Red Hat 9 ethernet IP problems

I just finished installing Red Hat 9 (my first Linux experience). I can't connect to the web because I get an error message when I try to activate my ethernet card (eth0). It says soemthing like it could not determine the IP.

This multiboot PC is conencted to a home network where 4 PCs are sharing a cable modem via a router. My public IP is variable (changes about once per month), but my internal IPs seem to stay pretty much satic. There is no server on this network yet.

Also if you know how to get Acronis OS Selector to see my Red Hat 9 install I'd like to know how. Right now I have to boot from a boot floppy. I did not have it install Lilo or the other choice during set up for fear it would wipe Acronis.

Thanks,

Linux Noobie
 
If the card is detected and no errors are found during start up then I would suggest that you check to see if your card is set to use any available IP. KDE has a device manager. I think Gnome has one as well. One possible but unlikely issue could be that your router is not Linux compatible. I think all are but some of the older stuff might not be.
 
Posted this using Red Hat 9

1. Check your settings (in KDE) Start/System Settings/Network...............check to see if your network card has been detected and configured.
I also found that changing the hostname under the DNS tab from localhost. to your own name(or any other name) allowed a quicker boot up!

2. Also check Start/system tools/network device control..........you may need to "activate"
 
Markbot said:
I just finished installing Red Hat 9 (my first Linux experience). I can't connect to the web because I get an error message when I try to activate my ethernet card (eth0). It says soemthing like it could not determine the IP.

This multiboot PC is conencted to a home network where 4 PCs are sharing a cable modem via a router. My public IP is variable (changes about once per month), but my internal IPs seem to stay pretty much satic. There is no server on this network yet.

Also if you know how to get Acronis OS Selector to see my Red Hat 9 install I'd like to know how. Right now I have to boot from a boot floppy. I did not have it install Lilo or the other choice during set up for fear it would wipe Acronis.

Thanks,

Linux Noobie
Are you using DHCP for your internal network, or do you have static IPs set for each machine? You may have your eth0 using DHCP, when you really need to set the IP, gateway, and DNS IP addresses manually...
 
ipdave said:
Are you using DHCP for your internal network, or do you have static IPs set for each machine? You may have your eth0 using DHCP, when you really need to set the IP, gateway, and DNS IP addresses manually...
First of all, I'm not a network guru. So I'm 99% sure I haven't set up DHCP. No one has to logon to my network. I just hook PCs up and the router assigns them an IP. That IP doesn't seem to ever change.

When I try to activate the card is when I get the IP address error. I believe it is trying to use DHCP. So I will try to figure out how to set the IP, Gateway, etc.

That is after I reinstall. I installed Red Hat 9 without a hitch. Then I tried to install WinLinux 2003 under my Windows 98SE installation which is on the same hard drive as Red Hat 9. It seems that WinLinux fragged my Red Hat 9 install. Neither will work. So I went back to Partition Magic, wiped the partition and will soon start over. I might just forget about WinLinux this time.

Recommendations?
 
I would recommend either dedicating a separate drive or partition to RH and installing it as dual-boot (make a boot floppy when it asks you in case you mess up your boot partition by reinstalling windows later).
Another option is to use VMWare (expensive though). This way you can load within windows and share all the hardware via the VMWare drivers to the Windows hardware. This is the most compatible solution sometimes.

By installing both WinLinux and RH, you probably overwrote either system files or the swap partition(s), which will give you grief...
 
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