DHCP Setup for Linux (Generic)

You must have root access on you box
in order to use these directions.

  1. Get this file. This is the source for the dhcp client.

  2. Find a place on your system to un-tar the source.
    (/usr/local/src is a reasonable place)

  3. Un-tar it! (tar -zxvf filename usually does the trick)
    You should now have a directory called dhcp-2.0b1pl6.

  4. cd into the new directory

  5. type ./configure

  6. type make

  7. when the make is done type make install
    When the make install is done you should now have
    a program called dhclient installed in /sbin/dhclient

  8. Now you need to modify your start-up scripts to run /sbin/dhclient at boot time:

    1. Find your network start-up script(s): most of the time they are in /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 or /etc/rc.#d/ (where "#" is a single digit)

    2. If you have an /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 file then you just need to add the following line after your "ifconfig eth0" line:

        /sbin/dhclient

  9. Once you have changed your start-up scripts, reboot to make sure that everything works properly after a reboot.

  10. If all went well, after you have rebooted you should have a new IP address assigned to your box and be able to pass traffic!