How To Fix Ubuntu Network Control Panel Lockup

I have resolved a problem on a locked up Ubuntu 5.04 network control
panel. If you are experiencing this problem in Ubuntu or any form of
GNOME-based Linux, you might want to consider this. This can also, to
some small degree, show you how to manipulate your network control
panel settings without the GUI.

In my case, I determined that the problem was that it was trying to
reach a DNS server and will wait there indefinitely if the one that
your DHCP server uses is not available. In our environment, our DHCP
server points to a DNS server that's no longer functional. Instead, we
must put static addresses (for now) pointing to our DNS servers:

192.168.50.50
192.168.50.51

First, click the X on the locked up Ubuntu Network Control Panel. Then,
do CTRL+ALT+F1 to flip to the text-based console.

The fix was that you must edit two files by hand using vi:

/etc/network/interfaces
/etc/resolv.conf

---

With "interfaces", comment out the line "iface eth0 inet dhcp" if you
are no longer using DHCP. (Comments start with # symbol.) Otherwise,
leave alone. If you are going to static, it should look something like
this:

iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.40.32
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.40.1

In this case, I set my workstation to a static address of
"192.168.40.32" with a default gateway of 192.168.40.1. Notice also I
was manipulating eth0 instead of eth1, eth2, etc. In you case it might
be different.

---

With "resolv.conf", it may read something like:

search acme.com
nameserver 192.168.42.50

....which is no longer valid. I had to switch this to:

search new.acme.com
nameserver 192.168.50.50
nameserver 192.168.50.51

---

Now that the files are changed like you like them, type:

$ ifdown eth0
$ ifup eth0

Provided you don't have any further errors, you can now flip back to
your GUI with CTRL+ALT+F7 and work with the network control panel as
you need with no lockups.

In comp.os.linux.networking Google Mike <(E-Mail Removed)>:
> I have resolved a problem on a locked up Ubuntu 5.04 network control
> panel. If you are experiencing this problem in Ubuntu or any form of
> GNOME-based Linux, you might want to consider this. This can also, to
> some small degree, show you how to manipulate your network control
> panel settings without the GUI.

> In my case, I determined that the problem was that it was trying to
> reach a DNS server and will wait there indefinitely if the one that
> your DHCP server uses is not available. In our environment, our DHCP
> server points to a DNS server that's no longer functional. Instead, we
> must put static addresses (for now) pointing to our DNS servers:

Wouldn't it be a better idea to get the one responsible for the
DHCP server to fix the broken setup?

Anyway you can configure dhcpclient not to overwrite resolv.conf
(PEERDNS=no) on RH and alike n ifcg-<device> or you need to make
your changes on every reboot.

[..]

--
Michael Heiming (X-PGP-Sig > GPG-Key ID: EDD27B94)
mail: echo (E-Mail Removed) | perl -pe 'y/a-z/n-za-m/'
#bofh excuse 152: My pony-tail hit the on/off switch on the
power strip.