BGP not starting

[Thomas St-Pierre]

Hi,

I'm a new BIRD user so I may be missing something, if so please forgive me.

I created a simple config for an ibgp neighbor:

template bgp rr_client {
	local as XXXXX;
	rr client;
	import all;
	export all;

}
protocol bgp R1 from rr_client {
	neighbor 172.19.242.51 as XXXXX;
}

The other end is a cisco router with a similarly simple config. 

However when I start up bird I get "Waiting for 172.19.242.51 to become my neighbor", and nothing ever happens. bird doesn't start listening on 179 either.

For information, both bgp endpoints are in the same /24 subnet (ie directly connected). However if I add multihop then it comes up and everything's great.

Is there a reason why I have to use multi hop when the devices are on the same lan?

Thanks!

Thomas