Hello all! It 's Unix time

[G+_Michael Whalen Jr]

Rud Dog could you setup a Vlan on your network and have your friends computer on that. Instead of your main network.

[G+_Rud Dog]

Michael Whalen Jr Not setup for VLAN but great idea.

[G+_Jason Marsh]

Your reticence to wire it in to your net may be founded or not, but I can't fault you for not wanting to put an untrusted device on your net. You can either build a separate net for such devices using VLAN or additional hardware, or just continue as if it's earned it's untrusted status.

 

The good thing is that *nix drivers for most NICs should be freely available and most of the NICs you'll encounter will be supported by Ubuntu install disc/iso. Unless I'm missing something, proceed as follows.

 

1) Is the machine known to be infected with something?

Yes = DBAN and install OS of choice, tell him his files have gone to hell.

No= continue to 2>>>

 

2) Does it contain files that can't be replaced?

Yes= locate a Linux users group/club or the computer club at your nearest college/university and ask for help. Be prepared for big talk and lots of pontification, perhaps with no resolution.

No=DBAN and install OS of choice, tell him his files have gone to heaven.

 

3) There is no path to 3. If you are here, you're lost. Go back to 1(Y) or 2(N) and complete the recommended action.

[G+_Rud Dog]

The computer in question does not have access via either Wired LAN OR Wireless LAN. If you know of a way to load drivers via the OS CD please let me know.

[G+_Akira Yamanita]

Rud Dog It looks like you’d need the r8168-dims package. It seems to be in the Universe repository so it may not be on the CD. Do you have network access from the live environment?

[G+_Michael Whalen Jr]

I don't if this will help but it does talk about the USB for repositories. But it's for Ubuntu it might be the same for you I don't know

https://askubuntu.com/questions/146425/how-can-i-install-and-download-drivers-without-internet?utm_medium=organic&utm_source=google_rich_qa&utm_campaign=google_rich_qa

[G+_Ben Reese]

How about just getting a wireless USB adapter that is know to have Linux (assuming you're actually talking about Linux and not Unix) support out of the box.

 

Example:

Panda 300Mbps Wireless N USB Adapter - Windows Vista/7/8/8.1/10, Mint, Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE, CentOS, Lubuntu, Zorin, Kali Linux and Raspbian Wheezy https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EQT0YK2/

 

After that, you can install the drivers you need and pocket the new adapter for your next project.

amazon.com - Amazon.com: Panda 300Mbps Wireless N USB Adapter - Windows Vista/7/8/8.1/10, Mint, Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE, CentOS, Lubuntu, Zorin, Kali Linux and Raspbian Wheezy: Computers & Accessories

[G+_Rud Dog]

Ben Reese will if all else fails, take that route.

 

One promising step was able to boot from the CDROM using the 'try first before installing mode" and the wireless and wired connections both worked. So I know the hardware is good.

 

Have seen several examples of installing drivers for the hardware but so far none have worked.

 

One thing is for sure the drivers are available and on the CDROM just can't seem to install them without overwriting all this guys data.

 

This is amazing. The hardware is good but I can't seem to find a simple way t install the drivers. Chalk one up for Windows.

[G+_Rud Dog]

Akira Yamanita As I mentioned in my last post the "Try before you install option" on the CD allows the PC to connect both via Wired and Wireless hardware. What I don't know how to do is get the drivers off the CD and install them on the PC.

You say:

"Universe repository so it may not be on the CD. Do you have network access from the live environment?"

I do not have access when the VPC is powered up and connected to the hardwired network due to the drivers, not loading or non-existent.

I do have access via my Windows machine. I have tried locating the drivers but even when I do don't know the steps to install.

[G+_Ben Reese]

Which distro of Unix/Linux are you using? Perhaps that will help.

[G+_Rud Dog]

Ben Reese Ubuntu 16.04 Desktop-i386

[G+_Rud Dog]

Akira Yamanita BTW

After running “sudo apt-get install —dry-run tlp”

 

P-7805u:/lib/firmware$ sudo apt-get install —dry-run tlp

 

[sudo] password for ruddog:

Reading package lists... Done

Building dependency tree

 

Reading state information... Done

 

E: Unable to locate package —dry-run

 

E: Unable to locate package tlp

[G+_Rud Dog]

Akira Yamanita Don't quote me on this but I think the drivers when running the "try before you install" on the CD are referenced as:

r8169

They are referenced as Kernel driver in use: r8169.

