[geeks] Solaris 10 networking is giving me fits

[Micah R Ledbetter]

I've spent little time with Solaris before, and I'm sure I'm doing  
something (probably something big) all wrong. But what?

I installed Solaris 10 as unconnected to the network. (By the way, is  
there a convenient way to tell the Solaris installer "I want  
everything, unless it depends on X11"? This is a Netra T1, and I just  
hit the "Everything" button, since I didn't want to screw with it,  
but having X11 on here is worth nothing.)

I was following Ben Rockwood's "An Accelerated Introduction to  
Solaris" guides[0], and in the second of the series, he gives a nice  
list of how solaris networking works (very compact, but still a  
little long to include in this email, so not duplicated here, but  
each step is shortened):
    1. put hostname in /etc/nodename
    2. Add the hostname and IP address to /etc/hosts
    3. echo "192.168.1.0 255.255.255.0" > /etc/netmasks
    4. put hostname in /etc/hostname.(interface)
    5. edit /etc/resolv.conf
    6. put router ip address in /etc/defaultrouter
    7. svcadm restart svc:/network/physical (or reboot)
I have also done a 'cp /etc/nsswitch.dns /etc/nsswitch.conf'

I want to add the settings:
router 192.168.1.1
netmask 192.168.1.0 255.255.255.0
hostname foo
ip address 192.168.1.6
interface hme1

My cable is actually plugged into hme1 :)

When I follow these instructions, I get:
ip_arp_done: init failed
Failed to configure IPv4 interface(s): hme1
Sep 18 00:44:55 svc.startd[7]: svc:/network/physical:default: Method  
"/lib/svc/m.
Sep 18 00:44:55 svc.startd[7]: network/physical:default  
misconfigured: transitio(...)

/var/svc/log/network-physical:default.log shows
[ Sep 18 00:36:29 Enabled. ]
[ Sep 18 00:36:29 Executing start method ("/lib/svc/method/net- 
physical") ]
[ Sep 18 00:36:29 Timeout override by svc.startd.  Using infinite  
timeout ]
ifconfig: SIOCSLIFNAME for ip: hme1: already exists
configuring IPv4 interfaces:ifconfig: setifflags: SIOCSLIFFLAGS:  
hme1: Cannot ass
hme1.
add net default: gateway 192.168.1.1: Network is unreachable
[ Sep 18 00:36:29 Method "start" exited with status 96 ]

Very weird point: DHCP works... almost
    1. When I get a DHCP address, it assigns me 192.168.0.100  
(according to ifconfig), even though the router, a linksys WRT54G, is  
handing out 192.168.1.* addresses.
    2. DNS doesn't work, but pinging outside hosts by IP address (eg  
the DNS servers 209.244.0.3 or 4.2.2.1) does work. Other DHCP clients  
do DNS just fine.
    3. If I add an /etc/resolv.conf while DHCP is enabled, it gives  
the *same errors* as above, to STDERR and /var/svc/log/network- 
physical:default.log.
    4. Though I can ping other hosts, other hosts cannot ping me at  
192.168.0.100.

Stuff I've tried:
    1. Google :)
    2. setenv local-mac-address? true. It wasn't before, but that  
didn't solve it.

Questions:
    1. Why do I get the SIOCSLIFFLAGS error?
    2. Why does DHCP go all weird on me?
    3. Why does 'ifconfig hme1 down' have no effect? 'ifconfig -a'  
reports the same before and after. Is this something I should be  
doing with svcadm?

Random thought: I like the svcadm stuff, but it would be nice if the  
command had a list, where 'svcadm list' would list all of the  
services it manages, and 'svcadm list net' would list all the  
services which contain the string "net".

  - Micah


[0] http://www.cuddletech.com/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=562 (part 1)
     http://www.cuddletech.com/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=573 (part 2)