I run "Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS _Trusty Tahr_ - Release i386 (20140722.2)", on which I do not have root privileges.
How can I connect a laptop via Ethernet to get on the Internet with?

laptop-3@laptop3-Latitude-E5500:~$ ifconfig -a | grep 'eth'
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:25:64:66:d0:dd
laptop-3@laptop3-Latitude-E5500:~$ ifconfig eth0 up
SIOCSIFFLAGS: Operation not permitted
laptop-3@laptop3-Latitude-E5500:~$

Thank you, Hearthstone.

Hi there,

As far as I know, there is no way to configure the network settings without root access.

A few questions:

- Is there an IP address assigned to this interface?
- Do you know whether it is using DHCP or not?
- How are you planning through the internet - through a router that you control?

If there is a static IP or a DHCP client on the laptop, and you have control of the router/gateway, you might be able to get online with the appropriate settings on that device, without changing anything on the laptop.

Ubuntu does not have a root password by default. Do you know if one was created?
Did you or someone else install Ubuntu on the laptop?
The first created user by default has sudo rights. This is the password you need to use.

I would expect the interface to be automatically configured for DHCP so unless it was changed it should just work when you plug in the cable. If you examine the entire output of the ifconfig command it is the second line that contains the IP address and if working should look something below. The actual values will be different.

How exactly are you trying to connect to the internet: through another computer, through a wired connection to a router, through a wireless connection to a wireless router or hotspot?

These articles from Ubuntu might help:

https://help.ubuntu.com/16.04/ubuntu...d-connect.html

https://help.ubuntu.com/16.04/ubuntu...s-connect.html

I get the Internet per WiFi on my Ubuntu machine. I have sudo access. I need to get Ethernet in order to install Debian stable on my notebook, because per WiFi there are issues of missing driver while installing Debian OS. I was thinking that there might be some way of getting Ethernet from my Ubuntu machine.

ifconfig:
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
Interrupt:16

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:65536 Metric:1
RX packets:20349 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:20349 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:5610254 (5.6 MB) TX bytes:5610254 (5.6 MB)

wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 0c:ee:e6:95:0e:9c
inet addr:192.168.88.83 Bcast:192.168.88.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::eee:e6ff:fe95:e9c/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:111667 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:47875
TX packets:97653 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:139298478 (139.2 MB) TX bytes:9890289 (9.8 MB)
Interrupt:17 Base address:0xc000

Thanks, Hearthstone.

What happens when you plug the ethernet cable into your computer? I would expect it to automatically switch from wireless to wired.

If you have a standard router, it should have ethernet ports on it. I'll echo michaelk's suggestion. The best course of action would be to hook up the laptop to a wired connection at least until you get everything working.

That would be much easier than configuring your Debian machine to serve as a router, which for all practical purposes is what "internet connection sharing" is.