When the network configuration tool does not work

Forum: Networking
Topic: When the network configuration tool does not work
started by: jgombos

Posted by jgombos on Nov. 04 2006,19:28

After booting DSL, I manually enter the following commands to get my wifi network going:

* ifconfig rausb0 inet 192.168.x.x up
* route add default gateway 192.168.x.y

I know I can simply put those lines in an init.d script to make it work forcefully, but I'd like to know if there's a better approach, working with the DSL system rather than against it.

The network configuration tool does not find my rausb0 wifi network device. Is there a configuration file somewhere that I can edit that won't be overwritten by an autogenerator?

Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on Nov. 05 2006,05:40

The script I'm assuming you're referring to is 'netcardconfig'. I think it only sees wlanX and ethX

Usually system specific non-X stuff that is required for startup is placed in /opt/bootlocal.sh

Posted by jgombos on Nov. 05 2006,17:59

Thanks, but that's not what I was after. I don't know exactly what the file does, but I think it's too generic. My objective was to find all the network specific config files. I edited /etc/sysconfig/network, and added a file to /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts and all that was ignored. Those files should probably be removed from the distro so other users are not mislead.

I found that ifup -a is called from /etc/init.d/networking. That tool looks at the /etc/network/interfaces file. So I added the network settings for my rausb0 device to the interfaces file, and was able to bring up the network manually by executing ifup rausb0.

The next issue was that ifup -a brings up all network devices automagically, as long as they are marked "auto" in the /etc/network/interfaces file. So I had to add "auto rausb0" to the file. Now the network comes up every on boot.

The only issue that remains is I cannot change the hostname. I changed the /etc/hostname file to give it a new hostname, but that file is ignored.

Posted by roberts on Nov. 05 2006,20:30

It would appear that you are doing a traditional hard drive install.
That is not really the focus of this distro. There are many ways to accomplish some tasks. The challenge comes when a single method will work for all the various ways DSL is installed, most of which are readonly compressed images. Editing files all across the filesystem works for traditional installs, it can however becomes unyieldy when faced with the compressed image way. Most of the answers on this forum tries to avoid that and provide a common simple approach that works. Experienced users comming to DSL biggest challenge is realize our approach leans towards the compressed image solutions.

Posted by jgombos on Nov. 05 2006,21:25

I was surprized to find that all the linux distros that focus on lean desktops for old machines are live CDs (DSL, Feather linux, DeLi linux), when old hardware that's sufficiently deprived of RAM can't afford ramdisks. I went with a hard drive install because I have plenty of HDD space, and performance is better when more memory is available.

Understanding that DSL is intended as a liveCD, it also seems to cater to remastered live CDs. So HD installations and those with remastered CDs are probably also better off altering the config files, as opposed to the /opt folder. I'm thinking the /opt folder is only particularly useful to users of an unaltered live CD.

Posted by roberts on Nov. 05 2006,22:32

while I am sure many have remastered DSL, there is quite a following that do not, yet have the advantage of many application extensions via the mydsl way. Their community made collection of extension applications are stored separately on a persistent store of their choosing. /opt is used quite extensively in that manner. With DSL and its fairly frequent updates, it would be a pain to remaster with each new release. That is another advantage of the mydsl way as "updates" to the core become trivial.

Posted by iowaporter on Nov. 13 2006,21:34

The overall question in this thread is a good one. I hope that the existence of some replies does not preclude others from trying to answer the essential question.
What are the scripts that drive the network configuration of an installed version of DSL?
I, like the original author, have plenty of HD space, but not enough RAM to go around. It is much more reasonable to install the distro.
I also want to change the Network configuration, but want to do so in a way that is consistent with the already running scripts.
Thanks.