NetworkManager doesn't work if latest dhcp3-client package is installed

[Celso Pinto]

I upgraded my Dapper system and this upgrade included updates to the dhcp3-client and dhcp3-common packages. After rebooting NetworkManager stopped working. It connected to the AP but never got an IP address. The log showed this message:

Feb 21 02:10:34 localhost NetworkManager: <information>^IActivation (eth1) Stage 3 (IP Configure Start) started...
Feb 21 02:10:35 localhost NetworkManager: <information>^IActivation (eth1) Beginning DHCP transaction.
Feb 21 02:10:35 localhost dhclient: Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.0.3
Feb 21 02:10:35 localhost dhclient: Copyright 2004-2005 Internet Systems Consortium.
Feb 21 02:10:35 localhost dhclient: All rights reserved.
Feb 21 02:10:35 localhost dhclient: For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/products/DHCP
Feb 21 02:10:35 localhost dhclient: Usage: dhclient [-1dqr] [-nw] [-p <port>] [-s server]
Feb 21 02:10:35 localhost dhclient: [-cf config-file] [-lf lease-file][-pf pid-file] [-e VAR=val]
Feb 21 02:10:35 localhost dhclient: [-sf script-file] [interface]

This occurs because NetworkManager invokes dhclient with the following arguments:
-r -lf /var/lib/dhcp3/dhclient.eth1.leases -pf /var/run/dhclient.eth1.pid -q -e dhc_dbus=31 -x -d eth1

And -x is no longer a valid argument.

The only solution possible is to revert to an older version.

[Aneesh Kumar K.V (aneesh-kumar)]

Dropping the -x option doesn't help. I tried with a locally build dhcdbd package. Network-manager enters into an zeroconf setup where in it gets a useless IP.

Feb 21 12:39:07 localhost ntpdate[5495]: no server suitable for synchronization found
Feb 21 12:39:21 localhost NetworkManager: <information>^IDevice 'eth1' DHCP transaction took too long (>25s), stopping it.
Feb 21 12:39:21 localhost NetworkManager: <information>^IActivation (eth1) Stage 4 (IP Configure Timeout) scheduled...
Feb 21 12:39:21 localhost NetworkManager: <information>^IActivation (eth1) Stage 4 (IP Configure Timeout) started...
Feb 21 12:39:21 localhost NetworkManager: <information>^INo DHCP reply received. Automatically obtaining IP via Zeroconf.
Feb 21 12:39:21 localhost NetworkManager: <information>^Iautoip: Sending probe #0 for IP address 169.254.244.174.

The only way to get around this is by disabling eth1 in /etc/network/interfaces and using ifup eth1 after the system booted.

[Christian Kellner (gicmo)]

Confirming this. It never worked for me with my wirless card but now it even stopped for the wired network.

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

Found the bug, fixing now.

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

 dhcdbd (1.10-0ubuntu11) dapper; urgency=low
 .
   * debian/rules: Disable dhclient extended options (-x) since the current
     version doesn't have it any more (our NetworkManager doesn't need it).
     (Malone #32223)

 dhcp3 (3.0.3-6ubuntu6) dapper; urgency=low
 .
   * debian/dhclient-script.linux: dhddbd needs to be told about the
      result of the client script; so instead of notifying it at the beginning
      and immediately exiting the script, call dbus-send to dhcdbd in the
      exit_with_hooks() function, so that resolv.conf is written properly.
      (Malone #32134, #32223)

[fangorious (fangorious-deactivatedaccount)]

Coming in from bug 32134 today's update fixed it for me.

[Tristan Wibberley (tristan-wibberley)]

My installation is up to date but I'm still seeing something strange going on...

$ ifconfig eth0
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:50:8D:EF:D8:CB
          inet addr:169.254.37.240 Bcast:0.0.0.0 Mask:255.255.0.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::250:8dff:feef:d8cb/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
          RX packets:3744 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:2150 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:5075408 (4.8 MiB) TX bytes:175752 (171.6 KiB)
          Interrupt:193 Base address:0xb400

$ route -n
Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
169.254.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.0.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
192.168.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.0.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
0.0.0.0 192.168.1.1 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0

$ cat /etc/network/interfaces
# 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

# This is a list of hotpluggable network interfaces.
# They will be activated automatically by the hotplug subsystem.
auto eth0

# The primary network interface
#iface eth0 inet dhcp
iface eth0 inet static
        address 192.168.1.35
        gateway 192.168.1.1
        netmask 255.255.0.0

[Scott James Remnant (Canonical) (canonical-scott)]

This isn't caused by NetworkManager, but by a program such as "zeroconf" if you have that installed.