Internet

I would love to see internet connectivity automatically set itself up

Like have DHCP set as default?

I mean so as there wont be any need to type in netmasks or any ip addresses so all you need to do is plug into your internet connection and turn on and then start surfing. If PCs can do it why cant we.

I agree DHCP set as default would be best – at present the ‘vanilla’ boot image has ‘no networking’ set as default.

To be honest, on ARMini it is one click to turn this on (the defaults are preset), and on vanilla RO5 it is no more than about five clicks. (Enable network, Interfaces, tick DHCP, go to Hostnames and enter name, Save).

Since DHCP is not currently multitasking, and not all boards ship with network interfaces (Pi model A, original BB), an assumption that this is present would (currently) lead to problems during the PreDesk phase.

I’ve had issues with the DHCP when there are additional hub(s) between the computer and the DHCP server though. Not sure what’s at fault with that, however (DHCP module or ethernet driver, or indeed server!).

Also, whilst DHCP is convenient and cuts down on manufacturer tech support “stick in the cable, select Auto, you’re online”, static addressing is still extremely useful for home/small business networking if you plan to do any sharing/serving/remote-access etc.

To be honest, on ARMini it is one click to turn this on

I think the only time this really matters is where you have a new user loading a vanilla RISC OS perhaps with no boot drive. It would be nice if they (by default) had some networking active right away. For example whatever we end up bundling with the Raspberry Pi on the SD card for RISC OS. That will (for a new user) have no RISC OS formatted storage drive and a ‘vanilla’ boot image.

I’ve been wanting to do this, too, but the fact that DHCP sits there for ever(?) during the early part of the boot sequence if you don’t happen to be on a network or have a DHCP server visible, is a bit more of a problem than having to manually switch it on.

Anyway, I don’t think the RISC OS disc image or ROMs as currently distributed by ROOL include an Ethernet driver or the associated AutoSense file so I’m not sure switching networking on is as simple as going into !Configure.

What I’d like to do, if I had infinite time, is to address the DHCP issue and then add-in the other bits I mentioned (EtherUSB would be good) then ship a disc image where DHCP is the default but it does its requests and interface configuration in the background.

This, as you say, would make RISC OS on the RPi far more viable than RISC OS with no networking (which would be fairly boring to most people).

Just been pointed here from the RPi topic in the Porting forum, hope no-one minds if I resurrect the topic.

If the DHCP client is RFC2131 compliant (http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2131.txt), DHCPDISCOVER (or in fact any) requests should be sent with “a retransmission strategy that incorporates a randomized exponential backoff algorithm to determine the delay between retransmissions”

This usually starts at 4s(+/- 1s) and backs off from there with each retransmission. Current linux distributions give up after 4 attempts, at which point they try a last-gasp DHCPREQUEST with the last-held IP address, also with a timeout. At that point, a 169.×.×.x is assigned, though I guess that final step is not necessary.

Could the RISCOS client adopt a similar approach easily? While a startup with no active network connection would still be delayed by this, it’s significantly better than an indefinite hang and works as a default configuration…

It’s a great pity that the DHCP stuff couldn’t be STARTED by the boot sequence but complete asynchronously (if successful), hence not holding everything else up.