IPfire core 193 running at “AMD” CPU. I run config “RED+GREEN+BLUE”, DHCP server is active on GREEN and BLUE.
My local DHCP server has about 40 clients. And I found I cannot resolve some of them. I see them in IPfire web interface but I cannot resolve their hostnames or IP address. Only IPv4, I do not use IPv6. Some clients are OK and others are invisible.
I see that entries are several times in file /var/state/dhcp/dhcpd.leases.
Example, host “c4b” works OK but host “mint” is invisible.
lease 192.168.222.236 {
starts 3 2025/04/16 20:38:39;
ends 3 2025/04/16 21:38:39;
cltt 3 2025/04/16 20:38:39;
binding state active;
next binding state free;
rewind binding state free;
hardware ethernet 00:1e:06:4a:be:ef;
uid "\001\000\036\006J*\260";
client-hostname "c4b";
}
lease 192.168.222.236 {
starts 3 2025/04/16 21:08:39;
ends 3 2025/04/16 22:08:39;
cltt 3 2025/04/16 21:08:39;
binding state active;
next binding state free;
rewind binding state free;
hardware ethernet 00:1e:06:4a:be:ef;
uid "\001\000\036\006J*\260";
client-hostname "c4b";
}
lease 192.168.222.121 {
starts 3 2025/04/16 20:37:51;
ends 3 2025/04/16 21:37:51;
cltt 3 2025/04/16 20:37:51;
binding state active;
next binding state free;
rewind binding state free;
hardware ethernet 00:1a:4d:4f:be:ef;
client-hostname "mint";
}
lease 192.168.222.121 {
starts 3 2025/04/16 21:03:54;
ends 3 2025/04/16 22:03:54;
cltt 3 2025/04/16 21:03:54;
binding state active;
next binding state free;
rewind binding state free;
hardware ethernet 00:1a:4d:4f:be:ef;
client-hostname "mint";
}
lease 192.168.222.121 {
starts 3 2025/04/16 21:27:03;
ends 3 2025/04/16 22:27:03;
cltt 3 2025/04/16 21:27:03;
binding state active;
next binding state free;
rewind binding state free;
hardware ethernet 00:1a:4d:4f:be:ef;
client-hostname "mint";
}
I understand this is a tricky issue, I do not see clear difference between visible and invisible clients. They have IP address assigned and they all work. I only cannot resolve them with host command and I have to connect to IPfire gateway to find what IP address they have…
I think this is not new issue. My IPfire was not updated or rebooted for 5 months and when I checked it after my “holiday”, I noticed that local DNS was not working at all, it was running but I was not able to resolve any local client. I updated gateway to the “core 193”, it is up and running for several days and I see signs that something is not working as expected… 
Visible client:
user@book:~$ host c4b
c4b.home has address 192.168.222.236
Invisible client:
user@book:~$ host mint
Host mint not found: 2(SERVFAIL)
I see 15 “ESP devices” in DHCP server GUI but I can resolve only 13 of them, 2 are invisible.
I cannot see “invisible” clients in file /etc/unbound/dhcp-leases.conf
Timestamp of dhcp-leases.conf is 2025-04-12, this file was not updated for several days. Host “mint” was down until today, that explains why I cannot see it. The same applies two two invisible ESP clients, those were down on 2025-04-12. The issue is that file dhcp-leases.conf is not regularly updated.
ps shows me these processes, maybe they are dead…
root 2309 0.0 0.1 9444 6900 ? Ss Apr12 0:27 /usr/sbin/dhcpd -q green0 blue0
root 2317 0.0 0.3 165624 13488 ? Sl Apr12 0:04 /usr/bin/python3 /usr/sbin/unbound-dhcp-leases-bridge -d
