NetBSD/usr.sbin/bootpd/Problems

Common problems and ways to work around them:

Bootpd complains that it "can not get IP addr for HOSTNAME"

	If the entry is a "dummy" (not a real host) used only for
	reference by other entries, put '.' in front of the name.

	If the entry is for a real client and the IP address for
	the client can not be found using gethostbyname(), specify
	the IP address for the client using numeric form.

Bootpd takes a long time to finish parsing the bootptab file:

	Excessive startup time is usually caused by waiting for
	timeouts on failed DNS lookup operations.  If this is the
	problem, find the client names for which DNS lookup fails
	and change the bootptab to specify the IP addresses for
	those clients using numeric form.

	When bootptab entries do not specify an ip address, bootpd
	attempts to lookup the tagname as a host name to find the
	IP address.  To suppress this default action, either make
	the entry a "dummy" or specify its IP numeric address.

	If your DNS lookups work but are just slow, consider either
	running bootpd on the same machine as the DNS server or
	running a caching DNS server on the host running bootpd.

My huge bootptab file causes startup time to be so long that clients
give up waiting for a reply.

	Truly huge bootptab files make "inetd" mode impractical.
	Start bootpd in "standalone" mode when the server boots.

	Another possibility is to run one bootpd on each network
	segment so each one can have a smaller bootptab.  Only one
	instance of bootpd may run on one server, so you would need
	to use a different server for each network segment.

My bootp clients are given responses with a boot file name that is
not a fully specified path.

	Make sure the TFTP directory or home directory tags are set:
	:td=/tftpboot:	(or)
	:hd=/usr/boot:	(for example)

My HP Laserjet 4 gets an error during boot: "80 service (xxxx)"
Here is an explanation of the problem from a fellow at HP:

	Date: Mon, 16 Oct 95 10:16:29 MDT
	From: James Clough <clough@hpbs3651.boi.hp.com>
	Subject: Re: problems bootp-2.4.3 and JetDirect
	To: bootp@andrew.cmu.edu
	
	> I installed bootp-2.4.3 with the DHCP-patches.
	> All went oke, except the JetDirect cards, build in in
	> several HP Laserjet 4's. They stopped while initialising
	> with error message '80 service (01E0)' or
	> '... (0009)'. The DUTH HP service support did not know
	> what the error-message was.
	
	This problem has surfaced here more than once--each time with a
	different hypothesized cause and proposed fix.
	
	The real cause of this problem is the byte alignment in the vendor
	extensions portion of the bootp packet.  Here are a few workarounds
	that I've either used myself or heard tell of others using with
	success:
	
		1.  Change the name of the printer.  If the name in your
			bootptab entry has an even number of characters,
			change it to a name with an odd number of
			characters.  If it's odd, make it even.
	
		2.  Remove the logserver (lg) capability from the
			bootptab entries for the affected printers.
	
		3.  Use the vendor sort patches posted here in June by
			Ron Stanonik.  They make bootpd sort the vendor
			extensions into RFC numeric order.  It just
			so happens that this causes them to be aligned
			correctly.
	
	Really, anything that changes the byte alignment in the vendor
	tags section of the packet can work, including removing null
	terminators from string capabilities.
	
	James Clough
	--
	clough@boi.hp.com

(Perhaps we need a "pad for alignment" option in bootpd. -gwr)