On May 18, 2010, at 1:53 PM, Dan McGee <dpmcgee@gmail.com> wrote:

On Tue, May 18, 2010 at 1:45 PM, Joe(theWordy)Philbrook <jtwdyp@ttlc.net

...

wrote:

Currently my pc is a laptop. I don't use a wireless interface. I connect to the Internet via cable broadband with a wired Ethernet connection and DHCP... This id very reliable. I can usually disconnect the laptop from the Ethernet cable and bring it into the livingroom for various offline use. Then when I bring it back to my desk, all I usually have to to is plug the Ethernet cable back in and wait a few seconds and the Internet will start to work again.

BUT that is contingent on the Ethernet cable having been connected during boot up. So if for example I were to boot up my laptop in the livingroom where there isn't an Ethernet connection the boot process will delay at the point where it's screen message says its starting the network. Then it says it failed and continues setting everything else up.

At this point, if I bring the laptop back to the desk, and plug in the Ethernet cable, it doesn't automatically connect. I tried:

# ifconfig eth0 up

but ping still doesn't find my ISP

What am I missing????

Your dhcp process didn't start either, so you need to start one of those. Something as simple as `dhcpcd -i eth0` might work.

-Dan

You may need to modprobe the module for your Ethernet card. Try lsmod to get it's name.

Hi

Um should he just /etc/rc.d/network restart? That performs everything that happens when the network interface is brought up on system start.

sure you can do that, but why not let the little tool do that for you? A little automagic doesn't harm as long as you know whats going on;) Apart from that ifplugd just controls one interface where the network script starts/stops the whole networking (including 127.0.0.1)...

It would appear that on May 18, Dan McGee did say:

Your dhcp process didn't start either, so you need to start one of those. Something as simple as `dhcpcd -i eth0` might work.

That makes sense Dan, Thanks! While it looks like woldra's suggestion may be the best one, yours gives me a clue as to why ifconfig didn't do it for me... Thanks again. You also made me curious, I will likely try the dhcpcd method at least once to see if it works... It would appear that on May 18, C Anthony Risinger did say:

You may need to modprobe the module for your Ethernet card. Try lsmod to get it's name.

I'm hoping I don't need that because lsmod produces pages of output, none of which sounds like an ethernet card to me... But thanks for pointing out the possibility... It would appear that on May 18, Rafael Correia did say:

Man, I don't that's the point, but here I need to do this:

ifconfig eth0 0.0.0.0

Thanks Rafael, A look at 'man ifconfig' seems to indicate that you are telling it to set the ip address of the interface to 0.0.0.0 though I haven't a clue why you need to do that. If all else fails I'll try it. It would appear that on May 18, woldra@fsfe.org did say:

ifplugd is your friend .... it detects the calble being plugged in and brings the interface up.

Thanks woldra, I never heard of ifplugd before... have to admit, what I learned with a quick scroogle search on it tells me that it's probably my best option. Especially if it really only affects the ethernet connection. But 'man ifplugd' is rather terse. After doing a 'pacman -S ifplugd' will I need to add it to the daemons list in my rc.conf??? It would appear that on May 18, Kaiting Chen did say:

Um should he just /etc/rc.d/network restart? That performs everything that happens when the network interface is brought up on system start.

Thank you Kaiting. This might even turn out to be necessary, the boot up screen messages don't specify what "starting the network" failed to do. So if ifplugd doesn't do it, I'll probably go this route... It would appear that on May 19, woldra@fsfe.org did say:

...

Um should he just /etc/rc.d/network restart? That performs everything that happens when the network interface is brought up on system start.

sure you can do that, but why not let the little tool do that for you? A little automagic doesn't harm as long as you know whats going on;) Apart from that ifplugd just controls one interface where the network script starts/stops the whole networking (including 127.0.0.1)...

So then I'm guessing that means that if a process is using the local loopback interface when a "/etc/rc.d/network restart" is issued, then that process my crash or hang etc... ??? It would appear that on May 18, Kaiting Chen did say:

I see I've never heard of ifplugd but it looks like the best solution. What I was referring to was that /etc/rc.d/network restart is preferable to ifconfig in that it will start up dhcpcd for you.

Well Kaiting, While woldra's ifplugd suggestion does sound like the best solution, YOUR suggestion, and that of Dan McGee, seem to explain what I was missing with my ifconfig idea... Which is what I actualy asked... I'd like to thank all of you very much for the kind suggestions. This thread will definitely be copied to my "LinuxClues" folder for future reference. -- | ~^~ ~^~ | <*> <*> Joe (theWordy) Philbrook | ^ J(tWdy)P | \___/ <<jtwdyp@ttlc.net>>