Can any one point me in the right direction?

Midnight Sun · 2008-12-16 02:04:01

Hi all. This is my first post, and my first Linux.

I'm not asking to be told the answer, but I do need to be pointed towards it.

I've installed Arch 2.6.25.6 from the bootable CD downloaded from this site.
I just followed the recommended install, and the Beginner's Installation Guide, as I intend to do some trial and ERROR before I start using the system with my data.
I have read the wiki and forum to try to solve my problem, and this has resulted in a couple of re-installs! (just felt I'd hacked things up so much I didn't know what was what, so I cleaned it with a reformat/install.)
I haven't installed anything beyond the base system on the CD. No window or desk top.

THE PROBLEM

I have a new Asus P5K motherboard and E6500 processor in a shiny new case. It has an onboard LAN which I have connected to a Netgear DG834G v2 router with a RJ45 cable.

If I ping google, as the guide suggests I get the folowing:

ping -c 3 www.google.com

ping: unknown host www.google.com

If I ping the inet addr:192.168.0.2 ,which I think is the ethernet device on the motherboard I get a responce.

If I ping 192.168.0.1 ,which I think is the netgear router, I also get a responce.

But if I ping the address of google (???.???.???.??? can't remember what it was!), I get:

connect: Network is unreachable

Can anybody point me towards understanding what is going on?
I've got a book called 'How linux works', but it isn't detailed enough for my ignorance.
I don't really know what I'm trying to create in rc.conf and hosts and these files.
I think I need to configure the router so it gives my ISP the right login info.
The lights on the router and pc say the lan is active, and

ifconfig -a

says eth0 UP RUNNING BROADCAST MULTICAST

Any ideas???????
Thanks for any advice.

My login is Midnight Sun, and here I am again at 02:15.

Wintervenom · 2008-12-16 02:23:44

Post deleted.

Last edited by Wintervenom (2009-08-05 14:37:03)

fukawi2 · 2008-12-16 02:46:52

Sounds like you're missing a default route and DNS servers...

Since you specifically asked not to be given the answer, and just given a direction....
1) File: /etc/resolve.conf
2) Command: route add default gw

Allan · 2008-12-16 02:48:59

And this would be some good reading:
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Configuring_network

Midnight Sun · 2009-01-09 00:52:56

Sorry for not replying for so long. I've been away from the machine and hadn't done anything.

Thanks for your help. I had so many questions I wasn't sure where to start, but now I've made progress.

Don't think I need to set DHCP because the router should handle that.

I have set a default gateway, and edited resolv.conf to say:

nameserver 212.159.006.009
nameserver 212.159.006.010

Those are the ip addresses of the DNS servers of my internet provider.

I can ping the rouer, the nameservers, and google; and it works fine.
But I can't ping www.google.com It just says unknown host. So I guess this must be a DNS problem?
Ping and Traceroute only list ip addresses and no resolved names in their output lists.

Could it be that the router needs to know those DNS server addresses, or does the Kernal handle that?

Any more pointers?
Thanks in advance.

Xyne · 2009-01-09 01:07:36

The router will handle DHCP, but Arch still needs to know that it's supposed to negotiate with a DHCP server to get it's data. Take another look at the starting points suggested in this thread:
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Con … or_DHCP_IP
/etc/resolv.conf

windtalker · 2009-01-09 04:07:06

Your /etc/rc.conf should look like this:

HOSTNAME="arch" [or whatever you set for your hostname]

eth0="dhcp"
INTERFACES=(eth0)

in /etc/hosts:

Make sure you have set your hostname there also:

127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost arch

This is copied and pasted from my box, so just do the same thing precisely as you see it here.

No reason to futch with the router, I'm on one also.

Last edited by windtalker (2009-01-09 04:15:37)

Midnight Sun · 2009-01-09 15:29:51

Hi, thanks for the suggestions.

I tried the changes you suggest to my rc.conf, Windtalker. They were my original settings when I first installed Arch.
Everything works as before, except my eth0 seems to have a different address, but I still can't resolve names.

