Re: Troubleshooting connection loss (continued)

Bit Twister wrote:
On Fri, 09 Nov 2007 16:36:24 GMT, Allen Weiner wrote:
Bit Twister wrote:
On Fri, 09 Nov 2007 04:22:10 GMT, Allen Weiner wrote:
This problem is frustrating. I firmly believe (with almost no supporting evidence) that a reboot to regain a lost Internet connection should be a last resort.
I agree.

I might have missed it, but is that first boot after winME was running?

I'm not sure what you're asking.

What I was after is the sequences of boots with regard to what was
running before the boot. Example: Both systems are set dhcp.

Boot WinMe and run for awhile.
boot fedora and some time later connection goes down
boot fedora and no problem

If connection failure is always in that order, then my theory is the router
remembers the dhcp lease assigned to doze and cannot get a renewal
when you are running fedora on your first boot.

That will cause the connection drop and the router will refuse
traffic connections with fedore.

I was guessing winME was not Releasing the lease on shutdown.
You boot fedora, it gets the connection up on it's old lease contents,
But, does not get a lease renewal from the router.

Why does reboot not have the problem you ask.

When you reboot, while going down, fedora sends a lease cancel to router, comes up, and the router and fedora shake hands over lease
info and have no problems thereafter.

If you are asking about the time that Fedora became unbootable, here is the history:

1. WinME ran with static IP on 11/3
2. Fedora ran OK with static IP on 11/4
3. Fedora failed to boot on 11/5.

Here I would be guessing,
o you used the dhcp ip addresses as static
o router still thought the ip address was DHCP
o lease expired
o no new lease negotiated and refused the connection to 192.168.1.47

And/Or /etc/hosts not set per my sugestions and gave you the hard time. :)

Interesting theory. I don't have detailed recollection of what happened. Maybe while in troubleshooting mode I need to keep a log book.

You commented that it is OK to have dual boot where Linux uses static IP and Windows uses dynamic IP. To keep things simple, this is the config I would prefer.

Yes, but we are troubleshooting here and need to reduce the suspect list
and get a known working baseline with the least amount of interaction.

Assuming Verizon does not get into the mix, I see no setup problem
with doing what you want. IF you use a different static ip, no
localhost node name, /etc/hosts set as asked.

I kinda thought that when I configured for static IP, something was being permanently stored in flash memory in the NIC

I do not think so.

and/or modem/router.

Yes, and I am guessing the router is the problem. Why you ask. If it
was fedora, the reboot should have the same problem as a normal boot.

I thought that if I left Windows with dynamic IP, it would undo those flash changes I configured from Fedora.

But you left static ip same as dhcp and if the lease is not renewed, modem
will drop the connection to 192.168.1.47.

That is why I wanted your fedora
/etc/hosts file set somewhat as follows:
$ head -3 /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1 localhost
192.168.1.140 fedora.home.invalid fedora
192.168.1.1 gateway


$ cat /etc/sysconfig/network
NETWORKING=yes
HOSTNAME=fedora.home.invalid

and you have set eth0 up as static for ip 192.168.1.140

I've been going over your suggested changes from both threads.

Yeah, but your piecemeal approach about putting in my suggestions is
causing more problems. :(

Thanks for your patience.

Upside is, all the experience/knowledge you are gaining. :)

Agreed. I feel these threads are a really worthwhile learning experience. I appreciate all the information and help you are giving me.

For the time being, I want to make only changes needed for troubleshooting.

So far you are fighting me on getting the job done. :-D
What I have been after is:

Get fedora in a normal configuration (node/hosts).
Static connection with ip address different than dhcp ip.
Power reset modem, prove fedora boots, reboots and runs without problems.

If so, that would leave fedora's dhcp client as a suspect.
That is ruled out because you say after reboot, fedora does not have
the problem when runinnig dhcp.

To cut modem's dhcp server out of the loop, set static ips and verify
connection does not have problems.

With both OSs set static different ips, and booting winME/fedora does not
have connection drops, you now have isolated the modem as the culprit.

Now, you boot doze, change it back to dhcp, reboot doze, boot fedora.
Connection drops you know the modem is causing the problem and have a
working solution to fall back on.

For now, I'm not concerned about apps which want to communicate over
127.0.0.1.

HAHAHAHHaHahahaha, cough, cough, choke. whew....

Did you remember when sendmail stalled your boot.

On normal setups/install, 127.0.0.1 localhost is in /etc/hosts.

On your system you named your node localhost and the ip address comes
in from the nic. When the network fails to come up, you start seeing
problems. So far you have been lucky, connection comes up, localhost
ip addy resolves to 192.168.1.47 and all is well.

When node named localhost, cannot be resolved, you will see problems.

I'm concerned about making changes that will render Fedora unbootable. (I've already had a close call with the change to static IP). I don't have the experience to repair Fedora if it becomes unbootable.

I hear where you are comming from. Had /etc/hosts contained the 127.0.0.1 localhost, you would not have had the problem.

Trust me. give your node a FQDN with a name beside localhost.
In a static setup, a line with ip FQDN alias in /etc/hosts with a 127.0.0.1 localhost line.

Here is my suggestion:

Get into the network gui, set it static 192.168.1.150 with a
node/domain name as fedora.home.invalid, 192.168.1.1 as your DNS
server. Close the gui.

cat these files and verify contents. If not the same, use an editor and fix them

# cat /etc/sysconfig/network
NETWORKING=yes
HOSTNAME=fedora.home.invalid

# cat /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1 localhost
192.168.1.150 fedora.home.invalid fw
192.168.1.1 gateway

Power down modem. Wait 30 seconds by watch/clock.
Power up modem, wait for leds to settle
Reboot Fedora to prove fedora works.

Good news. I spent several hours on Google searching on /etc/hosts & localhost. Google pointed me to several Linux books which confirmed your recommendations and gave *excellent* explanations that addressed my concerns. For example, I was skepticsl about adding 127.0.0.1 to /etc/hosts. I thought, "if it's so important, it would have been there in the default config". Well, that concern was addressed in one of the book sections. So I'm now ready to accept your recommended changes.


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