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Bug#1146486: configure_networking: DHCP retries should be configurable / breaks remote unlocking

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  Bug#1146486: configure_networking: DHCP retries should be configurable / breaks remote unlocking Vincent Lefevre <vincent@vinc17.net> - 2026-09-02 14:10 +0200
    Bug#1146486: configure_networking: DHCP retries should be configurable / breaks remote unlocking Troy Mitchell <me@troy-y.org> - 2026-09-21 12:00 +0200

#93972 — Bug#1146486: configure_networking: DHCP retries should be configurable / breaks remote unlocking

Package: initramfs-tools-core
Version: 0.151
Severity: wishlist

In /usr/share/initramfs-tools/scripts/functions, function
configure_networking:

        for ROUNDTTT in 2 3 4 6 9 16 25 36 64 100; do
[...]
                dhcp|bootp|rarp|both)
                        ipconfig -t ${ROUNDTTT} -c "${IP}" -d "${DEVICE}"
                        ;;
[...]
        done

which means that if after all these retries, the DHCP server is still
not available (it may take dozens of minutes after a power outage),
remote unlocking the machine is impossible.

The retries should be configurable. In particular, it should at least
be possible to wait for an indefinite amount of time (without a large
delay between the retries).

-- System Information:
Debian Release: forky/sid
  APT prefers unstable-debug
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable-debug'), (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'stable-security'), (500, 'stable-debug'), (500, 'proposed-updates-debug'), (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'testing'), (500, 'stable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 7.1.12+deb14-amd64 (SMP w/16 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=C.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=C.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE not set
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled

Versions of packages initramfs-tools-core depends on:
ii  coreutils            9.10-1
ii  cpio                 2.15+dfsg-2.1
ii  dracut-install       112-2
ii  e2fsprogs            1.47.4-1+b1
ii  initramfs-tools-bin  0.151
ii  klibc-utils          2.0.14-1+b2
ii  kmod                 34.2-2+b2
ii  logsave              1.47.4-1+b1
ii  udev                 261.2-1

Versions of packages initramfs-tools-core recommends:
ii  busybox  1:1.38.0-3+b1
ii  zstd     1.5.7+dfsg-4

Versions of packages initramfs-tools-core suggests:
ii  bash-completion  1:2.16.0-8

-- Configuration Files:
/etc/initramfs-tools/initramfs.conf changed [not included]

-- no debconf information

-- 
Vincent Lefèvre <vincent@vinc17.net> - Web: <https://www.vinc17.net/>
100% accessible validated (X)HTML - Blog: <https://www.vinc17.net/blog/>
Work: CR INRIA - computer arithmetic / Pascaline project (LIP, ENS-Lyon)

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#94158

> which means that if after all these retries, the DHCP server is still
> not available (it may take dozens of minutes after a power outage),
> remote unlocking the machine is impossible.
>
> The retries should be configurable. In particular, it should at least
> be possible to wait for an indefinite amount of time (without a large
> delay between the retries).

I've posted a fix here:
https://salsa.debian.org/kernel-team/initramfs-tools/-/merge_requests/203

It adds IPCONFIG_TIMEOUTS to configure the timeout sequence and
IPCONFIG_RETRY=y to keep retrying until dynamic configuration succeeds.
The defaults stay unchanged.

The package builds with sbuild. In QEMU, the client obtained an address
when DHCP became available after 20 seconds. I haven't tested the full
remote-unlock flow.

                                            - Troy

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