The thing is I could ping the DNS server and google before, and they responded, if I pinged their ip addresses. So I must be connecting to the internet, mustn't I?

But I still can't ping www.google.com , just get unknown host. So i think it's got to be a DNS problem because its when I try to use names instead of ip's that I get trouble.

Here is what I'm thinking(guessng), can anybody tell me if this is right:

When I ping www.google.com, ping needs to resolve the name so it can send the pings.

So ping asks Arch (the kernal or a network daemon) for help.

Arch finds a Nameserver's ip in resolv.conf, and tries to resolve the name by sending a request to the Nameserver via the default gateway.

The default gateway is linked to my router via eth0 in rc.conf

So, Arch can use the router to get the ip address for the name from the server and give it to ping.

And ping can ping it.

But ping just waits a while and says: unknown host

Any ideas?

I looked in Arch Bugs and found this http://bugs.archlinux.org/task/12643
could it be a problem with dhcpcd. It does seem to be running, but how can I find out more about what its up to.

Cheers all.

gishten · 2009-01-09 16:16:08

Midnight Sun wrote:

Hi, thanks for the suggestions.
I tried the changes you suggest to my rc.conf, Windtalker. They were my original settings when I first installed Arch.
Everything works as before, except my eth0 seems to have a different address, but I still can't resolve names.
The thing is I could ping the DNS server and google before, and they responded, if I pinged their ip addresses. So I must be connecting to the internet, mustn't I?
But I still can't ping www.google.com , just get unknown host. So i think it's got to be a DNS problem because its when I try to use names instead of ip's that I get trouble.

Here is what I'm thinking(guessng), can anybody tell me if this is right:
When I ping www.google.com, ping needs to resolve the name so it can send the pings.
So ping asks Arch (the kernal or a network daemon) for help.
Arch finds a Nameserver's ip in resolv.conf, and tries to resolve the name by sending a request to the Nameserver via the default gateway.
The default gateway is linked to my router via eth0 in rc.conf
So, Arch can use the router to get the ip address for the name from the server and give it to ping.
And ping can ping it.
But ping just waits a while and says: unknown host

Any ideas?
I looked in Arch Bugs and found this http://bugs.archlinux.org/task/12643
could it be a problem with dhcpcd. It does seem to be running, but how can I find out more about what its up to.
Cheers all.

Please post the output of ifconfig.

Do you have any other machine connected to the same router? If yes, do you use static or dynamic ip-adress there?

Midnight Sun · 2009-01-09 17:43:15

Hi, gishten. Thanks for your post.
The output of ifconfig is:

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:1F:C6:0F:2A:90
inet adr:192.168.0.2 Bcast:192.168.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 METRIC:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:2
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:1646 METRIC:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

Also, I don't have any other computers connected to the router.
What do you think?

gishten · 2009-01-09 17:56:25

And this is with dhcpd running?

What i think is that you have a problem with you dns configuration. The dns translates web adresses, like www.google.com, into IP adresses, like 74.125.77.103.

You should try to build your network from the ground up. Start first with the dhcp config between your machine and your router. You can probobly check your router settings by opening 192.168.0.1 in your webbrowser. When you've got the sorted you need to check the dns config between your router and your isp's dns servers.

Have you had any system with working network before? Or have you just installed it?

Midnight Sun · 2009-01-09 18:37:33

I see what you mean. That makes sense.

dhcpd is not listed by a top command.

One problem is that I don't have a browser to point at the router because my Arch install hasn't got very far yet.
With no internet access I haven't even got as far as packages yet, I've only got the standard 2.6.25.6 install from a CD.

I have been able to access the router with a windows machine, but that is "intermittent" for some reason. The windows machine won't use the lan connection and keeps going back to its usual usb connection.

But I have previously accessed web pages with the router on the windows machine, so dns on the router was correctly setup at that time. I will try to check the routers settings again.

With the Arch machine I've only been able to ping ip addresses, not names.

