On Thu, 22 May 1997, Enrik Berkhan wrote:

> It's a bug in the linux rarp/arp code.
> 
> When you initially set an rarp entry in the linux kernel (yes,
> linux handles rarp totally in the kernel ...), linux will arp(!)
> the ip-adress just set in the rarp cache.

Euugh.  So Linux is trying to arp the network with an IP address to get  
an ethernet address of a machine which hasn't yet been given that IP
address?  That's evil (and a mouthful).

...
> Workaround: After the inital arp requests have been transmitted (watch
> the tcpdump output), just delete the unresolved arp entry with arp -d
> <hostname>.

So any explanation for why the whoami does eventually go through?  Does
the unresolved arp entry disappear of its own accord at some point?

-brian.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brian D. Chase         Systems Coordinator        brian.chase@carpediem.com
-- Compression, Inc. - 13765 Alton Pkwy, Suite B - Irvine, CA 92618, USA --