re/starting dhcp client in Linux

**ITWombat** · 8th July 2007, 12:59 AM

One thing MS Windows appears to have over most Linux distros I have tried is the ease with which you can restart the dhcp client after a break in network connection. If you plug in a network cable to the back of the PC windows will start acquiring an address. If that's too easy then you can also do IPCONFIG /RENEW.

With Linux, in many cases you have to either have to have the cable plugged in before booting or try to find some gui tool to force address acquisition. Now from what I read you should be able to use ipconfig up to give the dhcp client a fillip but that doesn't seem to work. The one counter example I found is Puppy Linux with dhcpcd. For other distros life is not so simple or maybe it is and I am the simple one

**NeoS** · 8th July 2007, 09:15 AM

Ubuntu Network Commands

For most distro's just use the man command and look up DHCP. From my experiance using ifconfig eth0 down and ifconfig eth0 up for wired connections is fine.

**localzuk** · 8th July 2007, 11:04 AM

simply running 'dhclient' should do the job in most cases.

**ITWombat** · 8th July 2007, 10:37 PM

I tried the suggested methods with a copy of DSL live CD. The network cable was removed and only reinserted after the desktop had appeared.

No dhcpclient command. ifconfig down then up didn't work. It appears that DSL uses the pump command for automated host configuration. I thought this became deprecated a few years back. Oh well.