DHCP on specific IP address range

[chip.ling]

I have never had any occasion to use route and am not clear why you are using it either. When I get my DHCP setup I get a netmask and other settings from the router.

I try to use static IP address for my Knoppix server instead of DHCP assign IP address to it. So I boot the knoppix with the cheat code: knoppix nodhcp

After the boot up, only the "lo" is set up with a value. The eth0 is not defined. No gateway defined.

I need to use the "ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.90" to set up the static IP address.

Then use the "route add -net default gw 192.168.1.1 netmask 0.0.0.0 dev eth0" to set up the default gateway to 192.168.1.1 and Genmask to 0.0.0.0 for device eth0.

The last step is to add an entry "nameserver 192.168.1.1" to the /etc/resolv.conf file, it is to define the DNS service.

Basically, it is a step by step setup the knoppix server address manually.

k6:/home/harry# route
Kernel IP routing table
Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags Metric Ref    Use Iface
192.168.0.0     *               255.255.255.0   U     0      0        0 eth0
default         192.168.0.1     0.0.0.0         UG    0      0        0 eth0

Note that there indeed is a 0.0.0.0 in this output, but it is called a genmask, not a netmask. If you Google the term genmask you will quickly find that the routing tables is using this as a mask differently than a normal netmask and that 0.0.0.0 is simply the general case default that the routing table uses if nothing more specific matches. So I guess this is why it is working for you, but I have no idea why you need to use the route command at all. I and most other people here using routers do not need to.

Yes, you are right. I double check on my "route" output. It is identical to yours. It shows Genmask instead of netmask.

But I think the confusion here is the "route" command itself, "netmask 0.0.0.0" in fact setup the genmask value and is not really a netmask setup.

Rgds,
Chip