internet access

[coustasse]

I was directed to your topic https://mandrivausers.org/index.php?showtopic=41331 by "my.computing net". as this may well have a relation to my own problem. I see the topic is listed as solved/closed. So may I ask another question.

The advice in the above thread concerns linux 2007. I have Powerpack 2008, and Windows XPPro-SP2, both on the same hard disk. My Internet connection, broadband, is on Windows.

The relevant advice, which solved the problem, concerns adding an entry in /etc/modprobe.preload. In pp2008 this reads modprobe.preload.d and contains two text files "cpufreq" and "floppy". "Floppy" just says "floppy"; "cpufreq" lists mainly cpufreq items.

My question is simply one of how and in what terms do I add VIA-rhine II to this preload list (presumably in "cpufreq"? ).

Edited December 3, 2007 by coustasse

[Greg2]

The relevant advice, which solved the problem, concerns adding an entry in /etc/modprobe.preload. In pp2008 this reads modprobe.preload.d and contains two text files "cpufreq" and "floppy". "Floppy" just says "floppy"; "cpufreq" lists mainly cpufreq items.

My question is simply one of how and in what terms do I add VIA-rhine II to this preload list (presumably in "cpufreq"? ).

Your modprobe.preload.d is a directory, you need to add via-rhine to your /etc/modprobe.preload file. Do this as shown in the thread you've linked in your post. Mandriva 2008 has an /etc/modprobe.preload file.

 

Welcome to the board! :)

[coustasse]

Ah! I'll put my specs on this time. And via-rhine is sufficient without being more specific. Thanks.

I may have an access problem but that is a different matter. Like the bike.

[coustasse]

In connection with trying to solve an internet access problem....

How do I get write (and edit) rights for root files?

I have one PC AMD64, with Windows XpPro-SP2 and Mandriva powerpack2008 on separate files on the same HD.

Mandriva shows me as owner and the sole user. If I try to log on as ‘root’ I get ‘root logins are not allowed’.

There is a password that opens the Control Centre. I can open Konsole and open files but cannot edit. ‘check that you have write access to this file…..’

How?

[ianw1974]

If you want to edit files protected by the system, once you have the console window open type:

 

su

 

you will then be prompted for the superuser, or if you like root password. Give the one you set for the root account when you set the system up. You can then make changes to the files that you want to change.

 

The systems by default are set up to stop people logging in as root, because this is unsecure. You only need to use root privileges when the time comes. Having root privileges by default, is the reason why Windows is so unsecure and gets affected by spyware, viruses, etc, etc. Generally, it's bad practice to login as an admin/root account by default. From Windows 2003 onwards, they tend to encourage you to do what Linux has been doing for years.

[spinynorman]

In connection with trying to solve an internet access problem....

There's no need to start a new thread for this, so I've merged the two topics. :)

[Mitchell]

If you're on the right track to solving this, just ignore my post. That said, I don't understand why you need to edit any files to get your internet conneciton working. You said that "My Internet connection, broadband, is on Windows." This makes no sense to me. Mandriva should be able to detect your internet connection, and use your hardware to do so. It's possible your hardware isn't supported by Mandriva, but have you tried everything to check this? Mandriva seems to support a very wide range of hardware configurations, especially ethernet (assuming that's what you're using). What do you mean by "My Internet connection, broadband, is on Windows."?

[coustasse]

I mean that the internet connection is on Windows XPPro.

Yes I know that Linux will normally pick this up automatically, as it did the first time that I installed Powerpack2008 after first installing LinuxOne.

But for various reasons I had to reinstall Windows (twice) and Powerpack (finally a supposedly complete reinstallation).

And from that point, and over the last ten days or so I cannot get Linux reconnected. The Internet button down right of the screen claims to be connected and shows the correct data. But the connection still does not work. I have had a long discussion over on Computing.Net I have now edited modprobe.preload by adding via-rhine, as suggested in one of your forums. But still no joy.

I begin to wonder if something in Windows is blocking the link from Linux. But I am no expert (you had noticed?) :)

[Greg2]

You could try adding this line

alias eth0 via_rhine

to your /etc/modprobe.conf file. Replacing eth0 (if that's not your interface) with the one you're using. Then try using the gui to set up your network interface again.

[coustasse]

I have an internet connection problem because mandriva isn't automatically configuring my vt6102 settings. Can anyone tell me how to manually configure the VIA VT6102?

Perhaps that should be VIA Rhine II Fast Ethernet Adapter

 

NB..Greg. I found the entry was already as you noted it and played about with it (tried eth1 for instance), but no joy. Thanks all the same.

Edited December 9, 2007 by coustasse

[AussieJohn]

Mitchell makes an excellent point. Windows XP is NOT your connection to Broadband and the Internet.

Your connection to Broadband Internet is EITHER Windows XP or it is Mandriva 2008 depending on which is the running OS at the time.

All that is happening at the moment is that when you are running Windows, your Windows settings within Windows for connecting to the Internet are correct.

 

When you are running Mandriva, your Mandriva settings within Mandriva for connecting to the Internet are INCORRECT.

 

Windows and Mandriva have nothing to do with oneanother regarding connecting to the Internet.

 

I suggest you open up MCC (Mandriva Control Centre) and go into Network and Internet and carefully go through each section in there to set up your internet connection. Default settings are usually adequate. Don't look for secretive complications, there aren't any.

 

Are you using a LAN connected ADSL Modem or are you using a USB connected ADSL Modem ???. If you are using USB then I am not surprised you are having problems. Do what most every one else does, use LAN instead. If you are using LAN then under no circumstances select ADSL in MCC even though it is ADSL Broadband. This is a common mistake and the source of a lot of time wasting and hair tearing.

