I was wondering if you gents could help me with an issue:
Currently, my only way to connect to the internet is through networkmanager, which I'd rather not use. Trying rp-pppoe/pppoe-start, the program will say that it has connected, but I am unable to resolve any websites, and ping returns nothing. It's not a DNS problem, as I've set everything to use DHCP (provided from my ISP), and /etc/resolv.conf is updated with the correct DNS IPs. I do not use a router or modem - my dorm setup is to simply plug an ethernet cable into a wall socket. Furthermore, my ISP needs authentication with a username and password. After viewing the output of ps, I've noticed that networkmanager calls /usr/sbin/pppd with a ton of arguments:

/usr/sbin/pppd nodetach lock plugin rp-pppoe.so nic-eth0 user XXXXX@XXXX.net.nz noauth nodeflate usepeerdns mru 1492 mtu 1492 lcp-echo-failure 3 lcp-echo-interval 20 plugin /usr/lib/pppd/2.4.4/nm-pppd-plugin.so

but simply pasting this into the command line does not let me connect, either. So, really, I'm stuck. Can anybody help? BTW: I'm running BLAG 90001 on an amd64 box, if that's helpful.

Does your routing table contain a default route? According to the ppp documentation, the 'defaultroute' option is needed to set up a default route. Without it, the system won't know where to send packets.

I'm not sure if it does or not. How can I check?

Just type

/sbin/route

at the command line. If you see a line like:

default 192.168.0.1 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0


then you have a default route. If not, you don't. :-)

Of course, this only works if you check it after ppp connects... Otherwise, your table will have whatever the system set it up with.

Oh, if your system already has a default route, I think PPP may refuse to create another one. (I'm not sure because it's been a while since I've done PPP setup). In that case, you'd have to delete the existing default route before starting ppp.

On my machine, executing (as root):

/sbin/route del default

deletes the default route (and also preventing most further network communication until you get a new default route set).


Adding a default route is similar:


/sbin/route add default gw 192.168.0.1

where 192.168.0.1 is whatever the IP address of your gateway is (that's the meaning of the 'gw' above).

The output of route is:
Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
116.108.124.202 * 255.255.255.255 UH 0 0 0 ppp0
default * 0.0.0.0 U 0 0 0 ppp0


So I guess I don't have a default route...
Any ideas?

/sbin/route add default gw Your_gateway_IP

netstat -r | grep def


btw, judging by your IP 116.108.124.202, I'd say that if you don't know you gateway address. So you'll need to call apnic.net to get it.

Hmm. There *is* a line "default" -- the last one in the list. But notice it doesn't have a gateway associated with it. Somehow your box has a (useless) default route -- one that says "send all the packets to this gateway" but it doesn't tell where the gateway is!

Normally, (I would think) the PPP connection process would transmit the default route information to your end, but I suspect that the pppd program sees the default entry and refuses to add a new one.

Before connecting, try doing this:

/sbin/route del default

If you do

/sbin/route -n

you should find the 'default' line is gone. Then a connection with pppd [with the defaultroute option specified] will (hopefully) set things right.


Oh, I just noticed something:

116.108.124.202 * 255.255.255.255 UH 0 0 0 ppp0

I suspect that 116.108.124.202 *is* your gateway. If so, then you can add a route to it:

/sbin/route add default gw 116.108.124.202

Perhaps that will work :-)