Observations, Corrections and Enhancements

Here are some suggestions that occurred to me while playing with the rescue system:

The timezone is set to EDT. A universal rescue system should probably be configured to use UTC: UTC in /etc/TZ
The ntpd seems unnecessary. Getting the correct time once after the network is up should suffice: NTPD=no in /etc/default/ntpd
Why are there are gettys and /usr/bin/tail -f /var/log/messages on tty? /etc/inittab

I've reconfigured the network to use zcip like this:

/etc/network/interfaces:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
iface eth0 inet dhcp
  zcip-pref 169.254.4.19

Note that auto and allow-hotplug are unnecessary with ifplugd watching over eth0.

/etc/network/if-up.d/ipv4ll:

#!/bin/sh

if [ x${IF_ZCIP_PREF} != x ]
then
        /sbin/zcip -q -r ${IF_ZCIP_PREF} ${IFACE} /sbin/zcip.script
fi

Also add the zcip.script file from the busybox distribution (example folder) as /sbin/zcip.script as referenced in the ipv4ll if-up script.

This moved from the interfaces file to a script:
/etc/network/if-up.d/restart-ntpd

#!/bin/sh

/etc/init.d/S49ntp restart

remove eth0:0 from /etc/ifplugd/ifplugd.conf:

INTERFACES="eth0"

The result of all this is that there is now just one interface eth0, no eth0:0. The eth0 interface gets one IP address from DHCP with scope global and one IP address from zcip with scope local. Both addresses are active at the same time. Routes are added accordingly. "ip addr list" lists the configured addresses. The preferred IPv4 link-local address is 169.254.4.19 (4=D, 19=S, DockStar). A random address in the 169.254.*.* range is only chosen if there is an address conflict with the default address on the network.

Let me know what you think.

PS: If you add these lines to the end of the /etc/network/interfaces file, the green LED acts as an if-up/down indicator:

  up echo default-on > /sys/class/leds/dockstar\:green\:health/trigger
  down echo none > /sys/class/leds/dockstar\:green\:health/trigger

Great suggestions, Johannes.

There are probably many other parts of the system that need cleaned up, as the current version has very little polish. I pushed it out as soon as it was usable to let all of the smart people on the forum get a look at it and make their own contributions. I think a few days of everyone working on it is worth much more than another week of me working on it alone.

I'm going to collect your ideas (and others, I hope) and put out an updated release sometime next week.

-- Jeff

Since i didnt get zcip to work at all and dont wanted to depend on a working dhcp i added an alias to /etc/init.d/rcS:

ifconfig eth0:2 192.168.1.2 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.1.255 up

soeinfachistdas.jpg

Lothar,

I have same issue, zcip does not work. I tried rcS script modification as you suggested and Dockstar gets static IP and I can ssh in.
However, it can not connect to the outside world - internet.
I am guessing DNS IP is missing somehow, although I have /etc/resolv.conf defined.

Are you experiencing same issue?

Thanks
Roman