pxe boot: problems with /etc/resolv.conf

Question

I'm pxe booting a node (Ubuntu 11.10). The image of the node is created with debootstrap. Works great. Everything is loaded. When I login to the node I see that /etc/resolv.conf is empty. In the base image it's empty also but I expected the ubuntu boot process to fill it with a nameserver.

When, on the node, I do sudo service networkinging {start,restart} nothing changes to etc/resolv.conf. When I do a dhclient I get: RNETLINK answers: File exists but /etc/resolv.conf then contains the correct nameserver from my dhcp-server.

• The linuxrc I use can be found on github.
• (Part) of the bootscreen can be found on imgur.

I'd rather not add static entries to /etc/network/interfaces because I don't know if all the nodes have the same configuration. I'd rather have this more dynamic. If I'd add eth0 with a dhcp option to /etc/network/interfaces it works.

What am I doing wrong? Why doesn't ubuntu fill the /etc/resolv.conf on boot? Is there a network-manager kind of package for the commandline without too many dependencies?

Answer 1

You state: "If I'd add eth0 with a dhcp option to /etc/network/interfaces it works."

Why not just use that? If there is no eth0 can there be an eth1?

Unless you need a special/local name server, you could add a constant group of name servers of the google name servers (8.8.8.8/8.8.4.4)

If you DO need a special/local one, and have some control over that you could make it very static and put that in there. (like 172.31.254.254,172.31.1.254)

I thought either you would have a static resolv.conf OR you would get it from your dhcp server.

If you can't get your pxe boot image to include the static one,you could add an /etc/rc.local ( or equiv for your distro ) that clobbers the values in place.