmm

[ted_nugent]

Doesn't really add up. Just to be sure - after the system is booted, you run ifconfig -all at the shell, and see your interface listed with the address? And you are pinging your router by IP address? Sorry if these are too obvious, but I need to ask. If everything checks out, try replacing your UTP cable.

Also, what security setting did you select? If you chose something other than medium, I wonder if IPFW was enabled?

Re:hmmm

[ObviousGuy]

To answer your questions,

Do I get my IP and network adapter info from ifconfig? Yes. The IP address is an appropriate IP address for this network. 192.168.11.3. Since this is the second PC hooked into the router, that looks about right.

Do I ping the router by IP address? I suppose I am. ping 192.168.11.1 should do it? No response at all.

I see that DHClient is having trouble with timeouts in the boot sequence. It adjusts the timeout and then it either continues without another incident or I get a

Re:hmmm

[ted_nugent]

I would probably try the following:
- Try to reach the bsd box from the win box.
- Take the UTP cable and hub port connected to the win box and plug that into the BSD box.
- Try a static address.

Re:hmmm

[ObviousGuy]

The Win box is actually connecting via 802.11g, so I can't try the second suggestion. But from the Win box the router is visible, but the BSD box is not.

I have given thought to using a static address, but I'm not sure how much better that would be than what I've got now.

Along these lines, Billy Gates has posted some info [slashdot.org] regarding FreeBSD 5.2. I'm not clear on whether this is pertinent, but he claims it is so.

Seeing as how it is a change only in 5.2, I may try an earlier FreeBSD.

watchdog timeout

[endx7]

Are you getting watchdog timeout errors for your card? I had gotten watchdog timeout errors when dhcp tried to run in 5.2 (or for that matter, when freebsd tried to send traffic through the card at all). I managed to get it working by disabling the apic stuff (see the 5.2 errata), which ended up not helping me anyway (because then the nvidia drivers didn't work anymore...ugh).

Anyhow, rumor has it there will be a 5.2.1, so I'd watch for that.