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I have a minimal linux installation. The problem is that in order to access the web I have to issue 

ifconfig eth0 up
dhclient

after every restart. Where is the canonical place of these commands on an everyday linux system? Or rather where should I put them?

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2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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On most modern Linux systems, you should be able to configure the network settings in some config file (Manuel gave some good locations) and the system will take care of executing the relevant commands (like ifconfig and dhclient) for you.

If this is CentOS, you shoud probably set the following in /etc/sysconfig/networking/devices/ifcfg-eth0:

BOOTPROTO=dhcp
ONBOOT=yes

Just to be sure, check also that chkconfig --list network returns something like this:

network         0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off

To start, stop and restart you networking, you can use /etc/init.d/network [start|stop|restart].

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  • /etc/init.d/network start brings up the network with nice green [OK] signs. Now the questions cascades -> Where should I put this command? As I don't want to type it after every restart.
    – noname
    Jul 26, 2009 at 20:58
  • +1 for the essential runlevel configuration of the network init-script.
    – Manuel Faux
    Jul 26, 2009 at 20:58
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    @noname: Is the network script enabled in your working runlevel? chkconfig --list network will show you, as already mentioned in the answer. If the script is not enabled in runlevel you use to work (maybe 3) you have to switch it on by chkconfig --level x network on.
    – Manuel Faux
    Jul 26, 2009 at 21:02
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    Just chkconfig network on should also work, as the default runlevels for network are 2345. I hope you are not running in single-user mode, are you? To check your default runlevel, look at /etc/inittab for a line like this: id:3:initdefault:. The 3 in this case is the default runlevel - you should probably be using either 3 (console with networking) or 5 (X-windows).
    – Marie Fischer
    Jul 26, 2009 at 21:11
  • Wow.. Thanks, solved. You guys are incredibly helpful. :) too bad I can't accept both answers :-/
    – noname
    Jul 26, 2009 at 21:12
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How to configure networking depends on the distribution you use. On a Red Hat based system you will find those configs in /etc/sysconfig/networking/, Debian based systems store them in /etc/network/interfaces, Gentoo stores it in /etc/conf.d/net and Arch Linux like BSD under /etc/rc.conf. Which distribution of GNU/Linux do you use?

The cannonical path to ifconfig is /sbin/ifconfig, but this won't solve your problem, I think.

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  • This one happened on a RedHat based system, a CentOS.
    – noname
    Jul 26, 2009 at 20:26
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    On CentOS you can use system-config-network to configure your devices or manually modify /etc/sysconfig/networking/devices/ifcfg-<dev>. See the doucmentation for more information.
    – Manuel Faux
    Jul 26, 2009 at 20:30

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