Ethernet bizarreness!

[Slant]

Hi Mint community,

I run dual boot LM10 w/ Windows XP at work, with LM being my OS of choice. I only boot into XP when absolutely necessary (this will become important in a minute). Lately, a really strange issue has been recurring w/ respect to my Ethernet connection.

1st thing to note: I've been running LM10 at work since it was in RC, and before that used LM8 for about a year or more with no problems whatsoever. However, for the past few days I've booted into LM10 in the morning as usual and everything appears to be fine. The Ethernet icon appears as normal in Network Manager Applet, and if I mouse over it, the pop up message states the connection is "active". However, if I try to access the web via browser, or connect to network resources via Nautilus, I get nothing. Obviously, Update Manager spins its wheels for a while, then gives up. In short, my internet connection appears to work, but really doesn't.

I've tried restarting and on one occasion it worked, but mostly it doesn't work. What really seems to work, though, is when I restart, boot into XP, then restart again and boot back into LM10. This seems to restore my connection. Granted, I haven't tried the XP thing enough to "scientifically" say it's what really restores the connectivity, but it has worked on 3 separate occasions so far.

Another thing to note: once my connection is restored in LM10, it never goes away until I shut down.

Other things I have tried so far: unplugged and replugged the cable (on both ends!). Also, I have a LM9 live USB. I plugged it in and booted into it. The same problem!

Something I haven't done yet: update the Network Manager Applet program.

Anyone had a similar issue, or any ideas?

[dawgdoc]

Anyone had a similar issue, or any ideas?

I vaguely recall something similar being posted in the past, probably a year ago. So far my forum searches have not brought that thread to the surface. My memory suggests it was something about the way the Bios was looking for instructions from Windows and once Linux had booted and connected it changed the settings so on the next boot the Bios could not find its instructions from Windows. (Probably a Vista box. )

So, one suggestion would be checking for a Bios update.
Otherwise, you will need to offer more info re: your system. things like inxi -N, the ethernet section of lspci --vvnn (Only the Ethernet section, quite long otherwise.) and maybe the output from ifconfig maybe someone will pick up something from this information or a search can be done re: the ethernet chipset.

[linuxatnight]

N/A