No network connection with a working network

[Wheelspin]

Firstly, this probably belongs in the Networking section but for some reason I don't have a "New Topic" button there, so it's getting posted where I do have that button (ie here)!

Recently I've been playing with configuring bind and dhcp on a local server. During the experimentation process I somehow managed to break the network widget in the panel. It currently shows the network disconnected icon and tooltip (see attached images) but the network itself works fine.

ifconfig shows

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docker0   Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr <removed>  
          inet addr:172.17.x.y  Bcast:0.0.0.0  Mask:255.255.0.0
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr <removed>  
          inet addr:192.168.1.x  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::52e5:49ff:fe55:7cda/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:70127980 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:34332403 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:92889959141 (92.8 GB)  TX bytes:6705916413 (6.7 GB)

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:65536  Metric:1
          RX packets:6666743 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:6666743 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:418868688 (418.8 MB)  TX bytes:418868688 (418.8 MB)

vmnet1    Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr <removed>  
          inet addr:172.16.176.x  Bcast:172.16.176.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::250:56ff:fec0:1/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:12339 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

vmnet8    Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr <removed>  
          inet addr:192.168.248.x  Bcast:192.168.248.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::250:56ff:fec0:8/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:98 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:12334 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

If I look at the "Edit Connections" screen then it shows one connection called "Ethernet Connection 1" and "last used" 18 days ago and editing that shows that it has IPv4 configured to Automatic (DHCP).

So there seems to be a disconnect between the GUI and ifconfig.
How can I fix this?

[Wheelspin]

Oh, and /etc/network/interfaces is as follows:

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# interfaces(5) file used by ifup(8) and ifdown(8)
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

[Wheelspin]

No one have any ideas?

[Laurent85]

# interfaces(5) file used by ifup(8) and ifdown(8)
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

You should remove "eth0" nic lines, network manager service is configured to setup the card automatically.

[Wheelspin]

Interesting as they were there to start with.

So you're saying to just remove the lines from the interfaces files and then what? Just restart the network service or do I need to do something with the gui configuration?

[kukamuumuka]

Is your Mint into WmwarePlayer?

vmnet8 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr <removed>
inet addr:192.168.248.x

https://www.vmware.com/support/ws45/doc ... ls_ws.html

[Laurent85]

Try to remove theses two lines from file /etc/network/interfaces

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

[Wheelspin]

Sorry for not coming back to this sooner.

Removing the configuration from the interfaces file does indeed resolve the problem. I found an alternative which is to edit the /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf file and set the [ifupdown]manager property from "false" to "true". This allows the NetworkManager to control the interface using ifdown and ifup.

So the follow up question is, if I go with the former solution and remove the config from /etc/network/interfaces and leave the [ifupdown]manager property set to "false" then is there a way to bring the network up and down from the CLI rather than using the GUI?