I've had Suse 9.1 for a few weeks and I can still do nothing with it because it won't connect to the internet.

Problem seems to be with DHCP. Here's an extract from the bootlog:

>Setting up network interfaces:
>lo
>lo IP address: 127.0.0.1/8
>done eth0 device: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
>eth0 configuration: eth-id-00:08:a1:6a:b2:03
>eth0 (DHCP). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . no IP address yet. . . . . . backgrounding. waiting
>checkproc: /sbin/dhcpcd 1800
>eth0 interface could not be set up failed
>setting up service network. . . . . . . . . . . . . . failed

I've looked at the DHCP config file but I have no idea what parameters to fiddle with (except DHCLIENT_WAIT_AT_BOOT, which I changed from 5 to 25 seconds - made no difference).

It's a Compaq Armada 7400 with Realtek clone PCMCIA card connected to Thomson cable modem. PCMCIA seems to start correctly at boot and network card lights flicker, indicating that signal is being received from network.

As a Linux novice, where do I start?

All help would be really appreciated.

you may check out what is the current ip address by typing this command at the console.

ifconfig -a

I would suggest you can try doing a manual configuration of your System IP first to see if the DHCP of your gateway really works.

What do I look for in the results of ifconfig -a ?

I have tried to manually configure the connection from the command line, using:

# ifconfig eth0 <ipaddress> netmask <address>
# route add default gw <gateway address> (both using the values found in Network Connections under Windows, where the connection works)

Makes no difference. Pinging does not work. There is no connection established.

This is really frustrating... All I want to do is browse the internet. I even paid for this software!

The problem of course is that I don't really know what I'm doing... unlike lots of you guys. But then I thought that Suse was aiming its products at non-techie Windows-defectors like me...

So -

Can some clever expert (preferably a Suse one) please tell me what to try next? I really have no idea, and (yes) I'm on the point of giving up completely on Linux. Before I've even tried it...

Did you try to input # ifconfig eth0 <ip_addy> <net_mask> up

Yep, tried that (albeit tried with the tag 'netmask' added, which you meant). No joy. Thanks anyway.

What I need to know is this:

What commands can I type at the command line to check that the ethernet card actually works? So far it has never worked under Linux or Windows, with or without DHCP.

I ask this on the basis that I have the values for <ipaddress>, <netmask>, <gateway> etc which work fine when the computer is connected to the modem via USB.

All ideas sorely appreciated!

Thanks.

hold on... your cable modem has a dhcp service? are you really sure? how's your windows configured?

and then... in your last post you wrote that the network card doesn't work under windows either, maybe it's broken or so?

Hi
As some other people, i've had the same problem with the "no ip address...jadajadajada. Drove me crazy. The problem in my case startet when I had to boot my winXP partition. (my sister uses it sometimes). Had to reinstall the net.card to make it work in XP. When I came back to linux it didnt work any more.
Turns out XP put my card in powersave or something like that. So I just turned off that option i XP net.card config. and now everthing works fine.

Ah okay that could be useful. I should have posted an update, so here it is now:

DHCP started working - I don't know why. I don't think I changed any settings. But not all the time - just 75% of the time. Since that's not good enough, I gave up completely on Linux and went back to Windows.

XP connects to the net thru a USB cable modem. The network card is not currently plugged in, so it doesn't display in Control Panel.

I will plug in the card and try your advice. Then maybe I will be able to go back to Linux.