[conspire] Re: eth0 failed

[Rick Moen]

Quoting lucy lee (lucy_zack2000 at yahoo.com):

> Thanks for your help, I have installed the redhat 8.0, and I applied
> for a new Earthlink Linux account for dial-up.but I failed many times
> to get connected. I think that I may choose the wrong selection at the
> beginng of installing Linux, since when I boot up,everthing is OK,
> except the following: bring up interface eth0
> 
> determing IP infromation eth0 ...failed  no link present,check cable?
> [failed]

Hi, Lucy!

(1) "No link present" means that no ethernet signal is arriving at the
network port.  Either the cable isn't fully plugged in at one end or the
other, or the cable is defective, or it's the wrong type of cable, or
the device at the other end of the cable is turned off / defective / not
supplying ethernet signal for some reason. 

In other words, Linux is telling you it was able to enable the local
ethernet interface (eth0), but was unable get a DHCP lease from the far
end because it could not get a valid ethernet signal from the far end.

But... wait a second....  "Dial-up?"

OK, we have a fundamental problem, here:  It sonds as if you're saying
that you intend to use a _modem_ to communicate with Earthlink -- a
modem that's either inside the Linux box (internal modem) or attached to
it via a serial cable.  Do you have such a modem inside the Linux box or 
attached to its serial port?  Furthermore, do I correctly guess that
nothing at all is connected to your Linux box's ethernet port?  Do I
correctly guess that you are not planning to use the ethernet port in
the immediate future?

If I guess correctly, then you should disable initialisation of
/dev/eth0 (the ethernet port) for the future, and should set up PPP
dial-up on your modem port.

The Red Hat manuals explain how to do that, specifically the Red Hat
Linux Customization Guide, available on-line at Red Hat's Web site:
http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-8.0-Manual/custom-guide/ch-network-config.html

(2) I've taken the liberty of cc'ing my user group CABAL's mailing list,
conspire at linuxmafia.com .  You should join that mailing list (see:
http://linuxmafia.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/conspire), and please
send further requests for help to that or similar Linux community public
forums, rather than sending them to private e-mail.  There are numerous
reasons why that is a better approach, including the fact that, when you 
get help via public forums, other people benefit from both your question
and any answers you receive.  Also, you'll get answers from more than
just one person.  Finally, public discussion is vitally important to 
how the Linux community grows.

(3) If you still have problems, please feel welcome to bring your
machine to tomorrow's CABAL meeting, 4 PM at my house, 2033 Sharon Road,
Menlo Park.  See you there!

-- 
Cheers,                        "Censeo Toto nos in Kansa esse decisse."  
Rick Moen                                                  -- D. Gale
rick at linuxmafia.com