# DHCP/dhclient not assigning IP address



## azizLIGHT (Oct 2, 2018)

Hello, first time poster here. 
I'm running FreeBSD 11.2-RELEASE, and have patches up to date as of about a week ago. I run my system on hardware from ~2007. My motherboard has 2 integrated NICs and they use the nfe driver (nfe0 and nfe1). It sits behind an old DD-WRT router which runs a DHCP server (using dnsmasq I believe)

Every time I restarted the system I would manually have to run `dhclient nfe0` and that would get my IP and allow me to connect to the internet. I believe I manually had to run this command because my /etc/rc.conf  was improperly configured (since corrected). However, after running the command it worked.

Recently, a power surge caused my FreeBSD system to shutdown. Upon restarting the machine, even after running the dhclient command, I would get several DHCPDISCOVER messages, which would repeat forever and I would never get an IP assigned. I'm  looking for help here.

I've already verified that my network cable is working. The DD-WRT router also assigns an IP to a windows computer I manually connect, so I believe it to be my FreeBSD system where the problem lies. When I type ifconfig, it lists both nfe0 and nfe1 as 'UP'

Since my system does not have an internet connection, it will be somewhat hard to post contents of my config files etc. but my rc.conf file has the line ifconfig_nfe0="DHCP" in it. I've also tried ifconfig_nfe0="SYNCDHCP" and that doesn't work either.

I've also tried `service netif restart` and `service routing restart` but that doesn't work either.

In /var/log/messages I see 'errors' like this 
	
	



```
dhclient[684]: send_packet: No buffer space available
```

Any suggestions as to what else to try? Thank you in advance.


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## ShelLuser (Oct 2, 2018)

Tried rebooting that machine? The error message "_No buffer space available_" is something I immediately associate with specific Realtek chipsets. That doesn't seem to be the case here, but even so: this definitely seems related to the driver used for your NIC's.


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## azizLIGHT (Oct 2, 2018)

ShelLuser said:


> Tried rebooting that machine? The error message "_No buffer space available_" is something I immediately associate with specific Realtek chipsets. That doesn't seem to be the case here, but even so: this definitely seems related to the driver used for your NIC's.


Thanks for the response. Yes I've rebooted the machine several times now. Every time, same result.

I could be completely off here but I don't think it is a driver issue. Why would it have worked in the past but not now?


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## yuripv (Oct 2, 2018)

The _No buffer space available _message is better associated with the link being down.

Check that the NIC correctly negotiates the link if you bring it up manually using `ifconfig nfe0 up`.


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## azizLIGHT (Oct 3, 2018)

I have 'cycled' the NIC using the
`ifconfig nfe0 down`
`ifconfig nfe0 up`
commands, but that never did anything - the problem still persisted.

How can I tell/verify if the NIC 'correctly negotiates the link' after I use the `ifconfig nfe0 up` command?


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## yuripv (Oct 3, 2018)

Check `ifconfig` output, check `dmesg` output, e.g. "em0: link state changed to UP".


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## azizLIGHT (Oct 9, 2018)

yuripv said:


> Check `ifconfig` output, check `dmesg` output, e.g. "em0: link state changed to UP".



I will try and post both later today, but both outputs have listed the network interface as 'UP'


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## SirDice (Oct 9, 2018)

UP is just administratively up. It doesn't mean the interface is connected. So check the status too, it should show 'active'. If the status says "no carrier" it means there's no connection (or none detected).


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## azizLIGHT (Oct 9, 2018)

SirDice said:


> UP is just administratively up. It doesn't mean the interface is connected. So check the status too, it should show 'active'. If the status says "no carrier" it means there's no connection (or none detected).


I'll get the outputs as soon as I can, but it definitely said 'active'. 

I've actually had the 'no carrier' output in the past but that was due to hardware failure (surprisingly, a faulty network cable, which I replaced).


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