Debian internet conncection problem

Forum: LinuxTotal Replies: 22
Author Content
varahan

Jul 14, 2005
4:00 AM EDT
Recently installed Debian 3.1. Configured dhcp server manually. I could connect to internet but could not browse but get the msg " unknown host".

I am using cable connection on interface eth0. (not ppp or pppoe). Please guide me.

The same system works well in mandrake.
jamesstansell

Jul 14, 2005
9:37 PM EDT
Sounds like your name resolution isn't working. I'd try configuring that manually, but ultimately I'd hope that additional dhcp configuration would correct it so that changes in the future would take place automatically.

You mentioned the dhcp server but not the client. Do you have it running? I would think you need the client more than the server.

For manually configuring name resolution you'll need to become familiar with /etc/hosts and /etc/resolv.conf. Depending on your installation there are several packages that would automate updates to those, including one of the dhcp clients.

-james.
varahan

Jul 15, 2005
5:04 AM EDT
Thanks James!

Please let me know the commands to reconfigure the network connection.
tuxtom

Jul 16, 2005
10:36 PM EDT
Please RTFM. It is very comprehensive.
varahan

Jul 17, 2005
7:27 AM EDT
rtfm ? i don' t get it.
Abe

Jul 17, 2005
7:32 AM EDT
Could it be "Read The F**K Manual"? It sounds about right and I couldn't have said it better.
tuxtom

Jul 17, 2005
1:58 PM EDT
...add "ING" to the F**K.

Also, for future reference, you will find this invaluable if your read it thoroughly:

http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
TxtEdMacs

Jul 17, 2005
5:11 PM EDT
"RTFM" has about zero information content. If you are neither able nor willing to help a lost and/or confused individual just spend your precious resources more constructively elsewhere. If, however, you subscribe to the necessity of making this a Linux world only, then you should be willing to answer questions from those are very confused or lost. Many will stay that way, but for many others that is a temporary condition that is not aided by a supercilious display of supposed superiority,
tuxchick

Jul 17, 2005
5:36 PM EDT
yah, I agree that RTFM is not helpful if you don't point the way to the FM. As for the original poster, what you're asking is practically a course in basic networking, so you're not going to get a simple answer. Start here: http://www.faqs.org/docs/linux_network/ http://www.aboutdebian.com/network.htm

I got those with about ten seconds of googling on "Linux networking" and "debian networking."
SFN

Jul 19, 2005
8:38 AM EDT
To add the DNS server(s) to your DHCP configuration, you need to edit a file. That file is /etc/dhcp.conf. As root, you'll need to do

nano /etc/dhcp.conf

You'll need to add a line that points to a DNS server. That line should appear as follows:

# Set the DNS server to be used by the DHCP clients option domain-name-servers 192.168.1.100;

Change "192.168.1.100" to the actual address of the DNS server you wish to use.

If you have more than one DNS server available, add them all on the same line. For example:

option domain-name-servers 192.168.1.100, 192.168.1.101;

Once you've done this, restart DHCP by doing the following as root:

/etc/init.d/dhcpd restart

Hope this helps.



P.S. Death to RTFM.
tuxtom

Jul 21, 2005
8:33 PM EDT
****tuxchick:

I got to this on Debian's site in 4 clicks:

http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/reference/ch-gateway.en.ht...

In retrospect, it would have been "polite" for me to include this link along with my polite direction to RTFM. I even said "Please". However, If someone can open the tray on their CD drive, they should be able to find this on their own without someone conveniently "pointing the way". This is self-explanatory.

****TxtEdMacs:

"If, however, you subscribe to the necessity of making this a Linux world only, then you should be willing to answer questions from those are very confused or lost.

Whoa...is this a cult!!!! Time for some deprogramming. "Linux-only world"???? "Necessity"???? Sounds like Heaven's Gate to me! Wake up, man. Linux is only an OS for box of switches (and my personal favorite OS). At the end of the day, it is only ones and zeroes. Necessity is food, clothing and a warm place to go to the bathroom. Diversity ain't so bad, either.

****Regarding RTFM: No more Mr. Nice Guy!!!

I say "tough sh*t" to those who do not read the manual first. I read it (both past and present tense implied). Someone smarter than me wrote it. People dumber than us have read it and learned from it. It is not hard to find or understand. If an individual is so lost and confused that he cannot click the Documentation link on his distro's website or use google, then I would rather not have that individual in my community or workplace and I wish them a life of mediocrity on a Windows 3.1 box. I have carried many people like this in the workplace...many who were paid more than me. I have literally been told "I don't want to have to resort to reading the documentation." (Translation: I am lazy and incompetent and I want you to do my job for me.) This is characteristic of academic and corporate America today. It is disgusting. Makes me want to expatriate... (Of course when the layoffs came, they were the ones out the door. Competent management will listen to the opinions of those that tell them the truth without sugar-coating it...and those who excel at exposing inefficiencies like lazy weasels who don't want to resort to reading the documentation and want everyone else to do their work for them. )

