Re: a beginner user

["David L. Johnson" <david.johnson@Lehigh.EDU>]

On Mon, 16 Jan 2006 11:59:06 -0700
Qi Wu <wuqi5718@gmail.com> wrote:

>    I first burn two DVDs and for some reason it did not work. Then I burn a
> net install CD and boot with it. I got the basic installation done! But
> After rebooting, when I tried to install other things, I can't get the
> network working. I tried different mirrow sites, they all failed. So I guess
> it is someting wrong with my config.

I had this happen, too.  In my case, /dev/eth0 was what one kernel assigned
to the ethernet port, but on the kernel installed with the basic package, it
switched to the firewire port on my machine, and put the ethernet card
on /dev/eth1  (or maybe the other way around.  It was a bit confusing). dmesg
will give you that information, though you have to wade through a lot to see
it.
> 
>    Actually, what I need is simply. A network and a windows manager (KDE) so
> I can run some program like Matlab. The machine is at University, so the
> network should be fine. I just don't know how should I config it. I think I
> should use dhcp.  It seems to me that I need to make the internet work at
> first, then I can modify the sources.list and install other things.

You need to find out whether it can find any network at all.  I am betting
that it can't, due to some configuration problem.  netstat will tell you.

Look at /etc/network/interfaces.  You should see something like:

# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# The primary network interface
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

Then look at dmesg for something about eth0.  If you have something like a
firewire port, and dmesg is indescipherable to you, you can change the
settings in /etc/network/interfaces to eth1 and see what happens...  if it
doesn't help, by all means change it back.  

 -- 

David L. Johnson

   __o   | "What am I on?  I'm on my bike, six hours a day, busting my ass.
 _`\(,_  | What are you on?"  --Lance Armstrong  
(_)/ (_) |