network has gone down again, and I cannot figure out why

[David G. Miller]

Answers and more questions and a few thoughts embedded...

Ric Moore <wayward4now at gmail.com> wrote:

> I had this thing working as of yesterday, I rebooted and it's doing 
> the very same thing again. Only this time there is no mistake with a 
> comma versus a period.
>
> Does anyone recognize this??
>
> root at iam etc]# rc.d/init.d/network start Bringing up loopback 
> interface: [ OK ]
> Bringing up interface eth0: RTNETLINK answers: Invalid argument
>
> What is really strange is this...
>
> [root at iam etc]# more hosts
> # Do not remove the following line, or various programs # that require 
> network functionality will fail.
> 127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost iam
> 70.145.234.214 iam.wayward4now.net wayward4now.net

Which system is your DHCP server?  The DSL modem, a different local box 
or something at your ISP?  Which system is iam.wayward4now.net?  Is that 
the box you're trying to get configured?  70.145.234.214 is a routeable 
IP address but your internal network is 192.168.1.0/24.  Where did this 
setting come from?    Is the DSL modem also supposed to function as a 
router?  The hosts file should NOT contain an entry for the system 
itself other than the loopback.

>
> Notice the alias iam on the localhost line? WTF? Since when would 
> anything get added other than localhost.localdomain and localhost? 
> I've edited that sucker out a dozen times, and it pops back up. This 
> is pretty crucial as I have people from www.prisontalk.com "coming in 
> to visit today" after church... at least I don't have to dress or put 
> on clothes. Up again until 5AM, this is really old. Ubuntu is starting 
> to look good to me.
>
> Now I'm back in DHCP mode with the DSL modem and still get
>
> Error while performing operation.
> Host lookup failed: smtp.googlemail.com: Temporary failure in name 
> resolution

This just means your network is down.  It will "go away" when you get 
everything working.  It occurs when the name server on your box can't 
get any answer as opposed to getting a NXDOMAIN for a query.

>
> It's slow as hell, too. Something somewhere having something to do 
> with named I'm guessing. Was that BIND issue resolved?? ls this 
> helpful? From messages: note: I'm in DHCP mode and STILL getting 
> errors resolving!

More fall-out from the above.  When named asks a question, it waits a 
while for an answer.  It expects to get an answer of either an IP 
address or a NXDOMAIN.  If it gets neither, it waits for a rather long 
time before timing out.

>
> Sep 24 09:06:51 iam ntpd[1919]: sendto(192.168.1.254): Invalid 
> argument <----- that's the DSL modem,
> Sep 24 09:23:56 iam last message repeated 3 times
> Sep 24 09:24:04 iam last message repeated 2 times
> Sep 24 09:37:34 iam named[1644]: unexpected RCODE (SERVFAIL) resolving 
> 'oasc0400 8.247realmedia.com/AAAA/IN': 192.168.1.254#53
> Sep 24 09:37:45 iam named[1644]: lame server resolving 
> 'oasc04a.247realmedia.com ' (in 'oasc04a.247realmedia.com'?): 
> 64.191.219.251#53
> Sep 24 09:37:45 iam named[1644]: lame server resolving 
> 'oasc04a.247realmedia.com ' (in 'oasc04a.247realmedia.com'?): 
> 64.58.81.251#53

Looks like your name server is having problems.

> Sep 24 09:37:57 iam named[1644]: unexpected RCODE (SERVFAIL) resolving 
> 'oasc04a. 247realmedia.com/AAAA/IN': 192.168.1.254#53

More name server problems.  Which box is your name server?

> Sep 24 09:41:00 iam ntpd[1919]: sendto(192.168.1.254): Invalid argument
> Sep 24 09:41:07 iam last message repeated 2 times
> Sep 24 09:43:14 iam named[1644]: unexpected RCODE (SERVFAIL) resolving 
> '97.1.168 .192.in-addr.arpa/PTR/IN': 192.168.1.254#53

This looks like iam is attempting to get a host name for 192.168.1.97 
from the nameserver on the DSL modem 192.168.1.254.  Is this what's 
supposed to happen?

> Sep 24 09:58:04 iam ntpd[1919]: sendto(192.168.1.254): Invalid argument

Is your DSL modem also set up to be your ntp server?

> Sep 24 09:58:10 iam last message repeated 2 times
> Sep 24 10:05:50 iam ntpd[1919]: can't open /var/lib/ntp/drift.TEMP: 
> Permission denied

You've also got some permission problems for ntp on this box.  Check the 
permissions for /var/lib/ntp/drift.TEMP. 

> Sep 24 10:15:10 iam ntpd[1919]: sendto(192.168.1.254): Invalid argument
> Sep 24 10:32:15 iam last message repeated 3 times
>
> when I type route is stalls a bit then I get this:
> Kernel IP routing table Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref 
> Use Iface
> 192.168.1.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
> 169.254.0.0 * 255.255.0.0 U 0 0 0 eth0 default

I had to look this one up quite a while ago.  It makes Linux routing 
compatible with a Microsoftism.  Our dear friends in Redmond use 
169.254.0.0 for networking  If you run absolutely no Microsoft junk, you 
can safely remove it.  Even samba wants it to be there though.

> 192.168.1.254 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0

Try doing "route -n" until you get your nameserver problems resolved.  
By default, route attempts to resolve IP addresses to names.  If named 
is screwed up, it will have to wait while named times out.

>
> in DHCP mode.
> God, I need my static IP back! I've never has this array of problems 
> before. I don't recognize 169.254.0.0 either. If anyone thinks they 
> really know, and has free LD call me at 336-333-9311. I'm supposed to 
> be getting up with newsweek, as they might do an article on OAR 
> (fringe uses of computing!!) and this looks REALLY bad. Please God, no 
> more commas. I'm begging here. <chuckles> Ric

Don't have free long distance so this is the best I can do.  Sorry if 
you've already answered some of these questions before.  A description 
of how your network is supposed to work would be really helpful 
including which box does routing, which does DHCP, nameserver, etc.

Cheers,
Dave

-- 
Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles.
-- Ambrose Bierce