Re: Problems configuring /etc/network/interfaces
On Tue, 2001-10-23 at 20:23, Charles Bray wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm fairly new to Linux and just switched from SuSE to Debian
> 2.2.19pre17 a few days ago. I have a Dell Inspiron 7000 notebook. I've
> tried very hard to solve this problem on my own, but the solution
> continues to escape me.
>
> Right now, my /etc/network/interfaces file includes the following lines
> (excluding comments):
>
> auto lo
> iface lo inet loopback
>
> My understanding is that the "auto lo" line is supposed to activate the
> loopback interface at boot time. But evidently it doesn't. After I
> boot and log in as root, if I ping the localhost at 127.0.0.1, I get the
> error message:
>
> neighbor table overflow
>
> At this point, the routing table (route -n command) doesn't list the
> loopback interface, and I must manually activate and add it with the
> lines:
>
> ifconfig lo 127.0.0.1
> route add 127.0.0.1 lo
>
> After doing this, I no longer receive the overflow error and can ping
> the localhost.
>
> Strangely (to me), if I comment out the "auto lo" line in
> /etc/network/interfaces and reboot, I can then successfully ping the
> loopback address, indicating that the interface has been automatically
> activated. (So "auto lo" is evidently shutting it down. I wish I could
> find more thorough instructions for configuring
> /etc/network/interfaces.) Although the interface has been activated
> automatically, I still have to add it to the routing table using the
> above route command. But, of course, I don't want to have to add the
> route manually every time I reboot.
>
> All of the above was learned while I was trying to figure out my
> original problem, which is this:
>
> After successfully connecting to my ISP via serial modem (and after
> manually adding the loopback interface), the routing table is as
> follows:
>
> Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
> 286.115.220.139 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.255 UH 0 0 0 ppp0
> 127.0.0.1 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.255 UH 0 0 0 lo
> 192.168.1.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
> 0.0.0.0 192.168.1.1 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0
>
> I can ping 286.115.220.139 as well as my machine's local network IP
> address at 192.168.1.1, but I can't ping my ISP's DNS servers or
> anywhere else on the internet.
I have the same lo lines and mine works fine. How is your eth0
interface configured? Is it also in /etc/network/interfaces? More info
on it can be found with:
man interfaces
It looks like you need a default gateway to the internet through your
ppp0 interface instead of your eth0, unless another unmentioned
masquerading box is also giving you connectivity. pppd should allow you
the option of configuring a default gateway for the ppp0 interface in
the config files for your specific host.
--mike
Reply to: