IP Address Problems

[Michael J. Lynch]

dan wrote:
> And auth eth0 has been added to the end of /etc/network/interfaces on
> the laptop as well.
> 
<snip>

Something is writing to the interfaces file that should not be.  Nothing
except configuration utilities (GUI network config) should be writing to
this file.  The problem is *auth...* is an invalid keyword.  If this is
being written prior to boot time initialization of networking, it may
cause network configuration to fail.  Are you sure it's "auth" and not
"auto".  Even so, nothing should be writing to the file at boot time.

Your splash screen switching to text mode only happens if one of the
boot time rc scripts fails.  Something in your boot sequence has failed
and my guess is it has something to do with networking.

Try removing the appended line from your interfaces file, change the
mode of the file to read only (sudo chmod a-w /etc/network/interfaces),
then reboot and see what happens.  If this works, then the problem is
definitely something prior to network initialization.  If the problem
happens again, check mode and content of the interfaces file to see if
either have changed.  If so, something is replacing the file.

I just had another thought.  Your DHCP client may be at fault too.  Take
a look at /etc/dhcp3/dhclient.conf.  See if there is a section starting
that looks like:

lease {
	interface "eth0"
		.
		.
		.
}

If so, comment it out, especially if there is a keywork "fixed-address"
in that section.

-- 
Michael J. Lynch

What if the hokey pokey IS what it's all about -- author unknown