I concur with this puzzlement. The IP address of eth0 is "72.24.169.187", which is NOT in the range of IP addresses which your router would assign. It is as if you had connected it directly to the cable modem, but then later connected it to the router. And maybe the router is bad, or the router is configured in a weird way. Or things are really weird because you have set up all sorts of stuff that's confusing the issue, such as dnsmasq.

Whatever the causes, it is likely that the cable modem needs to be reset (unplugged and plugged back in). At least with my cable modem, changing what router or computer is attached to it requires a power cycle for it to work. Otherwise, the new device waits forever on DHCP and there's no internet connectivity.

Could you post the contents of the following files?

/etc/resolv.conf
/etc/network/interfaces

Thanks!

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I had made a half-a$$ed attempt to use a static IP address. I have fixed that this morning, now, so I will give you ALL THAT crap soon, once I download 2 ISOs

OK, here is the listings you asked for after I had put my /etc/network/interfaces correctly.

Here it is !!!

###############################################################

Script started on Tue 13 Sep 2016 10:27:53 AM CDT
root@kevhome:~# lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] RD890 PCI to PCI bridge (external gfx0 port B) (rev 02)
00:02.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] RD890 PCI to PCI bridge (PCI express gpp port B)
00:04.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] RD890 PCI to PCI bridge (PCI express gpp port D)
00:09.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] RD890 PCI to PCI bridge (PCI express gpp port H)
00:11.0 SATA controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 40)
00:12.0 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller
00:12.2 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller
00:13.0 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller
00:13.2 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller
00:14.0 SMBus: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SBx00 SMBus Controller (rev 42)
00:14.1 IDE interface: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 IDE Controller (rev 40)
00:14.2 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) (rev 40)
00:14.3 ISA bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 LPC host controller (rev 40)
00:14.4 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SBx00 PCI to PCI Bridge (rev 40)
00:14.5 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI2 Controller
00:16.0 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller
00:16.2 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 15h Processor Function 0
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 15h Processor Function 1
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 15h Processor Function 2
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 15h Processor Function 3
00:18.4 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 15h Processor Function 4
00:18.5 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 15h Processor Function 5
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GK107 [GeForce GTX 650] (rev a1)
01:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation GK107 HDMI Audio Controller (rev a1)
02:00.0 USB controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. Device 3483 (rev 01)
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 0c)
root@kevhome:~#
root@kevhome:~#
root@kevhome:~#
root@kevhome:~# lsusb
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 009 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 008 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 093a:2510 Pixart Imaging, Inc. Optical Mouse
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 2109:3431
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
root@kevhome:~#
root@kevhome:~#
root@kevhome:~#
root@kevhome:~# ip link list
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default
link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
link/ether 40:8d:5c:8d:fc:75 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
root@kevhome:~#
root@kevhome:~#
root@kevhome:~#
root@kevhome:~# ip addr list
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default
link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
inet6 ::1/128 scope host
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP group default qlen 1000
link/ether 40:8d:5c:8d:fc:75 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
inet6 fe80::428d:5cff:fe8d:fc75/64 scope link
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
root@kevhome:~#
root@kevhome:~#
root@kevhome:~#
root@kevhome:~# cat /etc/resolv.conf
# Dynamic resolv.conf(5) file for glibc resolver(3) generated by resolvconf(8)
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE BY HAND -- YOUR CHANGES WILL BE OVERWRITTEN
root@kevhome:~#
root@kevhome:~#
root@kevhome:~#
root@kevhome:~# cat /etc/network/interfaces
# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

source /etc/network/interfaces.d/*

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

root@kevhome:~# exit

Script done on Tue 13 Sep 2016 10:29:20 AM CDT

###############################################################

Hope the "improved" printout helps.... till then, I am going to install Slackware and Archlinux....

The contents of /etc/network/interfaces look good, assuming of course you wish to use DHCP. However, eth0 has not received any IP address, which probably means the router is bad or that you simply have not tried to bring up eth0. Also, resolv.conf is empty, so that means you have not received any DNS server info from your router (typically the router's internal IP address would be here).

I think the router is bad, or not configured correctly.

Nope, the router and the modem are OK. I have installed a small (spit) Fedora partition to allow me to look up things on the internet, and Fedora is connecting OK.

BUT...

I have decided that I do not like Fedora.

At all. But it does have connectivity. Probably somewhat related to the kernel in some manner. I need to look into systemd things for networking. I hope I do not vomit in my mouth while I do it.

How do you know how Fedora is set up and connecting? Have you looked at its /etc/resolv.conf, or what it reports from ip link list? Do you even know the local IP address of the router? It might be, for example, that the Fedora install has some stuff left over from before the router was messed up, or you started messing up the settings.

If it functions in Fedora, you should try and see what the settings are in Fedora and replicate them in Debian.

Fedora is slightly different from Debian, such that there are some bits from Fedora do translate directly to Debian. Different directory/file names and locations.

Currently, I think it might be SYSTEMDs fault, so I am looking at that currently. After that, if it fails, I will try to make a translation from Fedora to Debian.

OH, by the way, thank you, and everyone else who has responded to my initial post.

OK, working on SYSTEMD things, while I was looking through the system, I had noticed that my "/etc/resolv.conf" file had changed and it had my two default DNS IP addresses in it (it is generated by another process).

I did a ping and an internet connection. Previously the ping resulted in a "network disabled" but now it just sat there until it said something about a buffer being full. The web browser previously said "server not available" but now it just sat there until it timed out. I did a reboot, and everything is back to not working at all.

