Mandriva 2007 install by newbie [solved]

[arctic]

While booting up I see a message "bringing up eth0", I think, and a green OK. Then there is a pause of about 30 seconds after which there is a line "waiting for the network to be up" invariably showing a red "Failed". Thereafter the boot process goes on smoothly. I have no problem accessing the Internet.

The system will try to set up the dhcp connection, that means that it tries to create a stable connection from the network card to the modem/router. If it doesn't work immediately, that ain't a big problem, as it will try to establish a connection several times before completely giving up. As long as you get a working internet conenction, leave that alone.

I looked at the file /etc/sysconfig/network and found an entry there about NETWORKING=yes (I think), which I deleted. I did this thinking the system was trying to bring up my local area network, and I do not have any. This made no difference to the above behaviour. Then I tried NETWORKING=no, which did have an effect: ADSL could not connect to the Internet! The question is, what is the system trying to do and why does it always fail (I suppose it is time limited)? I should mention that I did not get this pause or message with Linux 9.1.

Do not change the "network" file if it is not needed. It handles all important things for your network-connection. "Networking=yes" I guess quite self-explanatory. Start the network connection? Yes/No. Where shall I connect to? What protcol shall I use? All these things are configured in that file. If you want to learn about what to change and where, take a look at this howto that explains quite well how internet connections and config-files work . http://www.iwpcs.co.uk/simple_net_setup.html

An even smaller issue is that all text is fuzzier on the Linux screens compared to the Windows screens. The hardware is the same (I am dual booting) and the monitor settings are identical, so I don't know why there should be a difference and whether anything can be done about it.

 

Regards....R.Singh

As already said: Go into the control center and try different font settings / different fonts. This is always a bit of trial and error and a question about personal preferences.

 

Cheers. :)

[r.singh]

Thank you for your advice and patience. I will try not to bother you or the other experts on the forum, because I think you have given me a good start and I should be able to manage on my own (for a while, at least, I hope!).

Thanks and regards...R.Singh

[r.singh]

Please look in /var/log/messages for a detailed error message regarding eth0 and post this.

 

Regarding the fonts, I believe you can turn off anti-aliasing from the (KDE) Control Center. I am at work now on a W2K machine so I am relying on my frequently inadequate memory...

 

Please forgive my apparent failure to respond to your post, above. I have still not learnt to manage the forum posts well and missed your message entirely, until I spotted it today, by chance!

 

I have turned off anti-aliasing. Perhaps it will take effect after the next reboot, because right now the text remains fuzzy. Images, however, have always been as good as those in Windows, which I should have mentioned in my post to arctic.

 

I have posted below an excerpt from /var/log/messages as advised. The file is very long. I looked for "eth0" and "failed" and the occurence of this combination during today's bootup is what I have copied and pasted. I love the fact that so much information is supplied by the Linux system, though it will take some weeks of reading before I begin to understand any of it!

 

Mar 1 09:03:42 localhost ifplugd(eth0)[2397]: Using interface eth0/00:50:FC:B4:1B:5C with driver <via-rhine> (version: 1.2.0-2.6)

Mar 1 09:03:42 localhost ifplugd(eth0)[2397]: Using detection mode: SIOCETHTOOL

Mar 1 09:03:42 localhost ifplugd(eth0)[2397]: Initialization complete, link beat detected.

Mar 1 09:03:42 localhost ifplugd(eth0)[2397]: Executing '/etc/ifplugd/ifplugd.action eth0 up'.

Mar 1 09:03:44 localhost dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 6

Mar 1 09:03:50 localhost dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 11

Mar 1 09:04:01 localhost dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 7

Mar 1 09:04:07 localhost kernel: usbcore: registered new driver usblp

Mar 1 09:04:07 localhost kernel: drivers/usb/class/usblp.c: v0.13: USB Printer Device Class driver

Mar 1 09:04:07 localhost avahi-daemon[3245]: Found user 'avahi' (UID 72) and group 'avahi' (GID 72).

Mar 1 09:04:07 localhost avahi-daemon[3245]: Successfully dropped root privileges.

