New Installation - DHCP Service fails to start.

[Newfence]

Hi,
I am new to Opnsense. I have tons of DD-WRT experience, but that is a totally different animal!

I apologize if this information IS available on the forums, but after searching, my exact problem and terms/syntax are not to be found in the support forums. (sorry if I'm just blind!)

And OpnSense does not really have much in the way of HOW-TO/walk-thorugh documentation for these sorts of  features and problems that may arise.

I have a brand new install of Opnsense 17.1 on a Dell i7 (3rd gen) system with Intel network interface hardware.
It installed ok, I have the web-gui up and running.

Only thing set up (AT the machine itself) was the static IP (192.168.1.222). DHCP service was not set up at this point.

IF I rely on "another" DHCP serer, everything works properly. I can log into the web-gui through another machine, poke around and change settings etc.

If I enable the DHCP server Opnsense (set the appropriate start and ending IP addresses), remove the other router/dhcp-server, attach the Opnsense Server and the administrating machine to a network switch - the administrating machine does not get an IP address from Opnsense.

In the Opnsense dashboard - the DHCP service/daemon is not started. If I manually try to start it - it just refuses and stays red.

Only way I can communicate with the Opnsense server is to assign a static IP to the administrating PC, and then I can get to the Opnsense web-gui.

=======================================================

Does Opnsense ship out-of-the-box ready to "simply" enable the DHCP service, and set up appropriate start/end IP addresses ranges - and it should immediately start issuing IP addresses to any dhcp client?

OR - is there more to set up before this can work?

What BEYOND simply configuring DHCP and enabling it - is required for the DHCP service to start and work?

please advise.

[CloudHoppingFlowerChild]

Is there anything in the DHCP log? Services > DHCP > Log File

[Newfence]

Thanks for your reply.
It looks like a fresh clean install with nothing configured except static IP for web/gui access does not like this machine, despite I can swap the LAN/WAN interfaces and can prove both adapters work.

The Services > DHCP > Log file shows the following:
Jun 6 11:05:01    dhcpd: exiting.
Jun 6 11:05:01    dhcpd:
Jun 6 11:05:01    dhcpd: process and the information we find helpful for debugging..
Jun 6 11:05:01    dhcpd: before submitting a bug. These pages explain the proper
Jun 6 11:05:01    dhcpd: bugs on either our web page at www.isc.org or in the README file
Jun 6 11:05:01    dhcpd: than a configuration issue please read the section on submitting
Jun 6 11:05:01    dhcpd: If you think you have received this message due to a bug rather
Jun 6 11:05:01    dhcpd:
Jun 6 11:05:01    dhcpd: no such user: dhcpd
Jun 6 11:05:01    dhcpd: For info, please visit https://www.isc.org/software/dhcp/
Jun 6 11:05:01    dhcpd: All rights reserved.
Jun 6 11:05:01    dhcpd: Copyright 2004-2016 Internet Systems Consortium.
Jun 6 11:05:01    dhcpd: Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Server 4.3.5

The System > Log file shows the following:
Jun 6 11:05:01    opnsense: /services_dhcp.php: The command '/usr/local/sbin/dhcpd -user dhcpd -group dhcpd -chroot /var/dhcpd -cf /etc/dhcpd.conf -pf /var/run/dhcpd.pid em0' returned exit code '1', the output was 'Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Server 4.3.5 Copyright 2004-2016 Internet Systems Consortium. All rights reserved. For info, please visit https://www.isc.org/software/dhcp/ no such user: dhcpd If you think you have received this message due to a bug rather than a configuration issue please read the section on submitting bugs on either our web page at www.isc.org or in the README file before submitting a bug. These pages explain the proper process and the information we find helpful for debugging.. exiting.'

[Newfence]

I hope this is not blasphemy to mention the name but I tried the latest version of pfsense, and the dhcp service did work fine. Since I set up pfsense exactly the same way I set up opnsense - I have to assume whatever problem I am having looks to be an issue specifically with this version of opnsense, and not a hardware or configuration issue.

I will try an older version of opnsense if I can get the boot image to work.

[Newfence]

For anyone else running into this problem I have solved the problem to my particular issue by downloading a fresh/new copy of the opnsense_nano.img.bz file and re-imaged the SD card.

The problem appeared to be either a corruption of the original img file - OR some glitch in the creating the SD card.

I knew something was up with my original opnsense 17.1.4 install when pfsense, and opnsense 16.7 both behaved properly on the same system.

After reimaging the SD card with the newly downloaded opnsense nano 17.1.4 img file everything worked properly.  No more DHCP Service startup errors.

Also, to anyone experiencing nothing but "flashing cursor" instead of the usb/sd booting...
Be patient. I kept rebuilding the image after experiencing this over and over, until one time I walked away for a few minutes after seeing the flashing cursor. When I came back opnsense had booted. This seems to be mostly true for older builds of Opnsense. The newer one boots much faster, without giving 2 minutes of flashing cursor.

SO, if you see flashing cursor - be patient. In MY case (on a PC with i7 3rd gen) from pressing power button to Opnsense finally singing it's ready tune - it took over 3 minutes

[franco]

The package database was corrupted on the installation. This is a side effect that can happen. It's a sqlite file on the file system. It's the same for any FreeBSD-based system.


Cheers,
Franco