UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Greetings, and thank you for your time.

I am cracking the whip to self-teach myself Unix because I think it will be the best platform for me to really open my mind and be creative. Sadly I lack anyone experienced in Unix to nag with questions, so you will be seeing a lot of me here I am sure =]. I have searched these forums (and spent many hours on the web..) for similar questions but have yet to find my answer. I do not doubt my answer is out there, but there is so much information out on the web for Unix it can be a bit overwhelming finding the answer to one specific question, so here goes...

Unfortunately I have not gotten very far, I have a Unix box without Internet access at the moment... that's like a TV without cable .

At home I currently have a cable modem being fed into a windows 2000 server with two NIC's acting as a domain controller, DHCP server, NAT gateway, and DNS server.

I have a second system behind the windows 2000 NAT running XP Pro and (hopefully) Solaris 9. I use a mobile HD rack and two HD's in order to change operating systems.

When running XP, the 2000 machine uses DHCP to assign a private IP, subnet mask, gateway (IP of the 2000 machine), and DNS server (IP of the 2000 machine). Works like a charm.


When installing Solaris 9, I am asked for this information as well, except the Solaris installer cannot find the network and spits back an error every time I complete the network settings bit. I have tried it multiple times using static IP settings and DHCP settings to no avail. I have yet to be able to ping my 2000 server from the Unix box. HELP! =)

Perhaps I am ignorant, but when the Unix installer asks for the domain name, I am presuming this is the name of my windows 2000 domain? I find it hard to believe that a Unix box *requires* a domain so perhaps I need some direction here =).

Here are the specifics:

2000 server:
NIC #1: IP, subnet, ect. is all assigned by ISP via DHCP
NIC #2: Static IP 192.168.1.10, subnet 255.255.255.0, DNS127.0.0.1

DHCP assigns IP's 192.168.1.200 - 192.168.1.210, subnet 255.255.255.0, default gateway 192.168.1.10, DNS server 192.168.1.10, DHCP server 192.168.1.10

Solaris box:
DHCP enabled. DNS enabled (asks for domain, I input my windows 2000 domain name). Error reaching host. I input the IP of my 2000 server for any prompts.

I'll monitor this thread if you have any questions I did not cover. Thanks all!
-Ubernoob

Hi,

The domain that is asked on the installation, is a DNS domain, not windows 2000 domains... different things...
If you want to sucessful configure network support, your hostname must resolve, you must have a working name service that is able to resolve your machine hostname... if you don't have this situation, don't choose to configure the DNS ( choose "None" when asked ) at the installation process, do it later.
Ah, and if the DNS server is working but it's not on the same network as the machine you're trying to install it will fail too, because the installer doesn't ask for a gateway, so you'll not be able to reach other networks...

Good luck !

Once you have the system up and running you can configure DHCP - check out DHCP administration on docs.sun.com.

Thanks for the prompt replies!

The clarification about the domains was most helpful.

Just curious, in regards to:

How would a person reslove their hostname if they had only 1 computer running Unix connected directly to interet? (Would the DHCP server of the ISP provide the DNS information? If do why doesn't my gateway with DNS installed so the same thing?)

I am currently reading through the DHCP guide linked above in an attmpt to configure my unixbox as a DHCP client of my 2000 box gateway.

I reinstalled solaris choosing not to select a reolution method as you reccomended. I specified an IP address on the same network as the 2000 box's local network card. I unfortunately still cannot ping my unixbox from the 2000 machine and I find this odd. (2000 machine 192.168.1.10 subnet 255.255.255.0, unixbox 192.168.1.100 subnet 255.255.255.0)

Does unix not assign an IP address if it cannot resolve the hostname?

Perhaps I have a more baisc problem, although it appeared the unix installation recognized my 3com integrated NIC, maybe it did not. I'll have to read up on how to check the current network configuration.

UPDATE:

discovered "# ifconfig -a " gets me the interface name of my NIC.

All that is displayed is lo0 127.0.0.1 the loopback address, does this mean my NIC is not recognized?

Check the output from the dmesg command - look for the interface there. It may be that you don't see it if it hasn't been configured with ifconfig. Once you know the name of it (not sure what that would be...could start with hme, qfe, qf, ... or something else) you can use ifconfig to see if you can address it.

# ifconfig hme0 plumb
would start the processes (see man ifconfig) or you can set up a file /etc/hostname.hme0 with the IP or hostname you were going to use. Again, the hme0 part is an example - you have to find what your system sees the interface as.