my internet does not start at boot

Hello,
I have been having problem with my linux connecting to a network with static ip. Everytime I boot my system into linux I get this message at start up screen, "SIOCADDRT: File Exists." something like that. Does anyone know what might be wrong with my internet settings. I tried ifconfig and it shows the static ip that I had set but it does not actually connects to my router. When I try ifdown eth0, it says "eth0 not configured." And when try to ifconfig eth0 I get the error message, "SIOCADDRT: file exists." But here is the trick that I figured to get my linux box connected. I boot my system in XP and then I reboot my system in Linux (Mepis) and it works. I don't know why.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you.

I'll start the ball rolling with a bunch of questions. With any luck a networking guru will come along to clean up the wreckage :)

Is this a new install or an older install that's suddenly misbehaving? Some updates can effect network settings.

The fact that a quick reboot from windows solves the problem isn't completely surprising. The hardware holds some settings for a short period of time.

Do you have control of the local network or is there another administrator? Describe the setup as best you can.

Does a gateway show up with the route command? Can you ping that address?

Whats the output of <lspci | grep Ethernet> ? Some cards don't work that well with linux.

It looks like the system is trying to establish a route that has already been established. Recheck the settings in the network assistant.

Thanks for the quick response, googled first.

This is an older install that is suddenly misbehaving. I am using this system as my personal webserver so it goes down everytime I have power failure. I have set up my bios to start my pc as soon as power comes on but somehow my system fails to bring up the eth0 until I boot my system in XP once and then back into mepis. Yes, I have the complete control over the network. Actually, this is my home network and I have set up everything myself. I have one linux and two xp running on this network. I tried to ping my linux box's ip but I get no response. I also tried to ssh via putty but with no network connection, I cannot connect from another pc.

here is what I get by route command.

me@1[~]$ route
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
default 192.168.1.1 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0
me@1[~]$


me@1[~]$ lspci | grep Ethernet
0000:01:08.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
me@1[~]$

I checked the settings in network assistant and all the settings seems to be ok there. But even the network assistant fails to bring up the eth0. I doesn't give me any errors but I click on start eth0 it looks like that it is trying to bring up the eth0.

Thanks,
Viral

I'm guessing that route command was run with eth0 up. My router is assigning by DHCP so playing along step for step ia bit tricky. According to route you have a gateway device with an address of 192.168.1.1.

Maybe those unplanned reboots have corrupted some files? Those SIOCADDRT messages suggest the same route command is being issued more than once.

Next time Mepis networking is down you could try running;
/etc/init.d/networking stop
/etc/init.d/networking start
Even if it doesn't bring up eth0 the errors might give some clue.

OK
Open a root terminal session and type

ifconfig
and check to see if possibly both eth0 and eth1 are both shown as being
established...

if so

type ifconfig eth0 down
type ifconfig eth1 down
then
to to network manager and select the ethx that you wanted with
the static ip and check the box start on apply.....

then click apply

come back and tell us what you found

tnx for asking

burdicda