I’m a total newbie to Linux and UNIX, trying to get Ubuntu running on an old HP eVectra before I consider switching over my main PC. The install seemed to go fine, but I haven’t been able to get a network connection. I have a wireless network running on a D-Link G624T router, but since the eVectra can’t take a wireless card I am trying to network it through a D-Link DWL-2100 access point configured as an AP client. The AP seems to be running fine: when I connect it to my Windows PC it pulls an IP from the wireless router and connects to the Internet and to my other networked computers. But when I plug the Ethernet cable into my Ubuntu box instead, I can’t connect to the Internet or even ping the router. I have tried with three different Ubuntu distros and had the same experience each time. I'm not sure whether the problem stems from the use of the AP client or something else. Help! … where do I begin?

Just for grins, have you tried power-cycling your router? I love my wireless bridge for installations, but they can confuse the routers when you move them between machines.

I tried power cycling: no change.

Some additional information:

(Terminal)

ping 192.168.1.1
connect: Network is unreachable

ifconfig:
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
inet6 addr: fe80::201:2ff:fe0a:7865/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:718 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:30 frame:0
TX packets:19 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:68344 (66.7 KiB) TX bytes:4914 (4.7 KiB)
Interrupt:3 Base address:0xf80

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:194 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:194 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:14724 (14.3 KiB) TX bytes:14724 (14.3 KiB)

And you've had the DWL-2100 plugged into your ubuntu box when you turned it on, right? Well, try this as root:
If that gives an error then try it this way:
If ubuntu has a file called /etc/network/interfaces, could you post its contents?

I hope I understood correctly -- I really am a newbie. I just barely know (I think) what "try as root" and "DHCP" mean.

I have found an online introduction to Linux by Machtelt Garrels and am going to try to plow through it. Do you know it? Is that a good choice?


sudo dhclient eth0
Password:
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.0.4
Copyright 2004-2006 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/sw/dhcp/

Listening on LPF/eth0/00:01:02:0a:78:65
Sending on LPF/eth0/00:01:02:0a:78:65
Sending on Socket/fallback
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 6
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 14
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 8
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 13
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 19
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 1
No DHCPOFFERS received.
No working leases in persistent database – sleeping.

* * * * *

sudo dhcpcd eth0
sudo: dhcpcd: command not found

* * * * *

Contents of /etc/network/interfaces:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

auto eth1
iface eth1 inet dhcp

auto eth2
iface eth2 inet dhcp

auto ath0
iface ath0 inet dhcp

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp

Geoff,
Sorry to take so long to respond. I think the problem might be the way you have your interfaces file setup. It simply makes no sense to have dhcp try to work against all those interfaces. Comment all of them out with a hash "#" except for eth0 and then reboot. Let me know if that changes things. Also, run " sudo /sbin/route" and show me the response if it still doesn't work.

I have to tell you that this part of your post makes me think that DHCP isn't enabled on your router.

I tried commenting out all but the first two entries (auto lo and auto eth0) in /etc/network/interfaces; it didn't seem to have any effect, still "network unreachable". When I entered /sbin/route in Terminal, I got:

Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface

I don't think the problem is with DHCP on the router; it's assigning IPs to my Windows machines. Let me explain the setup: I have a Windows PC and the eVectra running Ubuntu sitting side by side, and a single ethernet cable coming from the wireless AP client. If I plug the ethernet cable into the Windows PC, it pulls an IP address from the router and everything works fine. If plug it into the Linux box instead, nothing.

I am wondering whether the eVectra might have a hardware problem. To check, I'll be getting hold of an extra copy of Windows in a few days which I'll install on the eVectra to see if it can network under Windows. But I don't think it's a hardware problem; when I first started playing with Ubuntu several months ago (with a different router, which has since died), the eVectra connected fine. I can't think of anything I'm doing different this time, except for putting the AP client into the loop: before I had the eVectra connected directly to the router by Internet.

I'll let you know the results of trying to connect under Windows.

I have the same sort of trouble you describe when I move my wireless bridge from one machine to the other. In my case, the problem is that the router has become "confused" by the fact that the MAC is moving from one machine to another. I'd still say to reboot the router after putting it on the Linux box and then reboot Linux to see if things improve.

I rebooted the router with the ethernet plugged into the eVectra, and that was it, all right: now I can ping the router and the Windows computers on my home network. (Indeed, when I turned my Windows machine back on -- and before I could disable the ethernet network connection and put it back on wireless -- I got a message from Network Magic that I had a conflict with two computers triying to be assigned the same address.)

I still couldn’t connect to the Internet, but then I remembered seeing some advice on another post that suggested removing my router from the list of DNS servers in Network Settings and substituting the nameservers of my Internet service provider. I tried that, and now everything seems to work: I can connect to the Internet and get Ubuntu updates.

So I think that takes care of me. I can't thank you enough for your help.