No network with new HP desktop--incompatible network hardware?

Daravon · 12-30-2008, 07:00 PM

I'm here for vacation and my parents wanted me to install Ubuntu on their new desktop that they bought at Sam's club. It's a HP pavillion a6637c from what I can tell. I tried Hardy Heron.

The alternate CD installer said that the network could not be auto-configured so I skipped it during the install. It still doesn't work even though the network works in windows and on another computer running ubuntu. It has a wired network and driver listed in nm-applet but it never recieves an IP or subnet and all is blank. Must be an obscure network adaptor? Can I possibly get a driver or something? Try Intrepid?

lspci shows

Quote:

Realtek Semiconductor Co, Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 02)

This doesn't sound like a weird chipset to me???

I have to leave tomorrow so I would really like to get this sorted before I leave, otherwise I will have epicly phailed.

EDIT: The network is working now after I booted it back up to run lspci.

rcbpage · 12-30-2008, 08:47 PM

Daravon;

Some home dsl / cable modems don't properly
negotiate the dhcp protocol to *nix pc's
my router is one of those, it works great
with windoz though so i suspect the mfr'r
optimized the router's dhcp to work with
MS' idea of DHCP protocol.

I ended up setting the IP and gateway
netmask & nameservers manually and getting
rid of Network manager altogether.
the network manager kept erasing my
manual setup on every reboot {(.

Hope this helps

rcb

Daravon · 12-31-2008, 09:07 AM

The network is still not working properly, but whenever I go to windows to check if the network itself is up, it works. Then when I go back to Ubuntu it works. This has happened twice now.

They have a DSL modem behind a linksys wrt wireless router. Could you possibly help me set up the static network information that makes it work? I suppose I would have to do that in windows too. I can do that if it makes it work. They turn their computer off a lot unfortunately.

Actually, the thing that serves the DHCP addresses is the linksys router, right? So would flashing 3rd party firmware fix it maybe? That would be easy.

strick1226 · 12-31-2008, 12:15 PM

Daravon,

There may very well be an firmware update available for their Linksys router--that's something worth trying.

The only other thing that comes to mind is the possibility that the router is configured as a bridge, and the DSL's PPPoE configuration is being handled by the Vista OS. Unlike cable modems, most of the DSL services I've used have required a PPPoE username/password combo in order to acquire an IP address and have a working connection.

If that's the case, it would make sense you have no internet access when booting to Hardy Heron. However, if the PPPoE settings are in the DSL modem itself, or on the Linksys router, I'm not sure why things would fail to work when simply booting to Hardy Heron...

Are you able to view the settings of the Linksys router to see if the PPPoE details are being handled by the router itself?

Daravon · 12-31-2008, 12:27 PM

Once again, I just switched from windows to ubuntu and it's working. So maybe some settings are saved long enough to switch operating systems. I don't know how Vista could know the username and password for the DSL modem since it is brand new, and I never entered them.

Yes I'm able to get into the router's web-based firmware screen, but I'm not sure how to verify how PPPoE is set up. Under 'basic setup' in the linksys firmware page, the drop-down menu says it is set to DHCP even though there is a PPPoE option. I would try to get into the DSL modem's screen, but there is no IP address written on it.

strick1226 · 12-31-2008, 12:53 PM

From your description, it appears as the PPPoE settings are in the DSL modem itself--if the ISP even requires PPPoE for their DSL customers (some may not, but most do, in my experience). That's good, as it helps eliminate the need to configure it at the Operating System level.

I'm not sure why networking in Hardy wasn't functional until just now--that's odd.

In theory, that Linksys router should not treat your linux/Hardy installation any differently than a Vista or XP one; both should receive an IP from its DHCP server.

There always can be an issue when changing a directly-connected machine to a DSL or cable modem, as the ISP often registers the IP to a specific MAC address... but, as the Linksys router hasn't changed during the entire time, that should not have posed a problem, either.

I'd still recommend updating the firmware on the Linksys router if one is available, though.

I hope your parents enjoy linux!!

Daravon · 12-31-2008, 03:35 PM

I updated to the newest linksys firmware. I may try to dist-upgrade to intrepid since I guess the newest kernal may have fixed something. I'm not sure if the problem has gone away or not.

tredegar · 01-01-2009, 04:25 AM

The network is still not working properly, but whenever I go to windows to check if the network itself is up, it works. Then when I go back to Ubuntu it works. This has happened twice now.

Windows can do weird things to some chipsets
See this thread: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...roblem-591466/

The solution:

Quote:

Boot on windows.
Go to the device manager and get into "properties" for your network card.
In the "Advanced Options" tab select:

Wake-on-lan after shutdown | enable

Reboot into linux. Your network card should be working.

jschiwal · 01-01-2009, 05:28 AM

The DSL setup is on the WAN side of your Linksys router. Configure the PPOE settings in the router. Don't configure DSL in Ubuntu. On the LAN side, the router is simply a switch and DHCP server.

Try to determine why the network isn't working. Read through the boot logs.
Check with /sbin/ifconfig and see if your device has an IP address. Check /etc/resolv.conf. Does it contain your ISP's nameserver addresses? Check "/sbin/route". Is the gateway address the address of your router?