Thanks for your comprehensive summary. I'll review it and post back with more info once I've tried your suggestions. (I may need help with them too!)

Thanks also for your info on my HOSTNAME questions. That helps.

PW

Here's the contents of the /root directory.

[total 248

drwxr-x--- 20 root root 4096 Nov 26 15:38 .

drwxr-xr-x 19 root root 4096 Nov 26 15:13 ..

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2657 Mar 29 2003 anaconda-ks.cfg

-rw------- 1 root root 7395 Nov 26 15:10 .bash_history

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 24 Jun 10 2000 .bash_logout

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 234 Jul 5 2001 .bash_profile

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 176 Aug 23 1995 .bashrc

drwx------ 2 root root 4096 Jan 1 2005 .cddbslave

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 210 Jun 10 2000 .cshrc

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 42 Mar 30 2003 .DCOPserver_localhost.localdomain -> /root/.DCOPserver_localhost.localdomain_:0

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Nov 26 15:38 dir.text

-rw------- 1 root root 16 May 5 2005 .esd_auth

drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Dec 11 2004 firefox-installer

drwx------ 3 root root 4096 May 20 2006 .gconf

drwx------ 2 root root 4096 May 20 2006 .gconfd

drwxr-x--- 3 root root 4096 Jun 14 2004 .gftp

drwx------ 9 root root 4096 Oct 13 18:56 .gnome

drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jan 31 2004 .gnome-desktop

drwx------ 2 root root 4096 Jan 1 2005 .gnome_private

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 118 Aug 9 2001 .gtkrc

drwxr-xr-x 12 pwwiebe pwwiebe 4096 Jun 13 2004 httpd-2.0.49

-rw------- 1 root root 1040 Oct 13 18:56 .ICEauthority

drwx------ 4 root root 4096 Mar 30 2003 .kde

-rw------- 1 root root 32 May 5 2005 .MCOP-random-seed

drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Jan 21 2004 .mozilla

-rw------- 1 root root 2678 Feb 19 2006 .mysql_history

drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 Dec 11 2004 .nautilus

drwxr-xr-x 18 1003 1003 4096 Jun 13 2004 php-4.3.7

drwxr-xr-x 10 1000 1000 4096 Mar 13 2005 sampdb

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 92160 Feb 11 2006 sampdb.tar.gz

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 48 Dec 19 2004 .saves-23960-localhost.localdomain~

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 48 Dec 19 2004 .saves-23963-localhost.localdomain~

drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Jan 21 2004 .sawfish

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 196 Jul 11 2000 .tcshrc

drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 May 8 2005 tmp

drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 May 14 2005 .Trash

drwx------ 3 root pwwiebe 4096 Jan 21 2007 .xauth

-rw------- 1 root root 67 Nov 26 15:17 .Xauthority

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1126 Aug 23 1995 .Xresources

-rw------- 1 root root 1042 Oct 13 18:56 .xsession-errors
[/code]

Thanks for your help - I'll grab that and paste in it. It's people like you that make the internet go round!

In the meantime I have a question related to my IP address change. I was able to su into root and change my IP address, but I had to modify other things, like my smb.conf file to get my machine back on the network. In looking around and doing those tasks I noticed something strange. I see hostnames defined in several places, and given I was having trouble finding the machine on the network, I thought I'd ask about it. Things are working now, but I'd like to understand a little more about which hostname applies in which context.

Here are the contents of the various files:
(carbonite is the name of the machine on my network)

/etc/HOSTNAME:

carbonite.mydomain.com

/etc/sysconfig/network:

NETWORKING=yes
HOSTNAME=localhost.localdomain

/etc/samba/lmhosts:

127.0.0.1 localhost

Thanks mfillpot,

I've spent so much time sudo'ing on ubuntu lately, that I forget that I should be able to su into the root account in reg. linux flavors. I'll try that to make my network config changes and report back.

On the issue with the interfaces for root, I'm guessing I would need to su into root to delete those files as well? Is that a comprehensive list of files that would get re-created? I'm no Linux/RH guru...

Thanks for your help.

P

Hi all,

I'm running an old AMD K6II - 450 with RH 7.2 workstation - just using it as a file server on my network. I store some fairly important data there and back it up to a FreeNAS box.

I need to change the IP address as I'm made significant changes to my network configuration.

But I'm having problems with the RH box when I login as Root. I don't get any interface popping up after re-booting anymore. No gnome gui, no CLI - nothing, just a dark blue screen. When I login as a regular user, I get Gnome and all is good. But I also can't run sudo commands as the regular user, because the user isn't included in Sudoer's group.

So I can't edit some of the machine's files under etc/../network-scripts to modify the IP address, because I'm not Root.

Any ideas on how I can get an interface back up? Is there a key command, or something else I can check?

Thanks for your help!

P