Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2012 20:54:06 +0100
From: Natanael Copa <ncopa@alpinelinux.org>
To: Der Tiger <der.tiger.alpine@arcor.de>
Cc: "alpine-devel@lists.alpinelinux.org"
 <alpine-devel@lists.alpinelinux.org>
Subject: Re: [alpine-devel] [Alpine 2.4] Network Interface Hotplugging
 Detection
Message-ID: <20121031205406.79aa5da2@ncopa-laptop.res.nor.wtbts.net>
In-Reply-To: <509147AC.8030105@arcor.de>
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On Wed, 31 Oct 2012 16:45:48 +0100
Der Tiger <der.tiger.alpine@arcor.de> wrote:

> It seems Alpine does not detect link up and down events on NICs.

What kernel is it?
> 
> My Alpine system has two NICs (Intel and RealTek) installed, which
> both work fine as long as the link stays up. If I disconnect one of
> the cables, the link goes down, as can be expected. Once the cable is
> reconnected, the link stays down and dhcpcd won't renew the ip address
> from an external DHCP server, even if I manually trigger a renew.

This is most likely a bug in kernel driver.

I know that the r8169 driver got some signifcant changes with 3.4
kernel. I noticed today that I can no longer set link speed with
ethtool on one of my boxes.

Does it happen with intel nic too?

Does it happen with v2.4.5 iso (with 3.3 kernel)

> Alpine therefore ignores any link state changes.
> 
> AFAIK, link up and down events are usually handled by daemons like
> ifplugd (http://linux.die.net/man/8/ifplugd), netplugd
> (http://linux.die.net/man/8/netplugd) or hotplug
> (http://linux.die.net/man/8/hotplug). Unfortunately I cannot find any
> of those tools available as installable package for Alpine.

add dhcpcd to that list.

> Is there any other way Alpine is supposed to handle link up and down
> events (e.g. directly by the kernel)?

No this is a bug.

Do you think you could test the latest edge snapshot iso? or wait for
v2.5_rc1 which should be be released tomorrow.

> Does link event handling on Alpine require a certain configuration
> (apart from /etc/network/interfaces) in order to work properly?

No

> If, at this stage, Alpine doesn't handle link up and down events on
> NICs at all, I will gladly contribute one of the utilities mentioned
> above as installable package. On the other hand, if there is a
> solution allready in place, which is just not configured properly on
> my system, I'd rather use the solution available than create a
> redundant package.

I wouldn't mind to add ifplugd but I don't think I would ever use it.
dhcpcd does the job for me.

> 
> Thank you for your input!
> 
> Regards, Tiger

Thanks for your feedback!

-nc


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