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December 06, 2005
LiveCD vs. Manual TCP/IP
Gonna get a bit technical on this one, but it's information so simple yet seemingly difficult to find on the net.
First, some background. A LiveCD is an operating system that runs entirely off a CD ROM. Download the LiveCD ISO, burn it, boot up the computer using the CD and you have a fully armed and operational battle stati... err workstation. Save your settings and files to a USB drive and you have a portable work environment that you can use on nearly any computer. Usually these LiveCDs are some flavor of linux.
The problem I've encountered is that all the live cds assume you're connected to a network with DHCP, and I'm sure by and large most people who would use a LiveCD would need that functionality. But at work, I need to specify the network settings manually.
So here's a quick setup guide that should work for most LiveCDs. Replace [x number] with the actual number sans brackets.
# ifconfig eth0 [IP Number] netmask 255.255.255.0
# route add default gw [Gateway number]
# nano /etc/resolv.conf
search [search domain]
nameserver [DNS IP #1]
nameserver [DNS IP #2]
Of course this is only a session fix. Next time you boot, you'll need to go thru the same steps. I'm sure there's some files somewhere to edit to make this a permanent thing with settings on USB drive.
Why it took hours of googling and bothering my sysadmin to get something that simple is beyond me. That seems to be the largest hurdle for the jump to linux. Everyone either assumes you're a linux guru or is too elitist to care about n00b problems. :P
Posted at December 6, 2005 02:24 PM | Life and Work
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