Mandrake 9.1 -- No Internet -- Many possibilities
 

Hi, I am once again trying to walk away from Windows. This time I've installed mandrake 9.1 with a different machine running XP so I can run for help. My problem, same as last time, is the install goes fine, but there is no connection to the internet. I've tried the default and many configurations of expert mode (never touched proxies as my ISP does not use them).
To be sure it was not the cables, I switched and Windows still ran but nothing from Mandrake. I saw there were no lights on the back of the NIC, got a spare and same result. I am using a Linksys BEFSR41 and later realized I've never had two connections (never before tried), so the problem could be in a few areas. Not a betting man, I'd still put money on I've configured Mandrake wrong. I have yet to find a tutorial for command line that I can understand (just recently figured out what LILO and Grub mean).
It seems everything is good, but at first when I tried to open a page, the gray box sits at zero %. Now, I get the message 'unknown host'.
The NIC cards are D Link 530 TX and INTEL Dual Port 1000/MT Pro. MoBo is ASUS P4PE. Connection is cable with modem. Hopefully all relevant info is there.
Thx for any help

Try to open a terminal, switch to root (type su) and type ifconfig. Now, if you have set it correctly up, it should look like:
If it doesn't work, only the half of it ([i]lo[i]) is visible. Try to write
and if no errors where given, .
The internet should then work.

The result I have is fairly similar to what you've shown me. The second line in yours, for the IP and mask, is not in mine at all. The next line (for you 3 for me 2), is
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
All following packets are zero. Interrupt:11

The second part (for lo) is almost identical. For packets you have 518, and I have 156. My RX-TX bytes is 11678 (11.4) .

Who woulda thought? IF instead of IP for command!

Are my results bad? or Good?

D'oh - started getting a bit excited there

I continued, and entered what you had suggested, with no errors. Opened a page but the same error of 'Unknown Host'. Went back and entered
dhcpcd
and this came back
bash: dhcpcd: command not found

not sure, but this might be a part of it. On desktop 2, there are two windows open and I cannot close them. I can move them around, but not make them go away.

uh-oh, getting 98 flashbacks

anyone got a suggestion?

Dhcpcd is a daemon that connects to a dhcp-server and assigns you an IP. Try to write
and see if the command exist (it should be in a bin or sbin directory.
If it isn't installed you must find a place you can download it.
Else you could try to manually assign your computer an IP. I am not by my linux box now, but I think it is something like
Try messing around with it.

BTW the windows that you can't close: Run xkill and click on the windows to kill them.

I'll give it a try. Have to callk it a day soon, but definately at it again tomorrow.
Thanks for giving me something to work from.
I had been 'a deer in the headlights' for a while.
I'll post here and let you know what happens tomorrow.

Got IT !!!
 

Meldar,
I hope you read this. Thought I'd let you know, this is sent from the Mandrake machine. Thanks so much for the help. Not sure what it was, I started over with a reformat and it opened no problem to the internet.
I am one happy camper now.

Two questions to anybody with advice.
1) How do I go about checking, and changing drivers (specifically for an nVidia GeForce 440 card)

2) A recommendation for tutorials. I'm hoping with studying and work to become a newbie.


Thanks again for the help. It's a whole new world now!


ps to Meldar - I was in Denmark 3 years ago, you live in a beautiful place

1a) Drivers can be a bit tricky to understand. Some can be built into the kernel, most are loaded as "loadable kernel modules". People just call them modules. To see a list of currently loaded modules, type "lsmod" from the console as root. Also, if you run HardDrake from the Mandrake Control Center or the 'start' menu, and select a device, it'll tell you quite a bit of technical stuff. The driver is (usually) listed under "Module:".

1b) NVidia and ATI both release linux drivers for their products. These aren't included with most distributions because they're not open-source, but they're still the best thing available. You can download NVidia's drivers from their website; they've even got a walkthrough on how to install them. Plenty of other people also have walkthroughs on how to install the NVidia drivers, too.

2) You might already have some installed on your system. Check out
file:/usr/share/doc/HOWTO/HTML/en/index.html
If it's not there, search for 'howto' in the Install Software tool. (Those howto's come from http://www.tldp.org )
Also, I liked these tutorials:
http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/tutorials/
And don't forget :)
http://www.google.com/linux

Doesn'tg look like any VGA drivers (23 in total, 8 in use), will have a look at nVidia site
the path, with HOWTO/HTML in it, says it cannot be found, so I had a quick look at planetlinux, that should keep me busy for a bit!
I'd forgotten about google/linux
Willing to bet I can find some good info in there too!

thanks again guys
gots me sum lernin' ta do

Glad it worked :)

Here are some links that I found useful:

A "roadmap":
http://www-106.ibm.com/developerwork...l-roadmap.html

Use linux to what you previously used windows to:
http://linuxshop.ru/linuxbegin/win-l...en/table.shtml

When you have throuble, click here ;)
www.linuxquestions.org

Yet another place of toturials:
http://www.linuxlinks.com/Beginners/

Happy reading...

/meldar

I've had a look at those sites, each one looks worth the read.
I have been told that there's a lot of reading to be done, and sometimes the learning curve will be frustrating. The end result however is well worth the work put into it.
Getting the connection was a big milestone for me.
I will be back on this site, but hopefully the next time will be to pass off the username 'bran noob'.

See Ya, and Thanks!!