Guessing that is the partial name of the driver installed.

Got this by running lspci -vvnn |grep -A 9 Network

(Have no idea what all this means just found it on the internet)

How does one deduce the actual name of the package needed to download or extract from the CD? Secondly, once you have the package how do you install it either from the CD or USB stick?

 

Could it be as simple as searching via google for r8169-dims package?

[G+_Rud Dog]

Before turning in for the night found this site will try tomorrow.

unixblogger.com - How To get your Realtek RTL8111/RTL8168 working (updated guide)

[G+_Jason Marsh]

Ok, so I just downloaded the driver directly from realtek, extracted it, and confirmed there is a shell script which will install the driver.

 

You should be able to extract it onto a flash drive and then copy the files to your downloads folder on the Ubuntu laptop. What you may need to do is change the file permissions of the script (autorun.sh) to make it executable. Then you should be able to run it to install the drivers.

 

So, once the file is located on the linux system, open Terminal and navigate to the folder you placed the files and run this...

sudo chmod +x autorun.sh

...to change the file permissions.

Then you should be able to run ...

sudo autorun.sh

...to install the driver.

[G+_Rud Dog]

Jason Marsh Yes I found that exact link to the procedure you called out. In my run of the sudo ./autorun.sh it got to the point where it reported an error, paraphrasing here it states:

"stated no such file or directory, build".

 

Just for grins could you list the driver you downloaded?

[G+_Jason Marsh]

Ok, were you in the directory where the file was stored? You can either navigate from /home in terminal or open a terminal in the location you have the files. If you're not in the correct folder it will fail because it's looking elsewhere for the script you're calling.

 

I should clarify. I searched and downloaded a package that may or may not be the one you're looking for... realtek.com - Realtek

 

If trying to traverse the directory tree to find another, you're prompted with a login screen, so you may have to google about some more to find the precise package you're looking for. Also, I downloaded the "up to kernel 4.7" version. If you're on x86 you may need another version depending on which kernel you're on. To find out which kernel you have...

In terminal, run this... uname -r

[G+_Jason Marsh]

I have 16.04 on a laptop and have messed with several Linux distros over the last ten years or so, but I'm not an expert at all. I'm pretty decent at getting the right search terms, though :)

[G+_Rud Dog]

Jason Marsh Made sure I was in the correct directory a good way to find out if you are not it will tell you it could not find the script in question unless of course, you supply the path. I was in the same directory as the autorun.sh script.

 

And I thank you for thinking of anything that might cause the problem area.

 

As for the correct drivers I have read the r8169 causes slow speed and dropped connections and this is subjective. The recommended drivers are r8168.

The uname -r results are:

4.8.0-58-generic

 

[G+_Jason Marsh]

Ok, I'm not sure if that's an LTS kernel. Perhaps an upgrade from 16.04 LTS got borked on that one, as well? Honestly, if I couldn't get a driver to work for wireless I'd pop a spare drive into it and clean install 16.04 and see where it stands. My guess is it would work. As long as the owner's home folder isn't encrypted it should be trivial to copy files from one drive to the other, if they really think they have anything they need on it...

[G+_Rud Dog]

After extensive searching and attempts at restoring drivers for wired and wireless network hardware, I was convinced this was ridiculous.

 

Did a backup of all his personal files and reloaded Ubuntu OS.

 

After a short while, the machine was up and running connected to my guest network and was able to connect to the Internet.

 

Thank you all for your suggestions this was a journey into my past and couples with suggestions and lots of googling the villainous PC is complete.

[G+_Jason Marsh]

Unless you're a seasoned Linux admin, it can be almost as frustrating as Window$ sometimes. That's why I was trying to prod you into a wipe + reinstall earlier.

 

Glad to hear you got it licked, though. Make sure the owner knows how much grief it caused you :)

[G+_Rud Dog]

Jason Marsh Indeed. Also will know enough to ask what operating system is in need of repair.

Good old days of Solaris are a distant memory.