In article <20020108195356.B4213@lowden.schemamania.org>,
James K. Lowden <jklowden@schemamania.org> wrote:
>
>Your ifconfig.xxx has to indicate the right media type (or autodetect
>has to work), so DHCP can find a server and get an address.  Not to
>find the wire is not to get the address.  
>
>BTW, you don't need an ip address for the driver to talk to the
>Ethernet or for tcpdump to work.  If there's any traffic at all on the
>wire, tcpdump will tell you if you're connected to it.  
>

Actually the right place for that is /etc/dhclient.conf using a media
directive.

christos