Unbuntu Internet Connection Problem

[qualtrough]

I have a PC setup to run dual boot XP/Ubuntu Lynx. The other day could not longer get the Internet (True) to work in Ubuntu, but no problem in XP. I have substituted a laptop and that works OK too, so the issue is not the Internet coming in through the tubes I would think if the Ethernet card was bad it would not work for both, right? Have checked network connections and fiddle with that but can't get it to work. I am using XP now to write this. If anyone has any suggestions on what may be the matter and how to remedy I would be very thankful.

[sysardman]

It's a long time since I used Linux but from the details you supply (which are not really enough for anybody to solve your problem) it sounds like a problem with DHCP (the program that sets up IP addresses for your network card). A quick check might be to make a note of the IP addresses allocated to XP by double clicking on the network connections icon on your task bar (2 small overlapping computers) and selecting the support tab then the details button.

Make a list of the values and then boot into Linux and open a terminal window and type the following command:

ifconfig eth0

you should hopefully get something like the following but with similar details to

what you noted in XP

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:15:c5:4a:16:5a

inet addr:10.0.0.100 Bcast:10.0.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0

inet6 addr: fe80::215:c5ff:fe4a:165a/64 Scope:Link

UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1

RX packets:466475604 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

TX packets:403172654 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000

RX bytes:2574778386 (2.5 GB) TX bytes:1618367329 (1.6 GB)

Interrupt:16

If it isn't like the above (which it may not be if it's not working then I'm afraid the best idea would be to Google 'Ubuntu network configuration' and try to follow some of the guides - there's a lot about!!

Edited January 2, 2012 by sysardman

[dmsnsa]

Right, your Ethernet card is working, but is the driver recognized, and is it configured correctly in Linux are the questions you have to ask yourself. Sounds like you are new to Linux, or Ubuntu, so look at your Network App is the eth# (probably eth0) interface there. Are you having the system determine the IP addressing (DHCP) or are you plugging in the addressing yourself? The XP configuration, is the Linux configuration for the IP addressing. Write it down and re-check your Linux configuration.

Now, if you cannot see the eth# interface in the Network App then you have a driver issue, post your Ethernet device type and model.

[RKASA]

Should be a network icon somewhere on the desktop or the panel (task bar) click it and see if your network is just disablable - when opened they may look differant but it is the same stuff as on an XP box - and work the same as XP in the end - I am not on a Ubuntu distro so not sure where it is there. Check and see it is static or dhcp - if it just stoppped working without any up date etc then it may not be a real problem at all. It is rare anyone uses the commandline for this stuff anymore - I always forget how - I use it so little.

[kerryk]

I was having the same problem with Ubuntu 9 sometimes true move would work and sometimes not. Then I ran Ubuntu 11.1 from the disk and it picks up true move automatically and connects. Which is cool except 11.1 can't run utube as is on the disk. I imagine if you install it you could update. I run xp on one computer and Ubuntu on another. I would install 11.1 except everyone says it is buggy.

[qualtrough]

First, a big thanks to all who offered suggestions.

I am back online now a of two minutes ago, after spending the better part of a day trying to solve this problem. In the end it was simple. From somewhere I learned about the lshw command, so I used that to find that my ethernet connection was listed as DISABLED. Ah ha, that must be relevant. From there I found out from a Google search (and see someone here suggested this, but I couldn't read it at the time) that the solution is to right click on the Network icon in the notification area. But, I have never had the notification area activated. After some time I figured out how to do that and eventually was able to get the network enabled. A lot of effort for something that would taken one minute if I knew what I was doing. Such is life. But, this leads to another question: How did it get disabled, especially since there was no network icon that I could have inadvertently clicked?

So good to be connected again.

[RKASA]

Well that is a $64,000 question. I would depend if you had be doing any installs of new apps etc. they may have a buggy config that turned it off by mistake at any rate you know where the icon is now.

[aarn]

This post all solved now, but just in case someone has similar problems...

I lost network connectivity after trying to 'prime' my distro.s (Ub10.04, also Mint11) for start-up speed.

Just be careful what you turn off in the start-up manager-thingy.

Very easy to hide your network connectivity icon - then can't get on the www. AA