[sf-lug] Ubuntu connectivity problem(s)

Wed Apr 6 19:10:41 PDT 2016

Thanks to Rick for his constructive criticism.

I've begun from the beginning as he suggested and include
"the facts, nothing but the facts."

Using Ubuntu 14.04:
During boot up the usual Ubuntu logo appears with the blinking dots
beneath them but in addition a new message has started to appear:
first it's: Waiting for network configuration...
then changes to: Waiting up to 60 more seconds for network configuration 
...
and finally: Booting without network configuration.

Once booted:
alex at x301:~$ ifconfig
eth2      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1c:25:9d:e1:f0
           UP BROADCAST 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:0
           collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
           RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
           Interrupt:20 Memory:f0600000-f0620000

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
           inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
           inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
           UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:65536  Metric:1
           RX packets:587 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
           TX packets:587 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
           collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
           RX bytes:56633 (56.6 KB)  TX bytes:56633 (56.6 KB)

wlan3     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:21:6b:a1:81:44
           UP BROADCAST 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:0
           collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
           RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

I should perhaps mention here that this is the third X301 thinkpad
I've been using: each time one had a problem I simply put the hard
drive from the non functioning one to a newly acquired reconditioned
one.  Each time the last digit of eth0 and wlan0 seemed to increment.
Hence eth2 and wlan3 although I don't know why this happens or why
they are not both the same number. I've been able to live with this
without difficulties.

The current laptop has been functioning fine for several months
until these recent symptoms began.

If booted up from a 'live CD' all works as expected- no connectivity
problems at all: wifi works fine.

Getting back to the problem:
Here's my /etc/network/interfaces file:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

#auto eth0
auto eth2
iface eth2 inet dhcp

auto wlan3
iface wlan3 inet dhcp

So I tried the following:
alex at x301:~$ sudo ifdown wlan3
[sudo] password for alex:
ifdown: waiting for lock on /run/network/ifstate.wlan3
#### There was a very long delay at this point.
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client 4.2.4
Copyright 2004-2012 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit https://www.isc.org/software/dhcp/

Listening on LPF/wlan3/00:21:6b:a1:81:44
Sending on   LPF/wlan3/00:21:6b:a1:81:44
Sending on   Socket/fallback

alex at x301:~$ sudo ifup wlan3
ifup: waiting for lock on /run/network/ifstate.wlan3
######  Again a long delay.
ifup: interface wlan3 already configured

alex at x301:~$ ifconfig   # Things have changed!
eth2      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1c:25:9d:e1:f0
           UP BROADCAST 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:0
           collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
           RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
           Interrupt:20 Memory:f0600000-f0620000

eth2:avahi Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1c:25:9d:e1:f0
           inet addr:169.254.11.114  Bcast:169.254.255.255  
Mask:255.255.0.0
           UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
           Interrupt:20 Memory:f0600000-f0620000

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
           inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
           inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
           UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:65536  Metric:1
           RX packets:5112 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
           TX packets:5112 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
           collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
           RX bytes:518522 (518.5 KB)  TX bytes:518522 (518.5 KB)

wlan3     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:21:6b:a1:81:44
           UP BROADCAST 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:0
           collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
           RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

wlan3:avahi Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:21:6b:a1:81:44
           inet addr:169.254.7.51  Bcast:169.254.255.255  
Mask:255.255.0.0
           UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

Somehow avahi has gotten involved and wlan3:avahi has an ip address
but not one compatable with my 10.0.0.0/24 lan network (where the
gateway/router/access_point is at 10.0.0.2.)
... Now a Wifi symbol appears on the top of the screen but when I
click on it, most things are grayed our and one of the lines says
"device not managed.")

If I now plug in an ethernet cable
alex at x301:~$ ifconfig
eth2      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1c:25:9d:e1:f0
           inet addr:10.0.0.16  Bcast:255.255.255.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
           inet6 addr: fe80::21c:25ff:fe9d:e1f0/64 Scope:Link
           UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
           RX packets:325 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
           TX packets:416 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
           collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
           RX bytes:84658 (84.6 KB)  TX bytes:58754 (58.7 KB)
           Interrupt:20 Memory:f0600000-f0620000

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
           inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
           inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
           UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:65536  Metric:1
           RX packets:7278 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
           TX packets:7278 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
           collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
           RX bytes:740562 (740.5 KB)  TX bytes:740562 (740.5 KB)

tun0      Link encap:UNSPEC  HWaddr 
00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00
           inet addr:172.31.2.14  P-t-P:172.31.2.13  Mask:255.255.255.255
           UP POINTOPOINT RUNNING NOARP MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
           RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
           TX packets:3 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
           collisions:0 txqueuelen:100
           RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:378 (378.0 B)

wlan3     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:21:6b:a1:81:44
           UP BROADCAST 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:0
           collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000G
           RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

wlan3:avahi Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:21:6b:a1:81:44
           inet addr:169.254.7.51  Bcast:169.254.255.255  
Mask:255.255.0.0
           UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

... eth2 picks up an address and all _seems_ fine...
BUT I then launch Firefox and put in my email url 
https://webmail.sonic.net/
and get a "Firefox can't find the server at webmail.sonic.net." message.
When I launch Chromium, and put the very same url, the site comes up as 
it should.

Now when using the command line: a git push fails although ping finds
the IP address without problems:
alex at x301:~/Py/CSV/debk$ git push
fatal: unable to access 'https://github.com/alexKleider/debk.git/':
Could not resolve host: github.com
alex at x301:~/Py/CSV/debk$ ping github.com
PING github.com (192.30.252.128) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from github.com (192.30.252.128): icmp_seq=1 ttl=53 time=87.9
ms
64 bytes from github.com (192.30.252.128): icmp_seq=2 ttl=53 time=88.0
ms
64 bytes from github.com (192.30.252.128): icmp_seq=3 ttl=53 time=87.6
ms
^C
--- github.com ping statistics ---
3 packets transmitted, 3 received, 0% packet loss, time 2000ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 87.612/87.864/88.039/0.182 ms

alex at x301:~/Py/CSV/debk$ sudo iptables -L
[sudo] password for alex:
Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target     prot opt source               destination

Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT)
target     prot opt source               destination

Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target     prot opt source               destination

alex at x301:~/Py/CSV/debk$ route
Kernel IP routing table
Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags Metric Ref    Use 
Iface
default         router          0.0.0.0         UG    0      0        0 
eth2
default         *               0.0.0.0         U     1003   0        0 
wlan3
10.0.0.0        *               255.255.255.0   U     0      0        0 
eth2
link-local      *               255.255.0.0     U     0      0        0 
wlan3
172.31.2.0      172.31.2.13     255.255.255.0   UG    0      0        0 
tun0
172.31.2.13     *               255.255.255.255 UH    0      0        0 
tun0

Any other diagnostics I should be trying?

Alex