ifconfig_*="DHCP" in absence of server

[Eugene Grosbein]

17.09.2020 22:07, Gleb Popov wrote:

> At $WORK I'm running a bunch of similar FreeBSD machines, all of them have
> 
> ifconfig_DEFAULT="DHCP"
> 
> in their /etc/rc.conf
> 
> The DHCP server runs on some old Cisco router.
> 
> At the start of the working day the power switch gets turned on and both
> the router and FreeBSD machines start simultaneously. FreeBSD boots faster
> than Cisco, but then hangs on "netif" rc script trying to acquire an IP
> from the router. It waits for more than 30 seconds before giving up and
> proceeding, and even after that the "routing" script blocks for another 30
> second with "waiting for default route". This delays the time needed to
> reach the X graphics stage for too long.
> 
> Funny enough, "SYNCDHCP" option shortens this time, but it is still visible.
> 
> Is there any way to make DHCP acquisition asynchronous, or something else
> to speed things up?

Look for "background_dhclient" in the rc.conf manual page, it merely adds "-b"
to dhclient flags.