No network connection on Ubuntu 7.10

Ubuntu 7.10 presented a challenge when I installed it on my desktop system a few months ago. It worked fine on my laptop, but on my dual-boot desktop, there was no wired network connection. I have it setup with Windows XP and Ubuntu 7.10. I’ve seen people having the same problem installing this latest version of Ubuntu and also with openSUSE 10.3. I have a solution for that problem that worked for me, and hopefully will help other people who are booting into Ubuntu and finding that there is no network connection.

I haven’t heard what caused the problem – some change in the kernel or what. But the solution is novel: it actually takes a setting change in Windows XP to fix the problem. And if you guessed it’s a change with the network settings, you’re correct.

So to fix the problem: bring up the Device Manager. There are a couple of ways to do this. One is to right-click on My Computer in the Start Menu and select Properties. Click on the Hardware tab and then click Device Manager.

When the Device Manager comes up, looks for the item labeled Network Adapters. Click the plus and expand it. You might have one or more items show up here. Look for your Ethernet NIC card. Right-click on it and select Properties. Click on the Advanced tab. Change the setting for Wake-On-Lan After Shutdown to enabled. That’s it. Changing that one setting will correct the problem then when you boot into Linux. That’s what worked for me.

Tags: ethernet · network · troubleshooting · ubuntu · ubuntu 7.10