I’m having trouble getting an IP address via DHCP on my HP ProLiant DL380 Gen9 server running Debian. I’ve tried various troubleshooting steps, but nothing seems to work.

Error messages:

  • “No DHCPOFFERS received”
  • “No working leases in persistent database - sleeping”
  • “Activation of network connection failed” (GNOME)
  • “IP configuration unavailable” (Plasma)

Hardware:

  • HP ProLiant DL380 Gen9 server

Software:

  • Debian operating system
  • GNOME and Plasma desktop environments

Troubleshooting steps:

  • Checked network cable and ensured it’s properly connected
  • Restarted network service
  • Set /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf managed=true

Additional information:

  • Internet worked during the Debian installation process, but not after booting into the installed system.
  • The problem occurs on both GNOME and Plasma desktop environments, but Plasma provides a slightly more helpful error message.

I’d appreciate any help or guidance on resolving this issue. Has anyone else experienced similar problems with DHCP on a HP ProLiant DL380 Gen9 server with Debian?

  • If ip a shows your NIC, I’d recommend checking your networking settings (you can do this via GUI in your DE’s settings) to see if everything is set correctly e.g is automatic DHCP enabled? (It seems so, based on the error messages. That’s just an example.)

    I had a situation the other day where my laptop ethernet port was being assigned to an oddball subnet that had no network connection. As it turned out, I had set the port to share internet in order to set up a Google TV (my dorm network requires a MAC address, but the TV had an old version where you couldn’t get the MAC address until after TV setup, which required a network connect) and had never reversed the setting.