static IP address assignment does not work in Ibex Alpha 4

[Bruce Miller]

Binary package hint: resolvconf

I have five hosts connected to a conventional Linksys router, some by wireless, some by Ethernet. In order that I can use fixed host names rather than IP addresses, I have configured them as static IP addresses.

On my main box, running Intrepid Ibex Alpha 4, completely updated 1-2x daily, this is my /etc/network/interfaces file:

# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# stanza added to configure Xenophon with static IP address, 20080602 1240
iface eth0 inet static
        address 192.168.111.2
        netmask 255.255.255.0
        network 192.168.111.0
        broadcast 192.168.111.255
        gateway 192.168.111.1
        dns-nameservers 64.71.255.198 208.67.222.222 208.67.220.220

However, the box came up with an address assigned by the DHCP server on the router. When I took down the interface on the client and brought it back up again, the following error was reported in resolvconf:

bruce@Xenophon:~/configs$ sudo ifconfig eth0 down
[sudo] password for bruce:
bruce@Xenophon:~/configs$ sudo -s
root@Xenophon:~/configs# ifdown eth0
ifdown: interface eth0 not configured
root@Xenophon:~/configs# /etc/init.d/networking restart
 * Reconfiguring network interfaces... [ OK ]
root@Xenophon:~/configs# ifconfig eth0 up
root@Xenophon:~/configs# ifup eth0
/etc/resolvconf/update.d/libc: Warning: /etc/resolv.conf is not a symbolic link to ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
/etc/resolvconf/run/resolv.conf
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
grep: /etc/network/run/ifstate: No such file or directory
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
[: 164: 0: unexpected operator
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
root@Xenophon:~/configs# * Stopping NTP server ntpd
   ...done.

root@Xenophon:~/configs# * Starting NTP server ntpd
   ...done.

root@Xenophon:~/configs# ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:1d:60:9a:6d:92
          inet addr:192.168.111.2 Bcast:192.168.111.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::21d:60ff:fe9a:6d92/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
          RX packets:126366 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:125004 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:2
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:81698660 (81.6 MB) TX bytes:119547051 (119.5 MB)

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
          inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
          RX packets:23544 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:23544 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:9313128 (9.3 MB) TX bytes:9313128 (9.3 MB)

root@Xenophon:~/configs#

[Guillaume Seguin (ixce)]

For what it's worth, I had the exact same problem and creating /etc/network/run/ifstate (and so the /etc/network/run/ directory) "fixed" it.

[Bruce Miller (brm0423)]

In attempting to troubleshoot this problem myself (I am the original filer of the bug), I uncovered an error in my earlier version of /etc/network/interfaces. It was missing a line "auto eth0" before the static configuration stanza.

This, however, does not affect the principal problem reported in this bug, namely that Intrepid Ibex does not respect the static configuration at boot; rather it obtains its IP address from DHCP. I did a clean install of the beta to see if two mysterious problems would disappear. One did; this one did not. For what it's worth, exactly the same (corrected) /etc/network/interfaces works correctly in Hardy Heron.