When starting Mandrake 10 I get a message stating that the system failed to initialize Eth0. My network was configured as static ip (on MCC) and is working perfectly. However, when i try to configure as dhcp (dynamic) I am unable to connect to the internet.
What is wrong?

did you upgrade from 9.2 ?

I cant say much, since you didn't provide much information about your NIC [network card] and your cable modem...

From your Windows XP box, you must make sure it is connect to the internet and also provides a ip address for it self. IP LAN and IP WAN. Also, you must configure Win XP to use "Internet Connection Sharing" where it uses DHCP to share an internet connection with other computers.

To find out you ip information, type this command from the run option off Windows XP:

cmd
ipconfig /all

This should list some information about IP configuration, Ethernet adapter connection, and your internet connectio.

From your Mandrake box (I have version 9.1), you must learn how to read your /var/log/messages file and run a command called dhclient.

I use this command as root to read the messages file:

tail -f /var/log/messages

You should see some messages that have DHCPREQUEST, DHCPACK, DHCPDISCOVER, and DHCPOFFERS

Type "whereis dhclient" to find where this file is located.

Let me know what you find out. Also, a little information about trying to find out information goes a long way...

For some strange reason, I get the same error message to boot time. Nevertheless, the connection works and shows up good in the control center. I did upgrade from 9.1, so that may explain it. I just ignore it and move on.

I use a static address for my network. If dhcp does not work, check to see that there is a dhcp server available for your box to get an address. If I throw machine together and use dhcp with 10.0, it gets an address without a problem. I have a dhcp server running at the router, so I know the function is there.

Hope this helps.