It bit me as well. I had a static DHCP bind by MAC address in order to use
port forwarding to my PC which made my PC unreachable. The MAC address
change also made it un-WoL-able by MAC address.
So, applications like Blender are indirectly depending on libdnet, and, on
systems which convert Recommends: to Depends:, makes them dependent on
dnet-common. I think that libdnet should only *suggest* dnet-common, would
help, but that would be a libdnet bug, not a dnet-common bug.
That said, I also found the configuration dialog for dnet-common has
serious issues.
The dnet-common configuration dialog currently says:
You can configure your system as a DECnet node now or later. If you have
already set up your system to use DECnet you can skip this and leave the
configuration as it is.
If you choose to configure now this will set up your system. This
operation needs to change the MAC address of your network cards, it may
work directly or it may require a reboot. Please
close all open connections such as ssh sessions and downloads before you
continue.
If you opt to configure later you can run this configure step again
with: dpkg-reconfigure dnet-common
If you are unsure, select 'configure later' and contact your system
administrator.
Configure DECnet now:
[ configure now ]
[ configure later ]
[ skip and leave config as it is ] **default**
There are some issues with it:
1. All three options change the MAC address and start the DECnet service.
This is a serious bug.
2. Although it does state that MAC address will change, it is merely said
as a justification for "it may work directly or it may require a reboot".
It does not stand out whatsoever by itself.
3. It says "if you are unsure, select "configure later", but the default
option is "skip and leave config as it is". This happens even if there is
not any previous dnet-common configuration.
4. Even if there is no DECnet-related configuration, the "skip and leave
config as it is" option appears on screen.
5. The options are confusing. I actually wanted a "configure never", so,
knowing that there was no previous configuration I chose "skip and leave
config as it is". Also, both "configure later" and "skip..." seems to
conceptually be equivalent. If there is a configuration already, both will
leave it as it is. If there is no configuration, both should not touch the
system. Any special cases?
I suggest the following design to the configuration box:
You can configure your system as a DECnet node now or later. If you have
already set up your system to use DECnet you can skip this and leave the
configuration as it is.
WARNING: Configuring your system as a DECnet node requires chaning the
MAC address of your network cards! By default, all network cards will
have the same MAC address which may lead to serious addressing conflicts
on your network!
Due to this, should you choose to configure it now, it may work directly
or it may require a reboot. Please close all open connections such as
ssh sessions and downloads before you continue.
If you wish to configure DECnet later you can run this configure step
again with: dpkg-reconfigure dnet-common
If you are unsure, select 'No' and contact your system or network
administrator.
Configure DECnet now?
a) [ Yes, proceed to DECnet configuration ]
b) [ No, don't touch the system configuration ] **default
If option a) is chosen, DECnet configuration should proceed to ask the
address or the area/node combination, and, have an button to "[ Cancel ]"
address configuration and jump back to this dialog.
If option b) is chosen, nothing will be touched, at all.
--
Octavio.
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