Windows is not fetching an IP address after BlueOS boots

[patrickelectric]

It appears that when DHCP server is on in BlueOS, Windows fails or takes a long time to get an IP address.
From the last meeting that we did (04/06/26), it appears that:

• Windows does a couple of initial attempts (4s -> 8s -> 16s -> 32s)¹, after that
• The next try happens after 3¹/5² min

Why is this issue important ?

• We want to enable DHCP server at the same time that we move to the Raspberry Pi 5, we need to find the best approach to fix that. For more information, check with @dgudiel.
• On that, talking with Wilson, it appears that people don't want to have the release of 1.5 to be connected with Pi5 release, so we need to be aware that such solution need to be done in 1.4 as well.

Things that we can try (I'm not advocating, just listing):

• Move DHCP server to start soon after network-online.service
  • From the findings in Boot time improvements #1489 it takes less than 4s in a Pi5.

  Keep in mind that the Pi5 requires a new image with a new OS version, we have the possibility to do that from a fresh image, without worrying about doing it in a BlueOS upgrade.

• Move BlueOS to start with podman over docker
  • From the findings in Boot time improvements #1489
    • it takes less than 26 seconds to start docker.service
    • it takes less than 6 seconds to start podman.service
• Use auto-ip
  • Only happens when DHCP probing fails², it takes around 30/40s¹ for that to happen

Open to further suggestions.

Footnotes

1. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/openspecs/windows_protocols/ms-dhcpe/c46e5602-4d6d-4fd7-b896-f3ab1e767318 ↩ ↩² ↩³

2. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/troubleshoot/how-to-use-automatic-tcpip-addressing-without-a-dh ↩ ↩²

[vshie]

If BR instructions had users only connect to vehicle network after they hear start-up beeps from motors, would Windows connect and get DHCP address without issue?