Arch Linux

HyperBaton

Member

From: Belgium

Registered: 2008-01-18

Posts: 207

Dnsmasq DHCP does not hand out IP addresses

I'm turning my Arch server into a router step by step. I installed Dnsmasq to act as DHCP server, but my Windows laptop is not being assigned an IP address. I ran WireShark and DHCP discover packets are being sent from the laptop.

The laptop is connected directly to the server to network card eth0. My ADSL connection is connected to eth1.

/etc/rc.conf:

eth0="eth0 10.66.77.1 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 10.66.77.255"
INTERFACES=(eth0)

gateway="default gw 10.66.77.1"
ROUTES=(gateway)

This is the configuration of /etc/dnsmasq.conf:

no-resolv
no-poll
server 8.8.8.8
server 8.8.4.4
except-interface=eth1
listen-address=127.0.0.1
bind-interfaces
dhcp-range=10.66.77.100,10.66.77.149,12h

I'm not really sure what bind-interfaces does, but I have it set because the ArchWiki page recommended it. I also tried disabling it, and editing /etc/hosts.allow, but that didn't work either.

Anyone have a clue what might be going wrong? I'm not an expert, that's for sure Any help would be greatly appreciated.

vacant

Member

From: downstairs

Registered: 2004-11-05

Posts: 816

Re: Dnsmasq DHCP does not hand out IP addresses

I would have thought your default route should send stuff out to the internet gateway via eth1.

Where have you told DNSmasq to satisfy DHCP requests coming in on eth0?

I think there are so many questions, you'd do better to have a look through a few wikis.

Last edited by vacant (2010-03-13 10:42:18)

dschrute

Member

From: NJ, USA

Registered: 2007-04-09

Posts: 183

Re: Dnsmasq DHCP does not hand out IP addresses

You've told dnsmasq to listen *only* on the loopback address...

listen-address=127.0.0.1

It will never see requests from other networks/interfaces that way.  You need to specify at least one additional address  on that line, or specify nothing so it listens on all.  I would recommend leaving it listening on all interfaces/addresses until you confirm it's working.  Once it is you can go back + force it to listen only on specific interfaces.

EDIT - In looking at the Wiki entry I see that the "listen-address=127.0.0.1" line is recommended...But that is for setting up DNS caching on "a personal PC".   The way I read that part of the wiki you would only want that if all you want dnsmasq to do is act as a caching name server for the local host.  If you want it to be a dhcp server you need to disregard that part and leave the listen-address line as it's listed in the dhcp section of the wiki.

Last edited by dschrute (2010-03-13 12:52:16)

HyperBaton

Member

From: Belgium

Registered: 2008-01-18

Posts: 207

Re: Dnsmasq DHCP does not hand out IP addresses

Thank you for the comments. Indeed, I did misread that bit in the wiki a bit.  I changed it to this:

no-resolv
no-poll
server 8.8.8.8
server 8.8.4.4
interface=eth0
dhcp-range=10.66.77.100,10.66.77.149,12h

It's working like a charm now. Thank you very much.