How to set up Linux with a cable connection?
 

How do I set up Linux to use my cable connection? When it booted up, it found the network card, and it supposedly set it up, but I am still not connected. What should I do?

The easiest way for someone new with Linux is to use Linuxconf. There you will find the settings configuration to put in your DNS, IP and other info for your connection. Don't know your info, call your ISP or if you have Windows you can get the info there, from winipcfg, ipconfig or whatever.....

How about whyn the cable modem ISP is setup for DHCP, as many are now ?

If your cable modem ISP is setting you up with a DHCP address, all you have to do is su - root and run "setup" in the menu option "network" tell it to use DHCP, then run /etc/rc.d/init.d/network restart. You should be able to get out now.

Here is some more info.
My cable provider (cox @home) uses DHCP. When I run netconfig, I set it to DHCP and click OK to go to the next screen, but it pops up a message and quickly goes back to the first screen. The message reads "Sending ??????? for IP information...". I don't know what the second word is, but I know is 7 characters long. Just about anything I do in Linuxconf pops up "Invalid line 1 in /etc/resolv.conf". resolv.conf contains one line and one word: "search". What should my resolv.conf look like?

the resolv.conf file is where your DNS server listings are.
Try putting in your actual ISP's DNS server names here like in this format:

I don't know what my ISP's DNS server names are. In Windows DNS is disabled, and I don't have any problem with Windows connecting.

try configuring in netconfig then instead of linuxconf.
sorry, its netcfg and you need to be root.

Also, you should be able to get all of your resolve info from your network configuration properties in windows when connected to your ISP from your windows box. You will also need a "search" entry with a domain defined in /etc/resolv.conf. I'm using the search domain as is on my linux box because I use AT&T @home and I assume your using @home also. You'd think it would be just "home.com" or some such, but it is actually "yourlocale.state.home.com", mine is in Olympia, Washington (olmpi1.wa.home.com, that's just my domain. You'll need to know this for DNS resolution)

/etc/resolv.conf should look something like this:

search youlocale.state.home.com
nameserver 111.222.333.444
nameserver 555.666.777.888

You can add this manually from the command line as well as using "netcfg", but you have to be root to do either.

In a windoz box you can run the command "winipcfg" select the ethernet adapter from the dropdown menu and it will give you all the info that your looking for.

Here is output from netcfg 2> netcfg.txt:

Traceback (innermost last):
File "/usr/lib/rhs/netcfg/netcfg.py", line 24, in ?
from rhtkinter import *
File "/usr/lib/rhs/python/rhtkinter.py", line 52, in ?
e = Entry()
File "/usr/lib/python1.5/lib-tk/Tkinter.py", line 1354, in __init__
Widget.__init__(self, master, 'entry', cnf, kw)
File "/usr/lib/python1.5/lib-tk/Tkinter.py", line 1078, in __init__
BaseWidget._setup(self, master, cnf)
File "/usr/lib/python1.5/lib-tk/Tkinter.py", line 1055, in _setup
_default_root = Tk()
File "/usr/lib/python1.5/lib-tk/Tkinter.py", line 886, in __init__
self.tk = _tkinter.create(screenName, baseName, className)
TclError: no display name and no $DISPLAY environment variable

The $DISPLAY environment variable doesn't exist, what should it look like?

Also, when I shut down I get:

shutting down interface eth0 down: error fetching interface information: device not found

In my Windows box, everything is either set to 'auto' or 'disabled'. When I go to Network properties and get properties on TCP/IP -> D-Link ...... , DNS is disabled, Gateway is left blank, WINS config is disabled, and IP address is obtained automatically.

if your using DHCP yes, it will show up with nothing cause Windows automatically gets that info once on the net, if you have 95/98 type winipcfg in the start/run box.... that should get the info when your on the net in windows, dns, gateway...etc...
if your using NT, type in the DOS prompt ipconfig /all and then you should get the info from there.

Ok, I've printed all of the info that I can get from 'WinIPcfg', and now I'm running around in 'linuxconf' plugging numbers. The only problem is it keeps wanting numbers that I don't have, and I have too many numbers that it don't want.

What do I put down for host name, primary name + domain, net device, and kernel module?

1. To get your hostname, in a terminal window, type "hostname". You'll get back something like "localhost.localdomain". Enter this for both the hostname and the primary name + domain.

2. If you only have one net card, the net device will be eth0.

3. For the kernel module, you need to choose the module (driver) used by your net card from the drop-down list. If the correct module doesn't appear in the list, that means your kernel doesn't natively support it. If that's the case, you'll have to obtain and install it as an external module.

If you need to find out which module your NIC uses, go to http://www.scyld.com/network/index.html#pci (the modules and installation instructions are there also), or post the model of your card.

I didn't see my card on that page. Mine is a D-Link DFE-550TX; the closest thin was a D-Link DFE-530TX.

You won't see the actual names of cards listed under the kernel module drop-down list, only the names of the modules they use. I believe your card should be using the "Sundance" driver. If you don't see it in the list, your kernel doesn't, as I said, have native support for it.
Which Linux distro (and version) are you using? That could help us sort out whether or not your card is supported. For more info, do a search on Googlefor the keyphrase

I'm using Red Hat 6.1, but I've been thinking about upgrading to 7.1 soon. I thought it would just be a configuration problem though. If my kernel doesn't support it, I'll just wait.