Cable dhcp will not connect.

[tomcat1965]

Hi,I have just installed Vector Linux 5.8 SOHO and would really like to get online, but despite a straight forward cable dhcp connection I cannot get connected,dhcpd and ifplugd show they are started. I have eth0 configured correctly via vasm.
I had a search through the doc's and forum but whilst wireless seems a real drama with Vector I can't see why a cable connection should be. Ideally I would like this 5.8 SOHO on my laptop too though I get the impression thats just going to be frustrating and I must have a reliable connection on that for work.
Any ideas or suggestions would be welcome. (It's not a hardware,ISP or iptables problem by the way.)

[hata_ph]

how you connect to your internet?
are your system connected to a modem or router?

[tomcat1965]

Router,though if I boot into Gentoo on the same box I am online straight away.

[hata_ph]

is a router modem?
do you set your router modem as gateway?
I never use the VL 5.8 SOHO version........I am using VL 5.8 GOLD
I have a router modem and setup my VL using VASM
1. give my VL a fix IP
2. key in the gateway (IP for the modem router)
3. key in the DNS provided by my ISP.......

btw, do your network connection working?
or just not able to connect to internet?

[retired1af]

Hi,I have just installed Vector Linux 5.8 SOHO and would really like to get online, but despite a straight forward cable dhcp connection I cannot get connected,dhcpd and ifplugd show they are started. I have eth0 configured correctly via vasm.
I had a search through the doc's and forum but whilst wireless seems a real drama with Vector I can't see why a cable connection should be. Ideally I would like this 5.8 SOHO on my laptop too though I get the impression thats just going to be frustrating and I must have a reliable connection on that for work.
Any ideas or suggestions would be welcome. (It's not a hardware,ISP or iptables problem by the way.)

What did you set for a domain when you first installed VL? It doesn't have to match what your ISP is, but it does have to be a fully qualified domain when you type it in. Something along the lines of vector.linux.com.

[GrannyGeek]

>> What did you set for a domain when you first installed VL? It doesn't have to match what your ISP is, but it does have to be a fully qualified domain when you type it in. Something along the lines of vector.linux.com. >>

It can be something you make up. For example, on the computer I'm writing this at, the domain name is Toshiba.OURPLACE . The other computers on our home network are compaq.OURPLACE and hall.OURPLACE . So for a home network or a single computer attached to a router, you could give it any name you want, but I assume it should be short and have no spaces. All the computers need the same name AFTER the dot, such as OURPLACE above.

In other words, it doesn't have to be a real domain. The computer and router don't know and won't care. In Windows it's the computer name and the workgroup.

For this problem, I wonder if the VL firewall is getting in the way. Since you are attached to a router, you can safely turn off the VL firewall. Try that and see if you can get online. Have you entered your router's administrative application (probably through your browser) to see if there are any clues there?

I have a DSL modem that's attached to a router. I always set up networking the same way hata_ph does. If you want to use a fixed IP address, you need to turn off DHCP in the router.
--GrannyGeek

[tomcat1965]

I just gave it the name laptop,though I did try leaving it as vector.linux.com to start with,even connected straight to the cable modem without the router. I tried setting a static ip temporarily but still nothing even after issuing the usual ifconfig eth0 up command followed by dhcpcd eth0 and trying a manual start with /etc/rc.d/re.init1 start.
I had not created any additional iptables rules as I'm behind a router,and not online yet!
Giving up on cable I tried wireless,but couldnt get wpa_supplicant to start. Usually I can use the native bcm43xx driver or ndiswrapper with my Linksys wpc54gs (uk) card,ndiswrapper gives better performance but doesn't want to know here,I blacklisted the bcm43xx driver  to avoid conflict,but it would not install the .inf file 

[bigpaws]

Hi Tom1965,

The first way to troubleshoot is to start at the beginning:

A find out if the module (driver) for your card is loaded. You
can use lsmod to see what is loaded.

Next if module is loaded then in a console as root type "ifconfig' no quotes

If there is an ip address then you should be good to go.

If the module is not loaded then you can as root use "modprobe <module>" again no quotes
use lsmod again to see if everything loaded. If it did you can modify /etc/modules.conf and
uncomment the driver.

If all else fails there really needs to be more information for more help.

Please include the hardware name, make and model# rev if there is one.

Also include what you have done if anything to get the hardware to work.

HTH

Bigpaws

[lagagnon]

Hi,I have just installed Vector Linux 5.8 SOHO and would really like to get online, but despite a straight forward cable dhcp connection I cannot get connected,dhcpd and ifplugd show they are started.

In my experience if that cable modem was  connected to a different machine it probably has the wrong MAC address stored in its system or at the ISP. What I often do that works for me is:
1) turn off your Linux computer
2) turn off cable modem and unplug it from the power source
3) replug and turn on cable modem after 15 seconds
4) reboot Linux box.

[tomcat1965]

MAC address isn't an issue as my cable modems connected to a router,every other distro just connects on dhcp,Vector won't start dhcpcd even though dhcp set up on install and again in vasm. I'll have to give up and try the next release as I'm spending more time sorting out issues (dvd play back,Alsa,network) than doing anything productive and it's not like I've got any funky hardware.

[hata_ph]

for starter, you must make sure your VL system got network connection.
can you ping your router IP?
type "ifconfig" as root and see is there a valid IP detected?

once I have been having a problem where network is not started at boot time
http://www.vectorlinux.com/forum2/index.php?topic=2202.0
http://www.vectorlinux.com/forum2/index.php?topic=2167.0
http://www.vectorlinux.com/forum2/index.php?topic=1545.0

[tomcat1965]

The real problem is multiple bugs,ifplugd.conf disappears,dhcpcd won't start even from the command line,I have never been able to ping any pc on the network with Vector,I would try reinstalling ifplugd if I could get online however as SOHO is only just out I assume these bugs will get fixed at some point.
If I try wireless, 'wireless radar' shows a full strengh signal but cannot connect as it can't obtain an ip,entering it manually as a fixed ip crashes it. Vwifi crashes when selecting 'scan with wireless radar' option but entering the ssid manually it rejects the wpa key.
wpa_supplicant will not load with ndiswrapper,launching "wpa_supplicant cli" shows that broadcom driver cannot be used but ndiswrapper can, using ndiswrapper as the driver for wpa_supplicant doesn't get wpa_supplicant to even start. wpa_supplicant should work with both bcm43xx and ndiswrapper.
Knetwork manager could easily replace all the old tools vector comes with,I would much rather configure a network with that as it's reliable,works with wpa_supplicant and enables switching from wired to wireless almost instantly.
Thanks for all the ideas and suggestions though,really appreciated.

[lagagnon]

tomcat1965: I can sense your frustration and can understand it, but some real data about your machine would help us, rather than descriptions of what is not working for you.

Please post the output of the following commands (run as root in a terminal) and maybe we can help you:

ifconfig
iwconfig
route
cat /etc/resolv.conf


Also, if you have decided to use wireless rather than a standard NIC please read the wireless HOWTO posted here:  http://www.vectorlinux.com/forum2/index.php?topic=1282.0 . That might help you out.