Getting an error while "Looking up internet address" Ethernet card issue?

[Luxamar]

Info about my distro.
Latest Red Hat Linux 8.0 (Psyche)
Kernel ver: 2.4.18-14 i686 athlon i386

Hardware info:

AMD T-Bird Athlon 700 Mhz
Hard Drives:
1) /dev/hda or C:\ is 20 gigs
2) /dev/hdb or D:\ is 60 gigs
3) /dev/hdd, my Linux drive, is 20 gigs
They are partitioned as such:

/dev/hda
hda1 2gigs FAT
hda2 13gigs EXTENDED
hda5 13gigs (same space as above) FAT

/dev/hdb
hdb1 60gigs ntfs
8megs unpartitioned (dunno why winXP does this)

/dev/hdd
hdd1 100megs ext3 (boot)
hdd2 19.4gigs ext3 (root)
hdd3 400megs linux swap

Soundcard is Creative Labs Soundblaster Live!
CD is a burner from them too.
192 megs of either PC100 or 133, can't remember offhand.

I have two ethernet cards. One is set not to be bothered when booting up because it's not plugged into anything. This one is called eth1. The active one is eth0. BTW, on start up, eth0 takes FOREVER to initialize. Takes longer on that one step than the entire boot process combined, but it ends with an [OK] anyway.

Here's my network setup:

I have a cable modem. It's plugged into the uplink port on a switch, that has all my computers hooked into it, and one external hub. The other two computers are running Windows XP. I would love to install Linux on them but I don't have the space or the money to get new drives. Oh well. Anyway, all the computers get their internet from that switch. Works perfectly fine for Windows. I don't see it as a problem for Linux either.

Logging into Linux is fine, though as I said, initializing eth0 takes forever. Here's the error I get when I type startx at the prompt after logging in:

Could not look up internet address for COMPUTER.
This will prevent GNOME from operating correctly.
It may be possible to correct the problem by adding
COMPUTER to the file /etc/hosts.
(Buttons)
Log In Anyway - - - Try Again

Though, 'COMPUTER' is actually called something else, something embarrassing that my brother somehow put in there. Oh well, not important. Try Again doesn't work. Log In Anyway will boot Bluecurve up. I can go into my network configuration but it shows my IP address is 127.0.0.1. Usually, in windoze, that means I'm not connected to the Internet. But I can browse just fine, chat, etc...

I'm going to read over that one post that someone suggested and reply to my own topic with changes if need be.

[Luxamar]

Ok someone on AIM just helped me fix this.

I'll leave the post there because it has all my hardware info on it, so I'll refer people to it or just copy and paste from it. Is that ok, mods?

[babbing]

Are you gonna tell us what was wrong? i am kinda curious since i just finished that novel :P :P 8)


Babbing

[Luxamar]

Ya but it'll be on another forum in here because it's no longer a hardware issue. Ah heck I'll just say it here. My next goal is getting Linux as an option in the XP dual boot menu. I've tried the methods stated here, and I get an error message consisting of one letter: "L"

[JimH]

Ok someone on AIM just helped me fix this.
Is that ok, mods?

Coool! less work for the mods.

My next goal is getting Linux as an option in the XP dual boot menu.

Why didn't you just install Grub in the mbr and use it to boot XP and Linux?

Jim H

[mugs]

Hey Luxamar: I didnt see where you posted the fix to your error? I had the same thing and I am very curious as to how you fixed it. Thanks

[Luxamar]

Oh. A thousand pardons. I didn't have it solved here. I have a buddy on AIM who's a Linux guru and he had just signed on, so I asked him and he told me how to fix it.

Here's what we did:

Look at the error, figure out what your computer name is (usually in caps). I'll use COMPUTER since that's the default.

Load up the file /etc/hosts in pico or something. You must be logged in as root. You should see something about 127.0.0.1. Don't touch that. Start a line below that and put this:

192.168.x.x (tab) COMPUTER.WORKGROUP (tab) COMPUTER

Where 192.168.x.x you are filling in the X's with numbers. Anything between 0 and 255. I think the second one needs to be 1 to 255. Press tab.

COMPUTER replace this with your computer name. Add a period. No space after it. WORKGROUP is your workgroup name. If you have other windows computers in your network, make this the same workgroup name as those so setting Samba up will be easier. Press tab.

Type your computer name again. Save the file. Reboot Linux and log in. startx
You should no longer receive that error. Hope that helps

[Luxamar]

Why didn't you just install Grub in the mbr and use it to boot XP and Linux?

Jim H

I don't know... I'm paranoid. I don't want to take the chance of hosing two copies of XP and one of 98. One of them I wouldn't be able to get to from that point because it's on NTFS. A 60 gig drive packed full of stuff... :-

If I install GRUB to the MBR, can you assure me it won't mess up the whole works? And if it won't, how do I install it from here?

[JimH]

Oh. A thousand pardons. I didn't have it solved here.

But you could have had it solved here.

Looks to me like you changed your hostname and forgot to edit /etc/hosts to reflect the change. oops! o:

jim H

[JimH]

If I install GRUB to the MBR, can you assure me it won't mess up the whole works? And if it won't, how do I install it from here?

Majority of the time it works fine, but there are some motherboards with screwed bios that cause a problem for grub.

Jim H