I have a strong feeling you are over complicating the issue for something that now days is relatively simple and straight forward.

 

I wish you success and you will find as most of us have already discovered.................Mandriva (Linux) is really not so hard at all.

 

Cheers. John.

[Mitchell]

I agree with John. Coustasse, something's not quite right here. For a start, Mandriva is very easy to use. Secondly, according to your last post you have had networking happening in Linux before, it's only with this last reinstallation it's not working properly. Also, as you've now been messing about with settings and config files, chances are you've botched something up. Are you able currently to connect to the internet through MS Windows? If not, then perhaps the problem is with your modem, or connection itself. If you are, then something's happened in Mandriva. If it's within Mandriva, and if your connection was previously working in another installation of the same version (powerpack 2008, you said), the most likely case is that you've somehow botched it up. Either that, or some update you've installed since then isn't playing happy with your system. Try John's advice, and see if that helps. If not, then try and think really carefully about what are the exact steps you did this time that you didn't do last time you installed 2008. There's a difference somewhere that's making things difficult, and I think it will be something really simple. I don't think you'll have much luck continuing to play around with config files, unless you need to put them back the way they were previously.

 

Reinstalling is rarely supported in these forums, so I won't waste my breathe telling you to when I'll likely be contradicted in the next post. That said, if there's anyway you can return your settings to where they were before you started editing config files, then try and find the problem by there, you'll probably have more luck. Cheers.

[coustasse]

Thanks both. Any settings I have tentatively changed I have always reversed when I found they did not work. I will check thro the Mandriva internet configuration settings (yet again) using John's advice. I didn't have to do anything the first time, Linux just picked up the connection automatically which is what is so puzzling this time.

But I have remembered a change that may be relevant. I recall that when Linux was first installed the modem was on a USB connection on Windows ME** and that was what Linux picked up. (I had retained ME alongside XP for a music scripting program that XP did not support, and had kept the modem installation there as I had so many problems with the initial installation.)

When, of necessity, I reinstalled Linux the modem had been connected on an ethernet connection and installed thro XP**. I had used the old ME space to enlarge the main Linux partition. After this Linux no longer picked up the internet connection.

May be of no relevance. I will check John's point about ADSL.

 

**Yes I understand what you say about two separate systems, all I mean is that I was in ME or XP when I connected the modem and relevant software (club-internet etc) is installed there. Linux no doubt has its own ways of connecting.

Edited December 10, 2007 by coustasse

[scarecrow]

To connect to the net you need one of these things:

1. A modem

2. A router

3. A gateway

Or, possibly, more than one of the above.

 

"My Internet connection, broadband, is on Windows" says absolutely nothing about the issue... you need to be more specific (router, modem or gateway used, plus info about the way you connect to that).

[coustasse]

– I am sorry if I am not fluent in computer jargon. I can not explain things in the correct technical language, nor can I understand much of it.

 

- If I say the broadband connection is on XP, I mean, as I have explained, that I used XP for the installation of the modem which gives me the broadband (you may call it ADSL) connection. The software for installation was only for Windows and the files and regedit info are all on XP. If Linux can bypass that and pickup the internet connection, so be it. I have already accepted this. I do not understand, but on this occasion I do not need to understand.

 

- I do not crash around the computer files like a bull in a china shop. I learnt a long time ago not to do that. Any files, like modprobe, ipconfig, sysconfig, that I have looked at, I have either copied (to post in a forum) or changed in accordance with advice on a forum and changed back when it had no effect. The connection failure, in any case, is evident immediately after installation of Linux.

 

- “the most likely case is that you've somehow botched it up………if there's anyway you can return your settings to where they were before you started editing config filesâ€. I have hardly touched anything since the last, necessary, re-installation.

 

- OK. The problem here seems simple. When I first installed Linux (One then Powerpack 2008) it automatically, as it should, picked up Internet even though it was a USB connection. Now it will not pick up the connection, which is now on an Ethernet connection. Yes, I know that †Mandriva should be able to detect your internet connection†but it does not. I have left it to automatic configuration so far. I will take John's advice and have a look at it manually.

 

- I really am not trying to complicate things. I know perfectly well that the answer to the problem is something simple. But finding the simple solution is not necessarily a simple matter. None of the suggestions offered in the past two weeks has worked. So I post a lot of burble in the hope that it sparks off a click in someone’s memory.

 

- The enquiry about VIA RhineII results from a suggestion that “The problem is that mandriva isn't automatically configuring your vt6102 settings and I'm not familiar with Linux startup configurations enough to figure it out….†referring me to the “Linux gurus†for assistance, and suggesting that I could try installing a second Ethernet adapter (and explaining patiently what an ethernet adapter is).

 

- The internet connection is: Ethernet socket to modem to telephone socket on wall. I installed it with the aid of the club-internet disk – in French. Routers I know nothing about.

 

- John and Mitchell, I can post details of the installation which is basically AMD64/Geforce7300 (I hope that means something) if you think it might help. I can dig up details of the modem if necessary. It all works very well on Windows.

 

- Sorry. I have had a bad weekend, a bad Monday, and a lousy morning. Believe it or not I appreciate your help. Please accept that while I am ignorant of computer technology and jargon, I am not an idiot (in my time senior architect, senior planner, univ. lecturer and I have taught computer literacy – believe it!). Problem-solving is my scene, and I am damned if I’ll be beat by this thing, but I need technical help. I want so much to give Linux a good work out and this internet thing is …er…shall we say frustrating. There is a list of about 80 files waiting to be loaded/updated, according to the update button (I didn’t ask it – it told me), plus the cedega engine.

(me) (you)

Edited December 12, 2007 by coustasse