[pkg-dhcp-devel] Bug#860306: isc-dhcp-client: Repeatedly received DHCPNAK or no DHCPOFFERS; other computers work OK

[Frank Brokken]

Package: isc-dhcp-client
Version: 4.3.5-3
Severity: normal

Dear Maintainer,

This following bug report was created on the computer that experienced
problems with isc-dhcp-client, but has not external mail connectivity. I
completed the report, saved it, and included it below as the actual report. I
hope this is a workable work-around.

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Package: isc-dhcp-client
Version: 4.3.5-3
Severity: normal

Dear Maintainer,

    About a week ago isc-dhcp-client tried to connect to a network. It was the
first time I attempted to connect to that network, and while DHCP connections
usually work OK, this one resulted in repeated logs of DHCPNAK entries. Here
is an example:

Mar 30 13:00:20 localhost dhclient[4265]: Listening on LPF/wlp5s0/d8:fc:93:80:61:e1
Mar 30 13:00:20 localhost dhclient[4265]: Sending on   LPF/wlp5s0/d8:fc:93:80:61:e1
Mar 30 13:00:20 localhost dhclient[4265]: Sending on   Socket/fallback
Mar 30 13:00:20 localhost dhclient[4265]: DHCPDISCOVER on wlp5s0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 4
Mar 30 13:00:21 localhost dhclient[4265]: DHCPREQUEST of 192.168.61.234 on wlp5s0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
Mar 30 13:00:21 localhost dhclient[4265]: DHCPOFFER of 192.168.61.234 from 192.168.60.1
Mar 30 13:00:21 localhost dhclient[4265]: DHCPNAK from 192.168.60.1

Remarkably, two (android-based) cell-phones and a windows computer trying to
access that network at the same time successfully completed their DHCP
connections.


    This morning I attempted to connect to a different network, also using
DHCP. This time it failed and the following entries were logged:

Apr 14 09:51:13 localhost dhclient[1570]: DHCPDISCOVER on wlp5s0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 12
Apr 14 09:51:25 localhost dhclient[1570]: DHCPDISCOVER on wlp5s0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 6
Apr 14 09:51:31 localhost dhclient[1570]: No DHCPOFFERS received.
Apr 14 09:51:31 localhost dhclient[1570]: No working leases in persistent database - sleeping.
Apr 14 09:51:31 localhost avahi-autoipd(wlp5s0)[4056]: Found user 'avahi-autoipd' (UID 106) and group 'avahi-autoipd' (GID 111).
Apr 14 09:51:31 localhost avahi-autoipd(wlp5s0)[4056]: Successfully called chroot().
Apr 14 09:51:31 localhost avahi-autoipd(wlp5s0)[4056]: Successfully dropped root privileges.
Apr 14 09:51:31 localhost avahi-autoipd(wlp5s0)[4056]: Starting with address 169.254.10.140
Apr 14 09:51:38 localhost avahi-autoipd(wlp5s0)[4056]: Callout BIND, address 169.254.10.140 on interface wlp5s0
Apr 14 09:51:38 localhost avahi-daemon[479]: Joining mDNS multicast group on interface wlp5s0.IPv4 with address 169.254.10.140.
Apr 14 09:51:38 localhost avahi-daemon[479]: New relevant interface wlp5s0.IPv4 for mDNS.
Apr 14 09:51:38 localhost avahi-daemon[479]: Registering new address record for 169.254.10.140 on wlp5s0.IPv4.

    Again, in the recent past connections to this network were successfully
established, and my cell-phone had no problems connecting to this
network. 

    Last week I also tried to connect to this particular network, and then the
connection also wasn't established. In the past (say, a month or more ago) I
had no problems connecting to this network. Different from the previously
mentioned DHCPNAK-producing network this latter one is within reach, so I
could perform specific tests on the latter network, if that could provide
additional information.

    So the main question is: isc-dhcp-client *usually* works OK, but I've now
encountered at least two networks where other computers successfully
esthablished their DHCP connections, but mine doesn't. The available 
documentation is sketchy: one suggestion I found in the dhcpclient.conf
man-page was to use an empty dhcpclient.conf file. So I did, but to no
avail. Am I missing something? What can I do to solve the problem?

    As a side note: I'm also puzzled by the workings of the avahi daemon. It's
not clear what it's doing except for faking the above 169.254.10.140 address
and network. Should I deinstall avahi-daemon, since it appears to consume
resources but doesn't seem to do anything useful?...

    That's about it. If there's anything I can do to help solving this issue,
please advise.

Kind regards,

Frank B. Brokken.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 9.0
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 4.9.0-2-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)

Versions of packages isc-dhcp-client depends on:
ii  debianutils       4.8.1
ii  iproute2          4.9.0-1
ii  libc6             2.24-9
ii  libdns-export162  1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-12.1
ii  libisc-export160  1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-12.1

Versions of packages isc-dhcp-client recommends:
ii  isc-dhcp-common  4.3.5-3

Versions of packages isc-dhcp-client suggests:
ii  avahi-autoipd         0.6.32-2
pn  isc-dhcp-client-ddns  <none>
ii  resolvconf            1.79

-- Configuration Files:
/etc/dhcp/dhclient.conf changed:
send host-name = wlp5s0;
  request subnet-mask, broadcast-address, time-offset, routers,
	domain-name, domain-name-servers, domain-search, host-name,
	netbios-name-servers, netbios-scope, interface-mtu,
	rfc3442-classless-static-routes, ntp-servers;


-- no debconf information

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