+# within a systemd-driven startup, we often see this stage
+# triggered before the network is actually up
+# although of course we have network-online.target
+# as a requirement; go figure what systemd actually does..
+
+# in any case, let us try to work around that by allowing some delay
+# here
+
+TIMEOUT=30
+while true; do
+ /sbin/ifconfig $ETH_DEVICE >& /dev/null && continue
+ TIMEOUT=$(($TIMEOUT-1))
+ [ $TIMEOUT -le 0 ] && net_init_failed
+ sleep 1
+ echo $(date "+%H:%M:%S") " pl_netinit: waiting for device $ETH_DEVICE, ${TIMEOUT}s remaining "
+done
+