Linux blows

[IdahoB]

Well - that sucked. Installed Mandrake tonight and can't get the bloody network up and running. I've no idea what the problem is and no idea where to look to fix it. In the control settings for network I put in that it uses DHCP and the gateway's IP address, but it just hangs on the configuring screen, and I can't get the internet connection up. I have a Win98 server sharing the net - I assumed Linux would have no problems connecting over TCP/IP but I must be doing something wrong somewhere. It SEEMS to detect my net card fine - but you never really know until it works.

God - Linux is scary

 

[Mucman]

The OS blows because you don't know what you are doing???

Can you show us the output of `ifconfig -a`

 

[FLGator]

I had to edit /etc/hosts in order to get 'drake to connect to the internet.

127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
127.0.0.1 . domainname. domaimname

Where "domainname" is whatever you named it during setup.

 

[TheOmegaCode]

Windows must blow too, my grandma can't figure out how to email people...
You might have to create your own DNS entries in /etc/resolv.conf

 

[n0cmonkey]

What does ifconfig -a say? Is dhcpcd running?

 

[bromer]

Windows XP must blow... I can't figure it out

 

[daveqb]

i am having the same problem

situation

current home Lan called "Home"
2 PC's
mine in my room (WinXP)
another in lounge room (host) (192.168.0.1)

my ADSL modem plugs straight into the 4 port switch and the Host dials up and shares connection.

added a Celery 766 to the network to play with Red Hat
after much mucking around i got Red Hat installed

now it wont access the Net
it does however appear to find the IP of sites from the DNS but cant download web site content.

i can see shared drivers on other PC's with SMB://
but openning a drive leads to nothing, no files

played with eth0 but still nothing

ideas??

i'll run
ifconfig -a
in the morning, see what it says

PS i do recall setting up Red Hat on my PC and (w/ a mates help over the phone) i browsed Net with the text browser, but same result in the graphival browser as now.
one thing, i have had to regedit my other PC sharing the Net to set the NIC's MTU value to only 1454 as opposed to WinXP's default 1500 to use ADSL thru the network.
otherwise i had same result as the RH box is havng now ....


thanx all

 

[IdahoB]

No, the OS doesn't blow I'm sure - it's just not exactly user-friendly - but then that's not the point. I've got a fair bit of patience for any OS that measures it's uptime in months, not hours.

I'm pretty sure it's the actual network card that's causing the problem - it randomly states that eth0 is up or down with no apparent basis on fact - I've never been able to ping anything other than the localhost. A couple of questions for you experts

1. 'ifconfig - a' - what's that? I've tried running it as a command or in the command window and I just get 'command not found'

2. I've named the computer andy.mshome - I assume that it what I need to do to connect to my windows workgroup - but then I'm not sure if it's actually confusing the issue - since there's not really any domain.

3. If I've configured it to use DHCP - how do I enter the IP of the DHCP server?

Thanks in advance guys - I know I'm going to be a pain but there's only one way to learn this stuff - the manual is daunting but I'm working my way through it.

 

[cleverhandle]

Originally posted by: IdahoB

I'm pretty sure it's the actual network card that's causing the problem - it randomly states that eth0 is up or down with no apparent basis on fact - I've never been able to ping anything other than the localhost.

That does sound like you might have hardware issues. What kind of card is it? Do you get any useful messages at boot time? (Check by running "dmesg | less")

1. 'ifconfig - a' - what's that? I've tried running it as a command or in the command window and I just get 'command not found'

It shows all configured network interfaces, whether they are active or not ("a" = "all"). It sounds like the command is not in your PATH. Try running it as root if you haven't already. If you've tried that, try switching to root with "su -" instead of "su", or login directly as root at the console.

2. I've named the computer andy.mshome - I assume that it what I need to do to connect to my windows workgroup - but then I'm not sure if it's actually confusing the issue - since there's not really any domain.

Haven't done much with Linux/Windows interoperability, but we should probably make sure the NIC is set up properly first anyway.

3. If I've configured it to use DHCP - how do I enter the IP of the DHCP server?

There should be no need to do this - the system should find the first upstream DHCP server and use that.

 

[FLGator]

open a terminal
type 'su' without the quotes
enter the root password
type 'whoami'
terminal should return 'root'
type 'kedit /etc/hosts'
add a line like this at the end '127.0.0.1 andy.mshome andy'
save the file
try surfing now.

 

[daveqb]

open a terminal
type 'su' without the quotes

did that, nothing happened

enter the root password
type 'whoami'

again, nothing happened
terminal should return 'root'
type 'kedit /etc/hosts'
add a line like this at the end '127.0.0.1 andy.mshome andy'
save the file
try surfing now.

did that but made no difference....
i did find however that i could open my own web site which is hosted by my ISP.
couldnt get my ISP's page up though.
so i added the primary and secondary DNS ip address's that the host PC here uses, no difference

diabled the WinXP firewall on the host, but again, no difference

for every web site besides my own it pops up real quick

connecting to www.XXXXX.com

and then goes to saying

sending request to www.XXXXXX.com

but then hangs there, no info is downloaded.

i still cant access other drives on the network, i mean i can see them, but openning them they are empty according to the Red Hat PC


any ideas guys ??

:frown:

 

[bromer]

Unix is user-friendly... just picky about it's friends

 

[daveqb]

mine was the MTU value,
with help from a mate i edited the MTU value for my NIC down to 1454 (like al my XP boxes need to have done to them) and web browsing is fine now.....

still cant LAN browse though, and share files etc..

 

[NorthenLove]

I also use dhcp to for my cable modem connection and as someone else state there should be no need to enter any values just make sure that dhcp is started up at boot time. Hmmmmm......I wonder ? Did you select the option to start DHCP at start up during the install ???

 

[flywing]

Your problem reminds me of the problem I had the first time I installed linux. The problem was due to the gateway IP that I took from Windows (dual boot) was not the correct one for linux. The computer was on my home network and I needed to use the IP (I have static IPs on the network) of my dsl modem/router as the gateway. Then it worked fine. The gateway I had entered in Windows was different (I think it was given me by the ISP - I do not really remember). Windows was able to work with either IP. Your situation is different since you are using DHCP, but I suspect your problem has a similar basis. I agree with the suggestion to make sure you really are using DHCP. Can you ping other computers on your network?

 

[daveqb]

not sure if yuo are talking to me, but i'll respond

i have net access now, but in regards to other PC's, i can see the shared drives on them using SMB:/
but when i open a drive on another PC its empty
says:
o files, o directories
etc

i have edited the Simba conf file, even a mate emailed me his and i copied it over mine (after backing up of course)
and still no change.