How to reduce the dhcp waiting time

[Mike]

Hi all:

Can I reduce the time for link to come up?
Can I reduce the number of attempts?

Version: latest Clonezilla live
Boot by pxe

thanks
Mike

[Steven Shiau]

I believe you can assign boot parameters:
ethdevice-timeout=5 for example, i.e., set it as 5 secs.
ethdevice-max-loop=3 for example, i.e., set it only 3 loops.

[Mike]

Thanks for the reply.

But this still remains unchanged.

The code I'm running on the server is:

ocs-live-feed-img -cbm both -dm start-newdhcpd -lscm interfactive-client start ask_user ask_user

Then run the client through PXE.

This is the GRUB configuration of the client:

menuentry "Clonezilla live (VGA 800x600)" --id live-default {
  search --set -f /live/vmlinuz
  $linux_cmd /live/vmlinuz boot=live union=overlay username=clonezilla config quiet loglevel=0 noswap edd=on nomodeset enforcing=0 noeject locales= keyboard-layouts= ocs_live_run="ocs-live-general" ocs_daemonon="ssh" echo_ocs_prerun=yes ethdevice-timeout=5 ethdevice-max-loop=3 ocs_live_extra_param="" ocs_live_batch="no" vga=788 net.ifnames=0  splash i915.blacklist=yes radeonhd.blacklist=yes nouveau.blacklist=yes vmwgfx.enable_fbdev=1
  $initrd_cmd /live/initrd.img
}

Additionally, I am using this method to SSH into the client machine for configuration and installation purposes. However, I have encountered an intermittent issue where sometimes I am unable to SSH into the client machine.

Error :
clonezilla@192.168.2.22: Permission denied (publickey).

When I run systemctl restart ssh on the client machine, I can successfully SSH into the client machine.

[Steven Shiau]

Oh, it's a typo. Not ethdevice-max-loop, it should be: ethdev-dhcp-max-loop
While ethdevice-timeout should work for you, right?
BTW, which version of Clonezilla live did you use?

[Mike]

thanks
I noticed that the timeout and maximum DHCP loop have been changed, but it still takes 15 seconds for the link to come up on eth1.

version: 20250303-oracular-amd64

[Steven Shiau]

Oh, what you meant was the max time (secs) for detecting the NIC link is up or not. The 15 secs is hardcoded in the program:
https://salsa.debian.org/live-team/live-boot/-/blob/master/components/9990-select-eth-device.sh?ref_type=heads
If you are sure which NIC is used for your PXE booting to fetch the root file (filesystem.squashfs), you can just assign it by, for example:
ethdevice=eth0

[Mike]

Thanks! I hope I can edit this in the future.

BTW, I have been facing an occasional problem where occasionally I cannot establish an SSH connection with the client machine.

Error:
clonezilla@192.168.2.22: Permission denied (publickey).

When I run "systemctl restart ssh" on the client machine, I can successfully SSH into the client machine.

[Steven Shiau]

"Thanks! I hope I can edit this in the future." -> Maybe we can patch live-boot to make it. I added this feature to the wishlist.
"I have been facing an occasional problem where occasionally I cannot establish an SSH connection with the client machine." -> Is this issue reproducible in Clonezilla live >= 3.2.2-10 or 20250604-*?
https://clonezilla.org/downloads.php