cyborgworkshop.org

This has got to be one of the most disappointing bugs I have ever seen. Ubuntu 8.10 was shipped with the inability to be configured with a static IP address. As soon as you reboot, the configuration goes back to DHCP! This really blows my mind and has me thinking hard about picking a new distribution.  In the meantime, you can work around this monumental snafu by following these directions.

vi the /etc/network/interfaces file.

sudo vi /etc/network/interfaces

delete anything talking about eth0 and in this in it’s place.

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (Your IP)
netmask xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (Your netmask)
gateway xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (Your default router or gateway)

Now edit /etc/resolv.conf

sudo vi /etc/resolv.conf

And add the following

nameserver xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (The IP of your DNS server)
search abc.def.com (your domain, ala cyborgworkshop.org)

This is the last part. we have to get rid of the network manager that runs at boot and is the cause of all of this embarrassment, so run the following.

sudo update-rc.d –f NetworkManager remove

Reboot and you should be good to go.

My laptop locks up tight as a drum as soon as the SDHC driver (for my built in card reader) loads. Ubuntu 8.04 seemed to have taken care of that issue and had the SDHC module blacklisted for me so I had no issues at all. 8.10 is not so nice. You have two options.
If you are upgrading with a dist-upgrade and have NOT rebooted yet,  edit your /etc/modules.d/blacklist file and add

sdhc blacklist

to the end of the file. If you have already rebooted, and hence are hung, pop an ubuntu 8.10 CD into the drive, boot to “repair a broken system” and then edit that file.