How do I get the default Network Manager plus dnsmasq-base setup back again?

[Gene Heskett]

On Sunday 13 January 2013 11:17:56 Chris Green did opine:
Message additions Copyright Sunday 13 January 2013 by Gene Heskett

> On Sat, Jan 12, 2013 at 05:55:41PM -0500, Tom H wrote:
> > On Thu, Jan 10, 2013 at 8:33 AM, Chris Green <cl at isbd.net> wrote:
> > > On Wed, Jan 09, 2013 at 05:31:59PM -0500, Tom H wrote:
> > >> On Wed, Jan 9, 2013 at 9:54 AM, Chris Green <cl at isbd.net> wrote:
> > >>> All I get to see in /var/log/syslog (about dnsmasq) is:-
> > >>> 
> > >>>     Jan  9 14:51:03 test NetworkManager[872]: <info> DNS: loaded
> > >>>     plugin dnsmasq
> > >>> 
> > >>> Network Manager continues to report all sorts of other things
> > >>> happening but not a thing about dnsmasq. It's like dnsmasq simply
> > >>> hangs when it's loaded.
> 
> I finally found out what the problem was.  You have to remove
> *everything* from /etc/network/interfaces except the loopback
> interface, otherwise Network Manager assumes a manual configuration and
> does nothing.
> 
> So now my /etc/network/interfaces is:-
> 
>     # this file describes the network interfaces available on your
> system # and how to activate them. For more information, see
> interfaces(5).
> 
>     # The loopback network interface
>     auto lo
>     iface lo inet loopback
> 
> ... and everything is working as it should!  :-)

This is only valid if you have a working dhcp server on your local network.  
That has always seemed to me to be a "single point of failure" for the 
whole MaryAnn.

For me, using hosts files, all identical, that name and IP all the machines 
on my network, has always been the preferred choice because one of them can 
be down without taking the rest of the network down.

So /etc/hosts looks something like this:
-------------------------
127.0.0.1	localhost
192.168.xx.yy	coyote.coyote.den	coyote
192.168.xx.yy	router.coyote.den	router
192.168.xx.yy	shop.coyote.den		shop
192.168.xx.yy	lathe.coyote.den	lathe
192.168.xx.yy	lappy.coyote.den	lappy

# The following lines are desirable for IPv6 capable hosts
::1     localhost ip6-localhost ip6-loopback
fe00::0 ip6-localnet
ff00::0 ip6-mcastprefix
ff02::1 ip6-allnodes
ff02::2 ip6-allrouters
ff02::3 ip6-allhosts
---------------------------
ipv6 has not yet appeared anyplace I have access to.  Shentel, my cable net 
provider, is dragging their feet and I have no clue if the Arris modem even 
has that capability.

I also am a huge fan of a router running the real dd-wrt as a gateway 
between me & the black hats on the far side of my modem.

But, each machine on the net will need its own identifying 
/etc/network/interfaces file, customized for that machine, such as:
------------------------
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.xx.yy
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.xx.yy
-----------------------

and it all Just Works(TM), even if only one machine is alive on the whole 
network.

Cheers, Gene
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