SNMP MIBs are missing in Debian 6.0 and Ubuntu

The Problem

You have installed Debian 6.0, or Ubuntu 10.10 or newer. Since that time, the SNMP commands (snmpget, snmpwalk) no longer have access to the MIBs. Instead of names, only numeric OIDs are displayed.

The cause

From Debian 6.0, for licensing reasons the MIBs are no longer included.

The solution

First install the snmp-mibs-downloader packet:

root@linux# aptitude install snmp-mibs-downloader

The package now automatically downloads all standard MIBs from the Internet – a connection is required! These are saved under /var/snmp/mibs You can also start this process manually with download-mibs.

Attention: Afterwards you will need to remove /etc/snmp/snmp.conf the line mibs : from the file by hand, or comment it out by hand with a hash!

/etc/snmp/snmp.conf#
# As the snmp packages come without MIB files due to license reasons, loading
# of MIBs is disabled by default. If you added the MIBs you can reenable
# loaging them by commenting out the following line.
# mibs :

If all goes well, snmptranslate should now display the MIB tree correctly:

root@linux#  snmptranslate -Tp | head
+--iso(1)
   |
   +--org(3)
      |
      +--dod(6)
         |
         +--internet(1)
            |
            +--directory(1)
            |