Linux ain't easy. Life ain't easy. Nothing worthwhile is easy. I will not help somebody who won't help themselves. I will not, out of a brainwashed sense of "political correctness", carry someone who graduated High School without being able to read or think. That's what Microsoft is for, and it is not going away in our lifetime. Let them take another Prozac and have Big Brother hold their hand. Be proud that you use a rogue and elite OS. Be proud that you are smart enough to find, read and understand the documentation. Linux is not for "the masses". It is for thoughtful, savvy people who want to get things done. By the time corporations are done with it it will be no better than MSFT. The day McLinux is the norm is the day I will be using the NEXT rogue OS. Hold the fries...that day is not that far away.

If your feelings are hurt, the path to healing starts with RTFM. Trust me, you will feel better and your intelligence will blossom.

Peace.

P.S. - Oh, and if you already read it and are still confused, just ask an intelligently in the proper forums and the community...including tuxtom...will try to help you.
tuxchick

Jul 21, 2005
10:22 PM EDT
tuxtom,

You could have been either helpful or silent with a lot smaller investment of energy. If you don't want to be helpful, STFU. It's politer and more useful.
dinotrac

Jul 22, 2005
2:16 AM EDT
tuxchick :

I'm with you. Telling tuxtom to STFU might be construed by some to be a wee bit out of the Emily Post orbit, but context counts, and STFU is ever so much nicer than GFY.
TxtEdMacs

Jul 22, 2005
5:24 AM EDT
Quoting: ****TxtEdMacs:

"If, however, you subscribe to the necessity of making this a Linux world only, then you should be willing to answer questions from those are very confused or lost.


tuxtom - it seems "you are new here" as they like to say on /.; had you read the post following your original that seconded your sentiment you might have seen his earlier posting saying MS had to be defeated in an absolute sense. I am hoping his silence indicates a bit of introspection, since that jab was not explicitly aimed at you. [Note the conditional case with which it was written.]

Various adages I heard associated with engineering irritated me since they seemed so trite. For example: K.I.S.S. But I learned much later that very few really understood their inherent value. For you it should have been: "if you cannot be part of the solution, do not become part of the problem". Reread your rant and reflect upon it.

If that does not suffice, I attempted to contact varahan directly offering to assist him/her - to date there has been no answer. If MS offers a bounty on turning off individuals that have shown an interest in Linux you quality, hence, you are entitled to the reward.
SFN

Jul 22, 2005
6:00 AM EDT
tuxtom,

Would it really have been such a hardship for you to write 100 or so words down to explain a simple procedure that you, presumably, have committed to memory? Is your life is so busy that you can't expend that tiny amount of effort to help somebody out?
tuxtom

Jul 22, 2005
10:07 AM EDT
[apology] I have re-read my rant. I apologize for not fully spelling out the expletives. [/apology]

I'm semi-joking. Look, I'm not trying to be a prick. This is not linuxfordummies.com. I have a lot of respect for the members of this board. I know some of you actually use linux in business to make a living. Perhaps some of you are used to having to carry people like I described in my rant and consider it normal and healthy. I feel sorry for you...

I am disappointed. My original post was polite, concise and correct. In similar hold-my-hand posts on this board, more senior members have PROMPTLY informed the poster that this is not a help board and they should go elsewhere for these types of questions (linuxquestions.org?). But, alas, I am scolded for not being a baby-nice kindergarden teacher.

***TxtEdMacs: That is the problem with posts like these...and precisely why my answer was RTFM. They want a quick fix...they don't want to learn, they don't want to help anyone else out, and they don't even have enough manners to respond when someone contacts them to help them. (For further explanation re-read my rant.)

***SFN: No, I don't have Debian networking procedures 100% committed to memory. I do, however, have the Debian manual pages pertaining to networking printed out for quick reference when I am configuring a box.

I love this board...it is good to shake things up now and then.

Love, Tuxtom

SFN

Jul 22, 2005
12:37 PM EDT
Quoting:My original post was polite, concise and correct.


Your post may have been concise and correct but spitting out RTFM is never polite. Not even with "Please" attached at the beginning. You seem to have no problem with not being polite. Your rant details the extent to which you have no problem with it. So just say so. Don't pretend that you were just misunderstood or ignored. Nobody buys that.

Oh my god! I just realized! You're my son-in-law!!!
dinotrac

Jul 22, 2005
12:53 PM EDT
SFN --

Actually, I think he's channeling my 19 year old daughter.

And TT -- channeling is as far as it goes!!!

(dad was once a sharpshooter)
varahan

Oct 06, 2005
9:10 AM EDT
Hi All

Sorry for my belated response.

