# Strange problem with dhcp

## Xamien

Hey there.

Running a 2.6.18-ck kernel with rt2500.  Prior to today, everything worked perfectly.  I'm typing this from my girlfriend's computer since my box cannot seem to get a dhcp address from the router.  It's really odd because I had just woken up and I could see that I was getting IM's from people not but minutes ago, tried to pull up browser and noticed I couldn't get any net response at all.   I pulled the plug on the modem since the right lights weren't on and it came back on after plugging back in.  Still no response on my box.  Unplug reset my router too but that didn't do anything. 

I noticed that for the first few times when I tried to net.ra0 restart, it would display 

```
Error, dhcpConfig: ioctl SIOCADDRT: File exists
```

 before timing out.

It no longer shows this now but still times out, even after a reboot.  I'm really unsure as to what the problem is, considering I've not changed any of the files recently.  I installed scim a few days ago but I don't see that it would cause any problems.

What do you think?

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## didymos

Maybe the card has confused itself.  Try unloading the module for it, then modprobing it again.  You may need to shutdown, power off, then reboot to fully reset it.

[edit]OK, wait.  Check /var/lib/ for any dhcp-related directories. I don't know what client you use, so I can't give a directory name.  Anyway, make sure the interface is down, and remove whatever is in /var/lib/<dhcpsomethingorother>/, then try to bring it back up.

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## Xamien

full shutdown and bootup, no dice.

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## Xamien

okay, it's dhcpcd I use.  took out everthing that was in /var/lib/dhcpc, net.ra0 restarted, but still timed out.

I may have misunderstood what you meant about the interface.

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## Xamien

bump

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## didymos

I just meant stop net.ra0, then wipe the files.  Still, didn't work anyway.  The thing with that error message is that usually it means the interface is already configured.  Check /var/log/messages (or whatever you use if you've customized logging), and dmesg. 

Also, try this topic:

Error, dhcpConfig: ioctl SIOCADDRT: File exists [SOLVED]

Don't get too excited.  It's not much of a solution, but it may give you some ideas, plus there're other links in there to follow.

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## Xamien

Yeah, that error never repeated itself after the first few times.  Now it just times out, both on "net.ra0 restart"  and on manual "dhcpcd ra0"

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## Xamien

bump

Any ideas?  All of the config files for ra0 and dhcp appear to be correct but I'm still getting timed out when I try to get a dhcp response.

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## Xamien

Ok, so nothing was wrong with the networking files.  I got a wild hair to try renaming out the .xsession file I added to my home directory to take it out of the loop.  The only thing I added .xsession for (it didn't exist prior to me adding it) was to put in the little lines of code for getting scim to work.

Can anyone explain why .xsession would affect my ability to get a dhcp address?

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## UberLord

It won't  :Razz: 

However, it would be helpful to ensure that you're

1) Using dhcpcd-3.0.16 or later

and

2) run it with the -d flag and post the contents here

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## DawgG

why don't u try setting an address by hand? then you'll quickly find out if it's hw-related or a dhcp-sw problem. also, what happens when u start dhcpcd by hand? maybe with a longer timeout?

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