Forcing static address in 12.04

[Karl Auer]

On Wed, 2015-06-10 at 15:52 -0700, rikona wrote:
> BUT - Unfortunately, all the GUI network tools are still missing. I
> now see how to set it up with CLI tools, [and thanks to all, and Karl
> in particular, for helping me to learn how], but I miss my simple,
> fast GUI tools. :-) Any idea how to get them back?

You rally don't need them unless you re planningto make frequent changes
to your networking setuo, but if you really want them::

sudo apt-get install network-manager

If that says NM is already installed, try this:

sudo start network-manager
ps ax | grep Networkmanager | grep -v grep

If you see any lines with "NetworkManager" in them, NM is probably
running. If not, check whether there is a file
called /etc/init/network-manager.override" and move it out to somewhere
else. Then try starting NetworkManager again.

If you can't start NetworkManager, I suggest uninstalling it and
re-installing it. Note that this will have NO EFFECT on your networking
setup (yet), because that is safely in /etc/network:

   sudo apt-get purge network-manager
   sudo apt-get install network-manager

That should install and start NetworkManager and nm-applet, and you
should be good to go.

Once NM is running, you will need to do this to hand over control to NM:

- sudo ifdown eth0
- comment out all lines in /etc/network/interfaces that relate to eth0
- save the changes
- sudo restart network-manager

At this point NM should try to take over the port. You will still have
to use the "Edit Connections" interface to set up your static address -
unless you have correctly configured the router to do a reservation for
the desired address, in which case everything is already as it should
be.
 
Let us know how you go...

> I'd like to know the underlying pgm names for the several GUI network
> tools, and sub-tools, that come up. If someone could tell me, or say
> where I can learn those, I'd appreciate it. This would likely help me
> when trying to restore them or work with them.

They usually provide name information in their title bars, or in help ->
about. If all else fails, start one then look at "ps ax" in a terminal
for likely candidates.

> Again, MANY thanks for the help! Nice to be running again...

Sad that we still don't really know what the problem was.

Regards, K.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)
http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer
http://twitter.com/kauer389

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