network connection difficulty - newbie

[sledgehammer]

anoveskey

I'm not running Windows on the Linux Box. It is a dedicated tower - no VM at all.

Sorry.  I should have paid more attention to your first email. 

I am curious.  How are you loading linux? 

I download VL 7 from the vector site, burn it to a CD, put the CD into the computer, make sure it boots to the CD drive, and then follow the directions.  I normally don't have it connected to the internet during the install.  Then I take the CD out, connect the internet wire, and reboot.  First reboot sets up a few more things (I accept the defaults) and then, after it brings up the GUI, reboot again.  I am generally on the internet at that time, though if I recall, sometimes I have to click on the wicd icon and tell it to connect.  Sometimes I have to click on the down arrow at the upper right of the wicd screen,  choose "preferences" and set the wired interface to eth0 or eth1 (can't recall).  If this doesn't work, I assume its a hardware problem and try another card.  Occasionally, since I am always loading on used machines, I find there are two internet jacks on the machine, one of which doesn't work.  If so I use whichever one works.

good luck.

[anoveskey]

anoveskey

I'm not running Windows on the Linux Box. It is a dedicated tower - no VM at all.

Sorry.  I should have paid more attention to your first email. 

I am curious.  How are you loading linux? 

I download VL 7 from the vector site, burn it to a CD, put the CD into the computer, make sure it boots to the CD drive, and then follow the directions.  I normally don't have it connected to the internet during the install.  Then I take the CD out, connect the internet wire, and reboot.  First reboot sets up a few more things (I accept the defaults) and then, after it brings up the GUI, reboot again.  I am generally on the internet at that time, though if I recall, sometimes I have to click on the wicd icon and tell it to connect.  Sometimes I have to click on the down arrow at the upper right of the wicd screen,  choose "preferences" and set the wired interface to eth0 or eth1 (can't recall).  If this doesn't work, I assume its a hardware problem and try another card.  Occasionally, since I am always loading on used machines, I find there are two internet jacks on the machine, one of which doesn't work.  If so I use whichever one works.

good luck.

No worries.

I pretty much did the same thing you did. I installed the OS from the .iso and made sure it would boot up without the disk in the drive. From there, I brought it into my living room to hook it up to the router (the tower doesn't have a wireless card or wireless adapter). From there, I have attempted to use WICD to connect it to the router, but I haven't had any luck. This is a used machine as well, but before I installed Linux on it, the NIC connected to my router with no problems.

[hata_ph]

This reminds me of a problem I used to have in a hotel. For some reason, I had to bring up eth0 without dhcp, wait a minute or so, then request an IP address. I wrote a little script that killed wicd, brought eth0 down, then back up, waited 90 seconds, then launched dhcpcd. It's a long shot, but who knows?

Pls share the scripts

[retired1af]

Not much to report sadly:

Code:

# Generated by dhcpcd
# /etc/resolv.conf.head can replace this line
# /etc/resolv.conf.tail can replace this line

Bingo! Start VASM, Select SUPER, Network, Name, and then provide a hostname and then provide the IP address to your router. Things should start working at that point.

[nightflier]

Pls share the scripts

This may not work the same in VL7, but you'll get the idea. Run as root:

Code:

#!/bin/sh
killall wicd-client
/etc/rc.d/rc.wicd stop
ifconfig eth0 down
sleep 1
ifconfig eth0 up
sleep 90
dhcpcd eth0

Bingo! Start VASM, Select SUPER, Network, Name, and then provide a hostname and then provide the IP address to your router. Things should start working at that point.

That is a good approach. However, it may end up fighting wicd. You can try using manual settings in wicd;
left-click the wicd icon on the panel.
Click the "Properties" button for the wired network.
Check the box for "Static IP".
Enter the IP address for your VL machine (192.168.1.xxx or similar, you gotta figure that out).
When you continue, it will suggest the next values:
Netmask "255.255.255.0" and the IP address of your router (possibly 192.168.1.1).
The next required item is "DNS 1", you can use the free Google server "8.8.8.8".
Click "OK"
Click the "Connect" button for the interface.

[anoveskey]

Not much to report sadly:

Code:

# Generated by dhcpcd
# /etc/resolv.conf.head can replace this line
# /etc/resolv.conf.tail can replace this line

Bingo! Start VASM, Select SUPER, Network, Name, and then provide a hostname and then provide the IP address to your router. Things should start working at that point.

I used VASM to try to correct the issues with the network, but no such luck. I couldn't find an option for SUPER (which I assume is the user class), no networks were listed. I did set a hostname for the tower, and the IP address of the router to get the DNS.

I should also mention - and remember I'm new to Linux - I tried to stop and start the NIC to see if that would help. After some quick googling, I discovered I should use the command

Code:

/etc/init.d/network stop eth0
/etc/init.d/network start eth0

When I type either one of these lines, I get

Code:

/etc/init.d/network: No such file or directory

Is that significant?

[retired1af]

Are you logged in as root? If so, why?

[anoveskey]

Are you logged in as root? If so, why?

Yes. Is that a problem? I haven't set up any other user accounts since I would be the only one running the system.

[sledgehammer]

anoveskey

This may have been asked and answered, but, with Wicd loaded, what does the gui show in the blank in Preferences after "Wired interface"? 

John

[anoveskey]

anoveskey

This may have been asked and answered, but, with Wicd loaded, what does the gui show in the blank in Preferences after "Wired interface"? 

John

eth0

[sledgehammer]

I don't know how to fix your problem.  I know what I would do in that situation.  I would borrow a card from another machine,  put it into one of the slots on your machine and see if that worked.

[nightflier]

Don't give up without trying manual configuration. See my directions above.

[overthere]

Yes. Is that a problem? I haven't set up any other user accounts since I would be the only one running the system.

If this is not a problem it may be later. it is common in linux to run as a user and do less in root except where required to maintain the system. this is one of the reasons linux is more secure. there are linux that run in root mode but are designed to do so, I think puppy linux is one, Vector is designed for user with root access for administration so vasm would require the root password for access. If you are root then you would not see super as an option and could just run vasm. user mode will give access to vasm with fewer options.

you could create a new user and try wicd but I just wanted to point out that it is common practice to run as a user for daily use.

Cheers

[retired1af]

The reason you don't run as root is more than just security. When you run as root all the time, you run the risk of borking your installation with one slip of the keyboard. User accounts can't do that unless you really work at it.

Just because Windows does it, doesn't mean it's a good idea to carry that practice over to Linux. Get into the habit of running as a user and use "su" to do things to the system when they need to be done.

[anoveskey]

After taking a break and trying again, I still ran into the same problems.

I decided to try replacing the NIC card to see if that would work. Apparently the card is installed (typing lspci shows it to be listed), but When I attempt to connect to my home network, I still get "Unable to obtain an IP address."

I think the problem is that ifconfig does not list the new card. It only shows eth0 and lo. All the online forums I find say to edit a file in a directory that is not in my version of Linux.

Sorry to keep bugging everyone with this, but I feel fairly helpless at the moment.