Starting network later

Question

Hello,
Sometimes when I boot up my computer, there's no network. The solution then is to type "/etc/rc.d/network restart" as superuser.
When I shut down my computer, I also shut down all the power, including the modem.
When starting it up, I turn on the power, and then the computer. While the computer boots up, the modem is also starting up (it's an ADSL modem).
Since sometimes I have network, sometimes not, I think it depends on how fast the modem started up that I have it or not. That's just my theory though. I think if ArchLinux would just init the network a little bit later, the problem would be gone.
Is there any way to make it do the network only after initializing everything else?
Or do you know any other (better) solution for this annoyance?
Thanks!

Answer 1

tomk wrote:
You're talking about two completely independent unconnected power-ons - one for your computer, one for your modem. No matter how late Arch initialises the network,  there is always the chance that it will be too early for your modem.
Solution: write a custom network init script that tests for connectivity, and loops over the required command(s) until the connection is established.
The thing is, I never had this problem with my previous computer. My previous computer was 5 year old, and the Archlinux on it too (with 5 years of pacman -Syu history). So at least the two independent unconnected power-ons seem to be no problem for some Arch boxes. I've never created background daemons there either, or done any delay, it just never was a problem there.
This new computer (well, half a year old in the meantime) has this problem.
So maybe there was something better about how the old one was configured, but what could that be?
Last edited by aardwolf (2012-09-19 19:54:44)