I am sad that my post has kindled such an unwanted and unwarranted debate.

Is it right to tell a man to learn swimming first when he is sinking and battling for life?

My stage was like that at that time.

I am a non-techie fed up with windows and have an earnest interest in linux. I am trying to learn all the way but at this middle age I could not recollect all that I have learnt, that too in time. May be this forum is not for people like me but I would like to stress that never have I been a centre of criticism in spite of my being a member in various linux fora and user groups. As everybody would accept Debian is considered to be tough to install when compared to other distros. And I have asked a number of IT students and software professionals in the local LUG about Debian. And all that I got was that it is a rock solid system but only for the experienced. Think of my plight being a non-techie there.

Nevertheless I will not refrain from learning linux and day by day i am becomig an ardent and hardcore linux fanatic.

Thanks for all with a request to take my mail in a positive spirit.
tadelste

Oct 06, 2005
9:40 AM EDT
varahan: Thanks for following up.

You ran right into the middle of a paradigm shift in the Linux culture. When we had a small community and most information about linux existed on the Linux Documentation Project, some rather nasty replies came from high level techies who wanted people to just learn the system.

In those days we did not have sophisticated installers. Linux was a hobbyist operating system meant mostly for people who wanted to learn UNIX and didn't have the money for expensive UNIX software and equipment.

That began changing in 1999. Linux got commercialized by a few distributions. Debian wasn't one of them.

I love debian as a distribution - primarily as a server. I can make it a desktop and so can many other experienced Linux people.

As I duck in preparation of scrapnal flying, I often recommend Ubuntu to new users with one caveat - don't forget debian and ultimately think about going back to it if you want to become techncial and a Linux pro.

I'm really proud of the people at Lxer who spoke up for a more diplomatic and helpful approach to your question.

In 1995, Linus estimated the total Linux community numbered 30,000.

In 2005, it's closer to 30 million and perhaps 300 million. It's difficult to track free software useage. Some analysts suggest that 30 million people use embedded Linux alone.
TxtEdMacs

Oct 06, 2005
10:43 AM EDT
varahan - Glad to see you did not give up despite the positive encouragement you received by some to do so. If you like Mandrake and Debian, I suggest you try Ubuntu too. Also their support tends to be more friendly and forgiving. If you go that route start here: http://ubuntuforums.org/index.php

It was nice reading your comments on several threads today. Welcome back!
ffreeloader

Oct 24, 2005
1:17 PM EDT
Hi All,

I'm a newbie to this site, but not to forums.

I read this thread with interest and I must say that tuxtom has probably forgotten just how much help he has received along his journey in Linux Land. I remember my first few forays into Linux and how lost I was. I didn't know enough Linux "lingo" to know how to Google for Linux info. I could, and did, use Google a lot at that time but wasn't fluent enough with Linux to phrase my searches well enough to get very relevant responses.

I owe a lot to the kind people on the debian-user mailing list. They have given me a lot of help. To the OP here, I would recommend that you use it. It's a very good resource. Just go to the Debian site http://www.debian.org/MailingLists/ and register to use it.

To those who would say that Linux users are the only elitests out there I would say that you probably haven't used the Microsoft mailing lists very much. When I first started really learning a few things about computing I would go there and ask questions. As I was completely self-taught at that time my knowledge of terminology was very poor. I knew what I was talking about, but couldn't express it in terms that the majority of people reading the MS mailing lists understood. They took it to mean I knew absolutely nothing about my computer, and many of them flamed me pretty unmercilessly as being a total loser who should just quit trying to alter my system in any way.

Elitests aren't peculiar to Linux in any way, shape, or form. There are a lot of people using any OS that would rather spend an hour dumping on newbies and then defending their actions when called on it, than spend the 2 minutes it takes to help someone by posting a relevant link. It's just human nature, not Linux user nature....
Bob_Robertson

Oct 27, 2005
4:04 PM EDT
One shortcut easily taken is to write a /etc/resolv.conf file with just the IP address of one of your ISPs name servers.

resolv.conf is normally written by your DHCP client, so one way to know if DHCP is working is to see if the file is there at all, and/or if it is correct.

I have never seen the advice "Read The Fine Manual" be helpful, in its most basic instance because if the user had known which of the endless places to look for the information in the first place, they wouldn't have asked the question.

For instance, the first time I installed BOA, I didn't know where the directory was to store the web files in. No where in the manual page or /usr/share/doc did it mention it. The Debian package maintainer was at first furious until I wrote back saying all the places I had looked before writing to him. Only after this was he mollified and wrote back "/var/www/". How much stress would have been saved if he had taken far less time than his "WHY DIDN'T YOU LOOK IN THE..." etc.

It turns out it was explicitly defined in the /etc/boa.conf file, but as a newbie I didn't know that file existed. It was only through experience that "look in /etc" became a habit.

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