I’m having trouble getting an IP address via DHCP on my HP ProLiant DL380 Gen9 server running Debian. I’ve tried various troubleshooting steps, but nothing seems to work.

Error messages:

  • “No DHCPOFFERS received”
  • “No working leases in persistent database - sleeping”
  • “Activation of network connection failed” (GNOME)
  • “IP configuration unavailable” (Plasma)

Hardware:

  • HP ProLiant DL380 Gen9 server

Software:

  • Debian operating system
  • GNOME and Plasma desktop environments

Troubleshooting steps:

  • Checked network cable and ensured it’s properly connected
  • Restarted network service
  • Set /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf managed=true

Additional information:

  • Internet worked during the Debian installation process, but not after booting into the installed system.
  • The problem occurs on both GNOME and Plasma desktop environments, but Plasma provides a slightly more helpful error message.

I’d appreciate any help or guidance on resolving this issue. Has anyone else experienced similar problems with DHCP on a HP ProLiant DL380 Gen9 server with Debian?

  • bloodfart
    30·
    8 days ago

    You are missing the middle of your troubleshooting process.

    Everything is physically plugged in, your dhcp device is doing its thing and the wire works.

    But does your os see the card? Post the output of ip address show to find out!

    If you wanna jump to the end, and I recommend you do not do that, your os has most likely recognized and automatically selected the fiber interface instead of the cat5 one.

      • bloodfart
        20·
        6 days ago

        ens6f1 looks to be your interface. I think you’re using networkd, sudo networkctl up ens6f1 ought to bring it up.

        You can use systemctl enable to make it work every reboot.

        • JackGreenEarthOPEnglish
          10·
          6 days ago

          The first command didn’t work as networkd wasn’t started, so I tried to start it with networkctl start networkd, but it said ‘failed to start networkd.service: Unit networkd.service not found’

          • bloodfart
            20·
            6 days ago

            Oh, you’re not using networkd. That’s no problem. ip link set ens6f1 up should do the same ish thing.

            • JackGreenEarthOPEnglish
              10·
              6 days ago

              The first time I tried it it had the connected icon but no actual network connection, the second time it didn’t do anything

              • bloodfart
                20·
                6 days ago

                Okay. I didn’t realize you were using a graphical environment. Shouldn’t change anything.

                When you say no actual network connection, can you show that with ip address show ens6f1?

                • JackGreenEarthOPEnglish
                  10·
                  6 days ago

                  It’s not doing what it was before now, now it’s just showing the ‘activation of network connection failed’ error. But before when I ran the up command it had the connected sign, and said it was connected in the GUI, but when I tried accessing any website it wasn’t able to, and I don’t have any firewall installed, so I assumed that the connection wasn’t working.

                  The result for ip address show ens6f1 is now the same as before

                  12: ens6f1: <BROADCAST, MULTICAST, UP, LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP group default qlen 1000
                  link/ether 14:02:ec:7d:52:f1 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
                  altname enp129s0f1
                  inet6 fe80::1602::ecff::fe7d::52f1/64 scope link noprefixroute
                  valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

                  • bloodfart
                    20·
                    6 days ago

                    I think you’ve got someone helping you with this who’s working with you inside the gui. Rather than cause problems by asking you to try different command line troubleshooting steps that may work at cross purposes with that other thread of assistance, I’m gonna bow out.

                    If you run into a wall, reboot your server and reply to this post and lll jump back in.