xref: /freebsd-13.1/libexec/bootpd/Problems (revision 7f3dea24)
1*7f3dea24SPeter Wemm# $FreeBSD$
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344099b7bSPaul TrainaCommon problems and ways to work around them:
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5e08ac58bSPaul TrainaBootpd complains: "bind: Address already in use" and fails to start.
6e08ac58bSPaul Traina	You are already running something that has bound the
7e08ac58bSPaul Traina	BOOTP listening port number.  Check /etc/inetd.conf or
8e08ac58bSPaul Traina	the equivalent for a bootp line (or in startup files).
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1044099b7bSPaul TrainaBootpd complains that it "can not get IP addr for HOSTNAME"
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1244099b7bSPaul Traina	If the entry is a "dummy" (not a real host) used only for
1344099b7bSPaul Traina	reference by other entries, put '.' in front of the name.
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1544099b7bSPaul Traina	If the entry is for a real client and the IP address for
1644099b7bSPaul Traina	the client can not be found using gethostbyname(), specify
1744099b7bSPaul Traina	the IP address for the client using numeric form.
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1944099b7bSPaul TrainaBootpd takes a long time to finish parsing the bootptab file:
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2144099b7bSPaul Traina	Excessive startup time is usually caused by waiting for
2244099b7bSPaul Traina	timeouts on failed DNS lookup operations.  If this is the
2344099b7bSPaul Traina	problem, find the client names for which DNS lookup fails
2444099b7bSPaul Traina	and change the bootptab to specify the IP addresses for
2544099b7bSPaul Traina	those clients using numeric form.
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2744099b7bSPaul Traina	When bootptab entries do not specify an ip address, bootpd
2844099b7bSPaul Traina	attempts to lookup the tagname as a host name to find the
2944099b7bSPaul Traina	IP address.  To suppress this default action, either make
3044099b7bSPaul Traina	the entry a "dummy" or specify its IP numeric address.
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3244099b7bSPaul Traina	If your DNS lookups work but are just slow, consider either
3344099b7bSPaul Traina	running bootpd on the same machine as the DNS server or
3444099b7bSPaul Traina	running a caching DNS server on the host running bootpd.
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3644099b7bSPaul TrainaMy huge bootptab file causes startup time to be so long that clients
3744099b7bSPaul Trainagive up waiting for a reply.
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3944099b7bSPaul Traina	Truly huge bootptab files make "inetd" mode impractical.
4044099b7bSPaul Traina	Start bootpd in "standalone" mode when the server boots.
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4244099b7bSPaul Traina	Another possibility is to run one bootpd on each network
4344099b7bSPaul Traina	segment so each one can have a smaller bootptab.  Only one
4444099b7bSPaul Traina	instance of bootpd may run on one server, so you would need
4544099b7bSPaul Traina	to use a different server for each network segment.
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4744099b7bSPaul TrainaMy bootp clients are given responses with a boot file name that is
4844099b7bSPaul Trainanot a fully specified path.
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5044099b7bSPaul Traina	Make sure the TFTP directory or home directory tags are set:
5144099b7bSPaul Traina	:td=/tftpboot:	(or)
5244099b7bSPaul Traina	:hd=/usr/boot:	(for example)
5344099b7bSPaul Traina
54e08ac58bSPaul TrainaMy PC clients running Sun's PC-NFS Pro v1.1 fail to receive
55e08ac58bSPaul Trainaacceptable responses from the bootp server.
56e08ac58bSPaul Traina
57e08ac58bSPaul Traina	These clients send a request with the DHCP "message length"
58e08ac58bSPaul Traina	option and the (new) BOOTP "broadcast flag" both set.
59e08ac58bSPaul Traina	The bootp server (on SunOS) will send a fragmented reply
60e08ac58bSPaul Traina	unless you override the length with :ms=1024: (or less).
61e08ac58bSPaul Traina	The "broadcast flag" is not yet supported, but there is
62e08ac58bSPaul Traina	a simple work-around, just add :ra=255.255.255.255:
63e08ac58bSPaul Traina	for any clients that need their reply broadcasted.
64e08ac58bSPaul Traina	You may need to use a differnet broadcast address.
65e08ac58bSPaul Traina	(Thanks to Ivan Auger <[email protected]>)
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