I have just installed RedHat 9 on a new Panasonic Toughbook CF-48. The install goes just dandy, but on boot I get "Error, some other host already uses address." Naturally, I thought someone else was using the IP, but I checked the IP on a Win2k desktop on the next desk over, and it seems to be free. I unplugged the network cable and got the same error on boot. To confirm that this is software and not hardware related, I booted Knoppix from CD and tested that IP and configuration on both the laptop and the desktop. Both worked just fine.

So, we have some sort of configuration error in redhat that is not letting me add this IP successfully.

When I

ifconfig eth0 147.131.8.86

I get

147.131.8.86: Unknown Host

ifconfig eth0 gets me the same as eth0 under the successfully-running knoppix CD minus inet addr: 147.131.8.86 and Bcast: 147.131.8.255

I'm running on a large, poorly-administered, firewalled corporate campus network, so I can't count on much help from the folks running it.

The same problem occurs whether I'm plugged into the network or not.

Do you have 2 nics or any aliases? What does this show:
ls -l /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg*

Well, it turns out that on that first RedHat install, it wasn't doing the broadcast address correctly. I was able to get ETH0 up and running just fine when I did ifconfig eth0 .... netmask .... broadcast .... up and then route add -net .... default gw dev eth0.

Then I reinstalled RedHat for the third time and, lo and behold, it worked just fine this time. I think I might have just put in some incorrect network information the first time I installed. It's working now. Thanks.