I'm trying to assign a static IP to my ubuntu box (8.10). Here are the steps to this point:

cat etc/network/interfaces

#the loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
#the primary network interface
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.1.102
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.1.1

root@chach:/etc# /etc/init.d/networking restart
* Reconfiguring network interfaces...
* Stopping the Firestarter firewall...
...done.
* Starting the Firestarter firewall...
...done.
RTNETLINK answers: No such process
SIOCDELRT: No such process

I'm not sure what these errors are or how to get around them. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

TIA!

you have a line missing;

#the loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
#the primary network interface
->auto eth0; missing line
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.1.102
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.1.1

Restart networking; if still fails then do ifconfig -a and see if udev is seeing this card and allocating a different eth number to it; you can then replace the number (0) with the number assigned by udev.

Worked like a charm! Many thanks......