How can I find out about my DNS settings between my machine and the router? What files and processes set that?

Thanks for you help.

Midnight Sun · 2009-01-09 18:42:43

Are there any tools for looking at what is going on in the machine or network when a name is being resolved?
Or are there any messages written to any log files when names are resolved?

I'll look for log files, and see if there is anything.
And I'll take the router to another windows machine to find out its settings.

gishten · 2009-01-09 19:08:51

Ah, so you changed your future rc.conf not the live enviroments, which is impossible by the way Then those changes didn't affect anything. Your future rc.conf doesn't come in to play untill you reboot.

When you boot your install disc dhcpd should run from start.

If you use dhcp correctly arch will never need to worry about DNS settings, that's up to the router. And even if you don't use dhcp you'll still only need to set your router's ip as your gateway in rc.conf.

Give me the adress to your preferred mirror and I'll give you its ip, then you use that ip as your pacman mirrror and you'll atleast get a start.

Midnight Sun · 2009-01-09 19:34:44

Err. Not sure. The worst thing is that I appear to have done something impossible after breakfast; everybody knows that you should do impossible things BEFORE breakfast!

I'm not booting from a live CD. I didn't mean to imply that. I just haven't got beyond the Beginners Installation Guide yet. I'm booting from my harddisk.

I have rebooted many times while I've been trying to work this out, including just now.

I'm sure I have had my router's ip set as my gateway in rc.conf, after all I have been able to ping my ISP's DNS server.

My preferred mirror is I guess: archlinux.mirrors.uk2.net
Thanks for the offer.

How can I be sure if dhcpcd is running or not?

gishten · 2009-01-09 19:54:33

83.170.64.14

Run it again sudo dhcpcd eth0 or pidof dhcpcd.

To me it still seems like a DNS problem between your router and ISP.

schuay · 2009-01-09 20:00:30

you can start it manually using

sudo dhcpcd eth0

and to close the connection:

sudo dhcpcd -x eth0

my resolv.conf actually says nameserver 192.168.1.1, which is the router IP, not the internet provider. maybe that's your problem?

Last edited by schuay (2009-01-09 20:15:29)

Midnight Sun · 2009-01-09 20:37:59

I did pidof dhcpcd, and got no responce so assumed it's not running.

So I did Sudo dhcpcd eth0 to try to start it:

-bash: sudo: command not found

Is Sudo not part of the basic system?

I have tried putting my router's ip as the nameserver in resolv.conf
both on its own and with the ip's of my isp's dns; but still no resolved names.

I'm thinking it MUST be a problem between the router and the isp because I've tried everything else.
(famous last words!)

windtalker · 2009-01-09 20:45:10

A positive ping will look like this:

[bob@arch ~]$ ping -c 3 www.google.com
PING www.l.google.com (64.233.169.147) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from yo-in-f147.google.com (64.233.169.147): icmp_seq=1 ttl=244 time=59.0 ms
64 bytes from yo-in-f147.google.com (64.233.169.147): icmp_seq=2 ttl=244 time=56.3 ms
64 bytes from yo-in-f147.google.com (64.233.169.147): icmp_seq=3 ttl=244 time=59.3 ms

--- www.l.google.com ping statistics ---
3 packets transmitted, 3 received, 0% packet loss, time 2007ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 56.345/58.262/59.370/1.389 ms
[bob@arch ~]$

Have you tried simply resetting your router?
Mine acts up from time to time and I simply take a pencil to the little reset button on the back and it starts playing nice.

gishten · 2009-01-09 21:11:13

Midnight Sun wrote:

I did pidof dhcpcd, and got no responce so assumed it's not running.
So I did Sudo dhcpcd eth0 to try to start it:
-bash: sudo: command not found
Is Sudo not part of the basic system?
I have tried putting my router's ip as the nameserver in resolv.conf
both on its own and with the ip's of my isp's dns; but still no resolved names.
I'm thinking it MUST be a problem between the router and the isp because I've tried everything else.
(famous last words!)

