I have Red Hat 9 running on an old Gateway PIII. I have tried using netconfig to set the IP address on the eth0 interface. The setting takes effect immediately, but if I reboot the box, or restart the networking services, the interface loses the IP address.

I have checked the /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 file, and it has the appropriate settings:

DEVICE=eth0
ONBOOT=yes
BOOTPROTO=static
IPADDR=192.168.x.x
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
GATEWAY=192.168.x.x

I have also tried using the redhat-config-network-tui command to set the static IP address, but no luck.

I have read various posts about checking different files, but I need one solid answer.

Any help would be much appreciated, as I am a Linux newbie.

TIA,
Freevian

Have you tried setting it up using ifconfig?

Sure have. That's the only way that I can get network connectivity. However, upon reboot, the IP address gets lost.

I can manually add ifconfig commands to the startup script, but that seems like a total hack to me.

I seem to remember having a similar problem with redhat 7.something and if I did ifconfig -add eth0 ...., then ran redhat-config-network it for some reason decided to keep the settings. Sorry, I don't have a RH9 box to test with.

you can run "vi /etc/modules",see if your module can be automatically load when you reboot machine.example as alias eth0 ****

Per aeolus's suggestion, I checked the /etc/modules.conf file. Here are the results:

alias eth0 tulip
alias sound-slot-0 es1371
post-install sound-slot-0 /bin/aumix-minimal -f /etc/.aumixrc -L >/dev/null 2>&1 || :
pre-remove sound-slot-0 /bin/aumix-minimal -f /etc/.aumixrc -S >/dev/null 2>&1 || :
alias usb-controller usb-uhci

So, it appears to me that the device loads.

I did notice that there was another /etc/modules.conf file, but the second one has a tilda (~) at the end of the file extension. Normal?

I am also going to try TheOther1's advice regarding the -add switch to see if that has any effect.

The ~ is a temp file. Probably from one of your edits or you may have the file still open.

I ever encountered the phenomenon,but because I have two net cards so I modify modules.conf.My modules.conf and modules.conf~ is described as follow:
modules.conf:
alias eth0 8139too
alias eth1 tulip
alias sound-slot-0 es1371
post-install sound-slot-0 /bin/aumix-minimal -f /etc/.aumixrc -L >/dev/null 2>&1 || :
pre-remove sound-slot-0 /bin/aumix-minimal -f /etc/.aumixrc -S >/dev/null 2>&1 || :
alias usb-controller usb-uhci

modules.conf~:
alias eth0 tulip
alias eth1 8139too
alias sound-slot-0 es1371
post-install sound-slot-0 /bin/aumix-minimal -f /etc/.aumixrc -L >/dev/null 2>&1 || :
pre-remove sound-slot-0 /bin/aumix-minimal -f /etc/.aumixrc -S >/dev/null 2>&1 || :
alias usb-controller usb-uhci

you can see if your tulip.o exist /lib/modules/2.4.20-8/kernel/driver/net/tulip/

tulip.o exists...what next?

Check your /etc/init.d dir ,see if there is "network" script file.Because this script file can start up network service during system booting.If your loss IP when the box is booting,run "ntsysv",then select network, at last reboot machine and try again.

there is a network script file in that directory. i also checked the system configuration and in run level 0, the network is selected to start.

still puzzled...

Runlevel 0 is halt (shutdown). Usually, all services should be set to Off.
I don't think this is the source of the problem, but let's take it out of the equation. Set it to off.

At the command line, login as root (su -) and type:

Your system configuration is in run level 0.why?You can check /etc/inittab file,you are you sure that your run level is 0?

sorry...blame the newbie...when i was reading through the man pages for chkconfig i noticed that you could check the services at different run levels...so, i thought i was going to start checking services at level 0, 1, etc...

my system is not currently at 0...and networking is on...i am checking this all remotely ssh'd into the box, so networking is definitely on and working.

didn't mean to throw us back a few steps.

I am using Red Hat 8 and could fix this issue enabling the option "Connect Automatically" in Network Settings / Wired setting.