Mar 1 09:04:07 localhost avahi-daemon[3245]: avahi-daemon 0.6.13 starting up.

Mar 1 09:04:07 localhost avahi-daemon[3245]: WARNING: No NSS support for mDNS detected, consider installing nss-mdns!

Mar 1 09:04:07 localhost avahi-daemon[3245]: Failed to read /etc/avahi/services.

Mar 1 09:04:07 localhost avahi-daemon[3245]: socket() failed: Address family not supported by protocol

Mar 1 09:04:07 localhost avahi-daemon[3245]: Network interface enumeration completed.

Mar 1 09:04:07 localhost avahi-daemon[3245]: Registering HINFO record with values 'I686'/'LINUX'.

Mar 1 09:04:07 localhost avahi-daemon[3245]: Server startup complete. Host name is localhost.local. Local service cookie is 2697511220.

Mar 1 09:04:07 localhost kernel: ip_tables: © 2000-2006 Netfilter Core Team

Mar 1 09:04:08 localhost dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 15

Mar 1 09:04:09 localhost kernel: Netfilter messages via NETLINK v0.30.

Mar 1 09:04:09 localhost kernel: ip_conntrack version 2.4 (2039 buckets, 16312 max) - 224 bytes per conntrack

Mar 1 09:04:09 localhost kdm_config[3385]: Invalid option value 'All' at /usr/share/config/kdm/kdmrc:359

Mar 1 09:04:15 localhost kernel: ClusterIP Version 0.8 loaded successfully

Mar 1 09:04:16 localhost kernel: ipt_recent v0.3.1: Stephen Frost <sfrost@snowman.net>. http://snowman.net/projects/ipt_recent/

Mar 1 09:04:23 localhost dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 20

Mar 1 09:04:31 localhost kernel: CSLIP: code copyright 1989 Regents of the University of California

Mar 1 09:04:31 localhost kernel: PPP generic driver version 2.4.2

Mar 1 09:04:34 localhost kernel: netfilter PSD loaded - © astaro AG

Mar 1 09:04:34 localhost kernel: IFWLOG: register target

Mar 1 09:04:35 localhost logger: Shorewall started

Mar 1 09:04:42 localhost net_applet[5382]: ### Program is starting ###

Mar 1 09:04:43 localhost dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 2

Mar 1 09:04:44 localhost mdkapplet[5385]: ### Program is starting ###

Mar 1 09:04:45 localhost dhclient: No DHCPOFFERS received.

Mar 1 09:04:45 localhost ifplugd(eth0)[2397]: client: Determining IP information for eth0... failed.

Mar 1 09:04:45 localhost ifplugd(eth0)[2397]: Program execution failed, return value is 1.

Mar 1 09:04:45 localhost ifplugd(eth0)[2397]: Exiting.

Mar 1 09:04:55 localhost mdkapplet[5385]: Checking config file: Not present

Mar 1 09:23:11 localhost gconfd (rumi-5458): starting (version 2.14.0), pid 5458 user 'rumi'

Mar 1 09:23:11 localhost gconfd (rumi-5458): Resolved address "xml:readonly:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.mandatory" to a read-only configuration source at position 0

Mar 1 09:23:11 localhost gconfd (rumi-5458): Resolved address "xml:readonly:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.local-mandatory" to a read-only configuration source at position 1

Mar 1 09:23:11 localhost gconfd (rumi-5458): Resolved address "xml:readwrite:/home/rumi/.gconf" to a writable configuration source at position 2

Mar 1 09:23:11 localhost gconfd (rumi-5458): Resolved address "xml:readonly:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.local-defaults" to a read-only configuration source at position 3

Mar 1 09:23:11 localhost gconfd (rumi-5458): Resolved address "xml:readonly:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.defaults" to a read-only configuration source at position 4

Mar 1 09:23:17 localhost net_applet[5382]: running: /usr/sbin/net_monitor --defaultintf ppp0

Mar 1 09:23:17 localhost net_applet[5382]: running: /usr/sbin/net_monitor --defaultintf ppp0