When attempting a net install, I chose an FTP source which happened to be now. Although the system offered to try again, the interface had been brought down, and was not put back "up" before this retry attempt. Thus subsequent attempts failed until I switched consoles to a shell and ifconfig'ed the interface back up. Fix: Check your logic for when you force the interface down. Also remember that the default route will be lost when the interface is deleted, so the gateway has to be reinstalled when the interface is brought up again.
Responsible Changed From-To: freebsd-bugs->murray Sysinstall PR for Murray.
Responsible Changed From-To: murray->freebsd-qa I am no longer working in this area.
Responsible Changed From-To: freebsd-bugs->brucec Take.
The problem with this issue is that the logic to do the work of bringing up the interfaces is only contingent on one state: is the system running as init (pid == 1) or not? If it's running as init it will go and nuke the interfaces, default route, etc... which is probably not what you want ;]. Some possible solutions: 1. Modifying the install script to check via ifconfig to see whether or not things are up, set an environment variable, and proceed at init time (hacky solution). 2. Inline the check in the sysinstall code to verify via ifconfig (PITA to maintain). 3. Just prompt the user every single time they run an install IF they want to monkey around with the interface configuration. 3. seems very doable and it wouldn't impede too much with the user experience IMO; most folks just need to run through the configuration once, if they fail and have to go back, well, que sirrah sirrah... one dialog wouldn't hurt too much. To alleviate usability issues, a global variable could be added to state `hey, network's setup -- we don't need to monkey frak around with it twice' to improve user experience, but there needs to be an override switch in that event so that if people screw things up they can go and reconfigure the details again. That's one piece that's not really available today that could be done better in sysinstall. Cheers, -Garrett
Responsible Changed From-To: brucec->freebsd-sysinstall Back to the pool.