9.04, ethernet card not initializing properly sometimes?

Instead of rebooting try:

sudo /etc/init.d/hal restart; sudo /etc/init.d/networking stop; sleep 5; sudo /etc/init.d/networking start; sudo dhclient eth0

No, that ignores the root of the issue......the ethernet card should be initialized properly when the system starts up - and it always was before, until the most recent bunch of updates came down the pipe.

Besides, you can't think that my wife (who is NOT computer literate) will know to type all of these commands in if this happens to her while I'm at work? It's not a permanent fix.

I need the ethernet card to run with the driver which worked before the most recent updates came down. How do I do that, because I believe that will fix the problem.

That isnt the point. We need to establish if it can be made to work and then we can implement some fixes

we need to investigate first before we can reach the goal. We can also see what outputs the commands give to help diagnose.

I understand other users may be less technical but we need to see what is going on to make a permanent fix for the issue ecause as of yet the only thing we know is that "it works sometimes" so I am asking for you to try some things

Is that no unreasonable?

That is the point....when it happens to my wife while I'm at work, I guarantee that she is not able to understand such complicated computer commands and therefore will not be able to impliment such a solution. The only solution that works is to reboot the computer.

It hasn't happened to me because I'm at work when it happens at home.

Updates shouldn't cause a system to malfunction and inhibit a computer user, that's not supposed to be their purpose.

Now I know that when I installed 9.04 there were no issues. Same with 8.10, no issues at all! Now with the most recent batch of updates for 9.04, something has changed and the ethernet card isn't being initialized properly sometimes.

So if the person(s) who is/are in charge of ethernet drivers can just look back at the older drivers and compare them to what is being distributed currently, this should be a clue in which direction to look.

She won'y need to know any commands at all as it will work. We simply need to create a script or change some settings but we need to fid out if what I proposed fixes it. We can then implement it as a permanent fixture.

Updates change the software on the system so yes they can break system apps and hardware communications as the drivers for the hardware are software.

Can you please launch the command next time the adapter fails to work. If you reply saying "ye sit worked" then I can tell you how to put it as an extra step for your system to run at bootup so it always runs so it will always works.

To-ing and fro-ing about other stuff is simply delaying the fix to your system.

Your call.

"Can you please launch the command next time the adapter fails to work"

This will not be possible as I have already explained, my wife will not be able to launch the command, she is computer illiterate and only uses the computer for e-mail and web surfing.

So when this occurs (and it seems to occur when she uses it because I'm already at work by the time she turns the computer on), she will not understand what to do. She just turns the computer off and on and this resolves the problem.

What would I do, skip work just to babysit this? I'm sure my boss would not understand.

What I need to know is how to restore previous functionality at this point. The software which was on the computer before the last update was not a problem. How do I restore this?

Or must I just wipe the drive and reinstall the system?

Ok, it's 10:00 now, I'm home from work and had supper. Now the computer is running ok, no problems with the ethernet card all day, so i don't know how valid this will be (I guess this test is supposed to run when the computer is exhibiting problems.....but it's not a predictable thing).

Here are the results of the test:

 * Restarting Hardware abstraction layer hald [ OK ]
 * Deconfiguring network interfaces... Ignoring unknown interface eth0=eth0.
                                                                         [ OK ]
 * Configuring network interfaces... [ OK ]
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.1.1
Copyright 2004-2008 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/sw/dhcp/

Listening on LPF/eth0/00:11:11:eb:0b:55
Sending on LPF/eth0/00:11:11:eb:0b:55
Sending on Socket/fallback
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 3
DHCPOFFER of 192.168.2.3 from 192.168.2.1
DHCPREQUEST of 192.168.2.3 on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
DHCPACK of 192.168.2.3 from 192.168.2.1
 * Reloading /etc/samba/smb.conf smbd only
   ...done.
bound to 192.168.2.3 -- renewal in 900292319 seconds.

Now, you see, my wife will not be able to do this, don't even think she can try it because she's not comfortable with technology in general, and certainly not with computers. She leaves all of this technical mumbo-jumbo to me and of course when I'm at work and she needs to check the bank account on-line and the computer isn't connecting, I usually get a phone call interrupting me at work, something my boss isn't happy about.

So you see, the root remains to keep the ethernet card initialized properly from startup on and not impliment some temporary command-line patch which a non-technical person cannot implement without guaranteed mistakes and further frustration.

that is fine. Put the command you executed in a shell script and then add it to her gnome logon. It will autolaunch each time and resolve the issue.

Having to do that ach time is a pain, as is having to load kernel modules for your desired hardware, this is also done automatically.

You just have to add an extra thing to be automatically ran and it will fix it.

This is now simple as we know the command works. If you had just done it instead of all this emotional stuff we could have been done 24 ours ago. oh well.

run:

gksudo gedit /usr/bin/fixlan

paste this code:

#!/bin/sh
/etc/init.d/hal restart
/etc/init.d/networking stop
sleep 5
/etc/init.d/networking start
dhclient eth0

Save the file and close gedit.

then run:

chmod +x /usr/bin/fixlan

now run:

gksudo gedit /etc/rc.local

and add this line:

/usr/bin/fixlan

above the line that says

exit 0

save the new file and close gedit

now when you reboot it will be ran just before the X server loads. Your wife will not have to do anything technical or anything like that, it will be fixed automatically which is what I have been telling you all this time but you would not stop harping on about non technical users instead of getting on with what I asked.

Let me know how you go.

BS. If this damned software updates had been written properly in the first place then working folks wouldn't have to put up with such foolishess from such arrogant computer programmers.

Linux comes with zero warranty and zero SLA. So if it breaks, you get both pieces.

Read your EULA.