Sudo has to be selected when you install arch. Log in as root using $ su. Then do $ pacman -S sudo. Remember to edit the sudoers file in /etc.

Or just do dhcpcd eth0 as root.

Midnight Sun · 2009-01-09 21:21:18

Yep, pings a plenty. But only of ip's not of names. My ping output looks just like yours except with ip addressses in place of names.

I have also tried resetting the router. I started with that. The problem is if I do it again I don't have a browser to set my login details on it with. Unless I try and use the windows machine, which has its own problems(delights).

Don't know where to look next????????????!!!!!!!!!!!

gishten · 2009-01-09 21:26:37

Try using links. A terminal based web browser.

It should be on the install disk or pacman -S links.

Resetting the router might've messed up your earlier settings

Midnight Sun · 2009-01-09 22:25:19

I'll try getting Links, which does seem to be on the CD, I've just looked with the windows machine.
I'll have to work out how to get pacman to install it from a CD. I'm so new to this I'm not even sure how to list the content of the CD with bash, but I'm getting there.

Thanks for the suggestion. At least then I would be sure of the routers settings.

windtalker · 2009-01-09 22:36:03

I don't think it's your router or you wouldn't get any pings.
It's job isn't to distinguish between an ip and a web address, just direct the bandwidth.
Imho, it's the install itself.

dmartins · 2009-01-09 22:52:00

A basic internet setup when you have a router which hands out addresses via DHCP (the default setup for every consumer router I've ever seen) would be this:
/etc/rc.conf

eth0="dhcp"
INTERFACES=(eth0)
gateway="default gw 192.168.0.1"
ROUTES=(!gateway)
#NETWORKS=(main)

DAEMONS=(... network ...)

The exclamation point in front of gateway on the ROUTES line tells the startup scripts not to set a gateway. That should be taken care of by dhcpcd. The pound sign in front of NETWORKS comments out that line. NETWORKS is used to set up network profiles and mostly used on laptops.

Your /etc/resolv.conf file should be empty. Again, dhcpcd should fill this in for you.

After making changes to these files, you can sometimes run /etc/rc.d/network stop and /etc/rc.d/network start to reload your network configuration. Sometimes I've found a reboot just works better.

You can test your dns servers using nslookup: ie nslookup google.com

Once dhcpcd has run, your nameservers should be listed in /etc/resolv.conf. If that file remains blank, but ifconfig lists an IP address, you can try entering the IP address of your router into /etc/resolv.conf or try 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220. These are publicly available DNS servers provided by opendns. Remember to prefix these addresses with "nameserver" in /etc/resolv.conf!

If you continue to have problems, it would be best to post your /etc/rc.conf and /etc/resolv.conf files as well as the output from "route" and "ifconfig -a".
You can even post digital pictures of your screen instead of re-typing everything, since you probably can't copy and paste.

Arch Linux

#1 2008-12-16 02:04:01

Can any one point me in the right direction?

#2 2008-12-16 02:23:44

Re: Can any one point me in the right direction?

#3 2008-12-16 02:46:52

Re: Can any one point me in the right direction?

#4 2008-12-16 02:48:59

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#5 2009-01-09 00:52:56

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#6 2009-01-09 01:07:36

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#7 2009-01-09 04:07:06

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#8 2009-01-09 15:29:51

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#9 2009-01-09 16:16:08

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#10 2009-01-09 17:43:15

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#11 2009-01-09 17:56:25

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#12 2009-01-09 18:37:33

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#13 2009-01-09 18:42:43

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#14 2009-01-09 19:08:51

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#15 2009-01-09 19:34:44

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#16 2009-01-09 19:54:33

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#17 2009-01-09 20:00:30

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#18 2009-01-09 20:37:59

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#19 2009-01-09 20:45:10

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#20 2009-01-09 21:11:13

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#21 2009-01-09 21:21:18

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#22 2009-01-09 21:26:37

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#23 2009-01-09 22:25:19

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#24 2009-01-09 22:36:03

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#25 2009-01-09 22:52:00

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