Also, my DNS servers are ONLY listed in "/var/lib/dhcp/dhcpclient.eth0.leases"

When I try to do most things to tell systemd to do something with network related (enable or start) it tells me:
"failed to get D-Bus connection: Unknown error" or "cannot stat /proc/sys/systemd-networkd/service"
BTW, I only get down to "/proc/sys" nothing related to systemd at all

Another thing: I use KSysGuard (system monitor) to check for internat connection, and I have noticed I DO receive approximately 3 KB/sec to 10 KB/sec consistently. Although that might be "baud barf", as we called it back in the day.

Nevertheless, I am still trying to fix this broken network problem.

I talked to the guy that had replaced my motherboard, which I got back Friday afternoon. He suggested I install the newest driver for the motherboard.

That might be a bad idea.

It is a Gigabyte motherboard with a Realtek ethernet connection. Now, Gigabyte does not support Linux, and I heard from someone else that Gigabyte's solution was to use Windows..... CRAP. I am not going to do that!

It is dangerous to plop in a patch for two reason. The pathch is in the form of an .EXE file, and if the patch doesn't work, I will have essentially killed my motherboard again, in less than a week.

I guess my next option is to still making the changes to systemd nonsense, then take a look at the Fedora installation and do a copy and replace from Fedora to Debian, and hope for the best.

I still think you're barking up the wrong tree, but I'm not the one sitting in front of the computer, so what can I do?

I don't think you should naively copy/replace things from Fedora to Debian. I think the solution is MUCH simpler. Just start with noting the basic settings from Fedora, like the router's IP address and the assigned DHCP address, gateway, etc.

AFAICT, you still don't even know the router's IP address.

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OK. Calming down a bit, now. You are probably correct. I will look at the data from network stuff from Fedora, write that all down, and look at it and maybe put those things in Debian.

PS: every thing I change, I add a "### changed by Kevin" tag so I can use find and remove these things back to normal.

Thank you, again, Isaac, for your advice.

Here is what didn't work...

I copied the Fedora install into the root directory, I took the entire ethernet module plugins into my debian's ethernet module, after making precautions that I had moved the original in my root directory. Did a reboot.... NOTHING!

Switched everything back.

(Yes, I did a comparative lsmod to make sure they were still there.)

QUESTION: How hard is it to use the Fedora kernel in my Debian system???

I think I will ask questions to Debian....

Yeah ...
Lets see what we know.
The hardware is OK, Fedora works in same box.

So you should check if driver is loaded in Debian, lspci -k will show that.
If there was anything wrong with it dmesg | grep -i eth will tell.
Does the device node exist? ifconfig -a or ip a will tell this.
Is the cable plugged in and the physical connection is made? ethtool eth0 tells you this.

From this point assign a valid IP address to your NIC by hand. Ping router, does it work?

I suspect it works. It is just whatever clever software you are using to bring up your connection is borked. We do not know what experiments you are doing there. Whatever you did, undo it.

Ugh, this is crazy. I just meant to modify some configuration files to copy simple settings from the Fedora install to the Debian install!

Instead, you are going crazy copying module files all around, regardless of whether or not they are compatible with each other. It is extremely likely that you have messed up your Debian system in some weird way. I would recommend a completely fresh install of Debian. You're making this WAY too complicated.

Your system does not have strange hardware. It should work out-of-box. You made a mistake early on, by messing up the initial install near the start. Don't bother with any firmware blob, which probably messed up things in the first place by you not knowing what you were doing. Everything since then seems to be a matter of you messing up a lot of files and settings that were unrelated to your problem, and making things much worse in impossible to anticipate ways.

Just do a fresh Debian 8 install. Don't do any sort of firmware blob. Just let the thing auto detect the wired network interface without anything extra. If your router is functioning properly, it will hand out a DHCP address. If Debian doesn't get a DHCP address, then that means your router is NOT functioning properly. Fix the router first in that case.

By booting into Fedora, you should be able to easily tell what the router's IP address and what the IP address of your computer is. As far as I can tell, you have not even attempted to do this. But those are precisely the things you need to manually set up the network on Debian if DHCP for some reason isn't working on your router. All you need is:

address (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx) - the computer's ip address
netmask (255.255.255.0) - most likely will be this
gateway (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx) - router's IP address

Get those three numbers from Fedora, and you're all set to manually set up a static IP address during the Debian install, if necessary.

That's all you need! Those three numbers! You don't need to copy huge files over, binary or text or otherwise. Just those three numbers!

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Emerson: I generally use google's DNS (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4) cause they are easy to remember. So, I can ping on Fedora, but not Debian... I get something like "network not available". I will do all the suggestions when I go back to Debian.

IsaacKuo: Oh... my router's address is 192.168.100.1. But I can only ping it on Fedora, not Debian. Actually, I get the same issue with other Debian based distros, as well as a live Gentoo disk.

And, it will take me until tomorrow to do a fresh re-install of Debian (I got three DVD's full of debian packages to go through).

Oh, yeah... I know these three IP addresses I have them written on one of eight pages I have been keeping notes on.

I recall doing static networking and for some reason, I started using DHCP... I guess I can make an attempt to have a static network.

Thank you, yet again, Isaac. I know that I have gone a bit overboard with what I am doing to my Debian system, but it has been six days that I have been trying to figure this out, and I am at my wit's end.