On Wed, 15 Nov 2006, Manuel Bouyer wrote:
>> Am I missing something ?
>
>> From what I remember dhclient finally gets an IP, but you have to wait several
> minutes (10 to 15 maybe). But this was several releases ago ...

from dhclient(8): ``Old leases are kept around in case the DHCP server is 
unavailable when dhclient is first invoked (generally during the initial 
system boot process).  In that event, old leases from the dhclient.leases 
file which have not yet expired are tested, and if they are determined to 
be valid, they are used until either they expire or the DHCP server 
becomes available.''

And from dhclient.conf(5):

        The retry statement

         retry time;

        The retry statement determines the time that must pass after the client
        has  determined  that  there  is no DHCP server present before it tries
        again to contact a DHCP server.   By default, this is five minutes.

Maybe this helps...


  - Hubert