Wierdest thing...
I just discovered that network-manager was working (I thought it wasn't).
So I removed it from startup rc.d stuff and rebooted. Suddenly my email started working.
But wierder still is that resolv.conf was empty. I only had the stuff in /etc/network/interfaces set up.
So I "sudo service networking restart" and "sudo ifup -a" and resolv.conf was then populated.
Everything now works (in dumb mode) but I don't really understand what I've done.
I assume update remove of network-manager stopped overwriting something. But why did it work (email) with resolv.conf EMPTY when it wouldn't work with it populated.
And oh-by-the-way who is complaining about "Bad server label" (and samba problems) in the following:
Code:
sudo service networking restart
Running /etc/init.d/networking restart is deprecated because it may not enable again some interfaces ... (warning).
Reconfiguring network interfaces...Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client 4.1.1-P1
Copyright 2004-2010 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit https://www.isc.org/software/dhcp/
Listening on LPF/eth0/48:5b:39:5f:06:45
Sending on LPF/eth0/48:5b:39:5f:06:45
Sending on Socket/fallback
DHCPRELEASE on eth0 to 192.168.1.1 port 67
Reloading /etc/samba/smb.conf: smbd only.
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client 4.1.1-P1
Copyright 2004-2010 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit https://www.isc.org/software/dhcp/
Listening on LPF/eth0/48:5b:39:5f:06:45
Sending on LPF/eth0/48:5b:39:5f:06:45
Sending on Socket/fallback
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 7
DHCPOFFER from 192.168.1.1
DHCPREQUEST on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
DHCPACK from 192.168.1.1
Reloading /etc/samba/smb.conf: smbd only.
Failed: Bad server label.
Opening socket /var/cache/pdnsd/pdnsd.status
bound to 192.168.1.22 -- renewal in 37496 seconds.
Failed: Bad server label.
Opening socket /var/cache/pdnsd/pdnsd.status
done.
1143->sudo service network-manager status
could not access PID file for NetworkManager ... failed!
Anyway, thanks everyone for the remedial ed.
And oh-by-the-way again: I recommend
http://wiki.debian.org/NetworkConfiguration
I had no idea that network-manager fights with resolvconf fights with human settings!