# dhcpcd: Address family not supported by protocol

## Natureshadow

Hi community,

I just installed Gentoo (stage3, i686) on a new box and configured the kernel manually. Now, when trying to start net.eth0, dhcpcd complains:

```
Address family not supported by protocol
```

My idea is that dhcpcd compiles with IPv6 by default, but I do not have IPv6 support in the kernel. Can this be the reason for the problem?

Of course I could try, but before re-emerging dhcpcd and most likely some packages more on that slow machine, I would like to know whether that would leave me with the same error in the end and be useless .)

Regards,

Nik

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## blu3bird

Sounds like your kernel is missing CONFIG_PACKET(Networking -> Networking options -> Packet socket).

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## Natureshadow

Okay, then I will compile that in ... and perhaps I will re-emerge dhcpcd with USE="-ipv6" afterwards if it doesn't work.

-nik

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## Natureshadow

Tried that now, no luck. I couldn't find the Packet Socket option in menuconfig, so I enabled CONFIG_PACKET by hand ...

Any other ideas?

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## UberLord

How sure are you that eth0 is the right interface?

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## Natureshadow

REALLY sure. Let's say it like this ...

- There is only one interface in the machine

- The interface works perfectly except for dhcp

- I f I configure a static IP, there are no problems ....

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## UberLord

Could you try another dhcp client, like say pump or dhclient? If they work, please state which dhcpcd version you're using. If 3.2.3 file a bug at http://bugs.marples.name, if not, try 3.2.3.

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## Natureshadow

Hmmm ... will try that.

Anyway, I just emerged netkit-telnetd, and found out that telnet does not work either, with the same error message. However, SSH, PING and such do ...

As this box (which I am installing for a friend of mine) is intended to be a game server, we installed STEAM (HLDS) and Counter-Strike Source. The server starts up, but is not reachable over the network. I think that this might be related to the "Address family ..." problem ...

Any hints?

-nik

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## UberLord

There should be a string prefixing that error message - could you post it?

But it's starting to sound like you missed something in your kernel config, like say TCP/IP or something.

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## Natureshadow

I don't think I missed TCP/IP ... I think then the rest of it wouldn't work either.

http://pub.naturalnet.de/~nik/kewi_config.txt

That's the config, perhaps you can find something that is missing?

-nik

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## UberLord

I wouldn't know what to look for  :Smile: 

but seriously, post the full error message as it should be prefixed by socket:, bind: or something else. From other applications that have the same error as well.

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## Natureshadow

It says:

```

socket: eth0, Address family not supported by protocol

```

-nik

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## UberLord

OK, that means that your kernel does not support AF_INET socket protocol. That is bad. I don't know what kernel option to need to enable to get it.

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## Natureshadow

I will look at that when I get access to the box next time.

Thank you!

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## liuspider

I had exact the same error and I fixed it by compiling in "networking -> networking options->package socket" (I used to have it as a module)

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## toralf

 *liuspider wrote:*   

> I had exact the same error and I fixed it by compiling in "networking -> networking options->package socket" (I used to have it as a module)

 Yep, as the help of make menuconfig says it :

```
  │ To compile this driver as a module, choose M here: the module will be  

  │ called unix.  Note that several important services won't work

  │ correctly if you say M here and then neglect to load the module. 

  │           

  │ Say Y unless you know what you are doing.   

```

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