Network issues

blackcoughee · 2009-09-25 23:29:21

Hello. The first thing I should probably state is that I'm a pretty unexperienced Linux user, so you may have to be explicit in your instructions.

My experience before installing Arch is about 2 weeks in Ubuntu. I wanted to delve head first into learning Linux, and it seemed that alot of people at the forums I posted at were terrified of Arch, so I decided this would be the right distro Just installing Arch has taught me alot more about Linux and using bash than Ubuntu has in two weeks. Everything has gone smoothly (suprisingly) until now. I've been booting from my Ubuntu live cd to use Firefox to follow the Beginner's Guide in the wiki. When I had to configure my network in /etc/rc.conf and /etc/hosts, I was a little worried because I didn't know if I had a static or dynamic IP, but after a google search it seems I most likely have a dynamic (how could I know for certain?). So I configured those files for dhcp. My first couple of times booting into Arch, it failed to mount my network files, just as I had feared. The fourth or so time I booted into Arch, it worked (strange...) and I proceeded following the beginner's guide, installing packages and updating my system with pacman. Obviously my internet connection was working, so I have a dynamic ip? I started installing X according to the beginner's guide and I got to the point where I need to install the video drivers for X. I booted back into Ubuntu with my live CD to double check some things in the wiki, and when I booted back into Arch I got a failure to mount network files like I did the first few times I started up Arch. I tried pinging google and I got an unknown host. So, I checked rc.conf and everything seemed fine, but when I checked /etc/hosts, all my configs were gone. I figured this had to be the problem, so I typed my ip and host back in. After a reboot, it failed to mount my network files again, so I checked /etc/hosts again, but my configs were fine. Ifconfig -a shows 17 interrupts on eth0, and dhcpcd eth0 times out. Not really sure what all of that means. I need to get my network working so I can finish setting up X, and the rest of the things I need to download. Why would my network start working out of the blue, and then stop?

I'd also like to add that the Arch Wiki is amazing and whoever wrote the beginner's guide deserves a pat on the back because without it I would be so lost right now. A big thanks to Judd Vinet and the other developers for Arch, it's been tons of fun and quite the learning experience. Really, I thought installing and configuration would be a huge headache, but this is the first problem I've ran into.

Thanks,
Andrew

blackcoughee · 2009-09-26 03:32:54

Hate to bump my own post, but I have more details now.

I tried /etc/rc.d/network restart and it said it failed to disconnect and then failed to connect. It also said SIOCDELRT no such process and SIOCADDRT no such process. I also checked /etc/resolv.conf and it was empty, but I suppose that's because it gets overwritten when using DHCP and I can't make a connection? Also, the wiki says some DHCP users still need to define their gateway and route in the rc.conf. How would I find my gateway? I've googled this and everything is a guide for Windows. I thought ifconfig might show it and under eth0 there is a number called HWAddress or something, but it doesn't look right. It kind of looked like an IP but there were letters in it.

Anyways, I'm sorry for the newbish questions, but I was a Windows user for years. But I'm willing to sit and tinker with everything until I get this working if you guys can help me out . Atleast I can use my Ubuntu live cd so I can post on these forums. Before I installed Arch I knew there would be roadblocks along the way, but that's part of the reason I chose Arch: to embrace these challenges and see them as learning experiences rather than frustrations.

Thanks in advance,
Andrew

MadTux · 2009-09-26 06:08:44

If you are using dhcp that means "something" provides you with an IP address. I use dhcp too and I have a router, which provides IP addresses to my computers. That router itself has an IP address (192.168.0.1 in my case) and that is my default gateway. Until now, this has nothing to do with what OS you are using because its a basic concept and works almost identical on Windows, Linux or any other OS.
So you need to find out how your local network is configured before you can proceed. If you followed the beginners guide then there is a section on how to configure all the configuration files, in particular /etc/rc.conf. It contains a section about networking. Mine is here:

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# HOSTNAME: Hostname of machine. Should also be put in /etc/hosts
#
HOSTNAME="D5150"

# Use 'ifconfig -a' or 'ls /sys/class/net/' to see all available interfaces.
#
# Interfaces to start at boot-up (in this order)
# Declare each interface then list in INTERFACES
#   - prefix an entry in INTERFACES with a ! to disable it
#   - no hyphens in your interface names - Bash doesn't like it
# 
# DHCP:     Set your interface to "dhcp" (eth0="dhcp")
# Wireless: See network profiles below
#

#Static IP example
#eth0="eth0 192.168.0.2 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.0.255"
eth0="dhcp"
INTERFACES=(eth0)

# Routes to start at boot-up (in this order)
# Declare each route then list in ROUTES
#   - prefix an entry in ROUTES with a ! to disable it
#
gateway="default gw 192.168.0.1"
ROUTES=(!gateway)

In /etc/hosts add the name of your computer. In my case that is "D5150" but yours is probably different;

#<ip-address>    <hostname.domain.org>    <hostname>
127.0.0.1        localhost.localdomain    localhost D5150

grey · 2009-09-26 06:22:01

To find out what your gateway (i.e. the IP address of your router) is, try to run traceroute from the ubuntu liveCD. The first hop should be the gateway. For example I get:

$ traceroute news.bbc.co.uk
traceroute to newswww.bbc.net.uk (212.58.226.142), 30 hops max, 52 byte packets
 1  api.home (192.168.1.254)  19.872 ms  96.355 ms  100.145 ms

so my gateway is 192.168.1.254

Last edited by grey (2009-09-26 06:23:50)

blackcoughee · 2009-09-28 01:47:37

Sorry about getting back to you guys so late. Thanks for the tips.

Ok, when I traceroute, the first hop is just asterisks.

$ traceroute google.com
traceroute to google.com (74.125.127.100), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
1   * * *
2   slkc-dsl-gw39-231.slkc.qwest.net (67.41.239.231)   57.600 ms   57.888 ms   57.576 ms

is 67.41.239.231 my gateway?

Arch Linux

#1 2009-09-25 23:29:21

Network issues

#2 2009-09-26 03:32:54

Re: Network issues

#3 2009-09-26 06:08:44

Re: Network issues

#4 2009-09-26 06:22:01

Re: Network issues

#5 2009-09-28 01:47:37

Re: Network issues

Board footer