Arch Linux

rednano12

Member

Registered: 2009-10-23

Posts: 56

dhcpcd fails at boot

Due to a massive error I made (deleting a few important system files) I had to reinstall Arch Linux. Now however, whenever I boot into either the standard kernel or the fallback, I get the error

dhcpcd: timed out

At boot. The system then refuses to do anything else, so I can't log in. Should I just do a 3rd fresh install, this time without dhcpcd? Is there an easy way to blacklist it? I'm planning on installing dhclient soon, should I uninstall it?

MrChilly0

Member

Registered: 2009-04-17

Posts: 7

Re: dhcpcd fails at boot

you can edit your /etc/rc.conf and change network to !network so that it gets skipped.

deconstrained

Member

Registered: 2008-03-31

Posts: 49

Re: dhcpcd fails at boot

How many NIC's do you have on board? If like me you have more than one network interface, that can cause problems unless you write udev rules to specify which card gets which "eth#" alias

Running dmesg and looking at the output sometimes helps identify the problem if it's kernel/hardware related.

Also, dhclient will probably just run into the same problems (if that's what you were wondering), so don't waste your time; the problem most likely has nothing to do with dhcp itself.

Last edited by deconstrained (2009-11-01 08:32:40)

rednano12

Member

Registered: 2009-10-23

Posts: 56

Re: dhcpcd fails at boot

I have 1 NIC and one WiFi card.

I cannot access the terminal in any way, shape or form. Once I get that error, the system freezes, thus I cannot enter any commands.

deconstrained

Member

Registered: 2008-03-31

Posts: 49

Re: dhcpcd fails at boot

Disable network on boot as MrChilly suggested (boot to your ArchLive disk, then mount your root partition and go in and edit rc.conf accordingly), then log in and perform diagnostic checks or see if you can properly configure the network manually once it's booted up. That might help you find the problem and properly configure everything so that it boots and configures the network by itself.

I assume you already know which modules your NIC requires to function properly and have them loaded at boot time?

Okay, seeing your other thread on this topic leaves me asking: are you trying to have it connect to a wireless network at bootup? netcfg might be what you need, if you've already gone through the process of configuring ndiswrapper and loading all the necessary modules; if your network is in any way protected you're going to need to use netcfg or some other kind of network manager.

Last edited by deconstrained (2009-11-01 17:23:22)

urist

Member

Registered: 2009-02-22

Posts: 248

Re: dhcpcd fails at boot

If you are trying to connect to a wired network, it may be dhcpcd's problem. I had to downgrade a few versions for some reason. The latest would never work.

I had to download an old version on a different computer, sneakernet it across to my other one, and install it locally.

Last edited by urist (2009-11-01 21:24:59)

rednano12

Member

Registered: 2009-10-23

Posts: 56

Re: dhcpcd fails at boot

Wow, I'm stupid. I forgot about the wonderfulness of LiveCDs.

As for the network help, here's what I've gone through: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=83197