the cable is only really needed for that last, but better to leave it in during boot. less prone to errors then, one thing less to ....
yes i want to know what they say. not fun i know, LooOTS of info to type out, but the more you leave out the less chance we can help.
the |grep eth part of
Code:
dmesg|grep eth
reduces the output LOTS. for fun you could just type dmesg alone and realize how much.

for lsmod you could likely disregard output in lsmod with vfat, ntfs, vga in them.
for ifconfig we only need to know if you havew any of the below and if other than 0 the value.
inet addr:
Bcast:
Mask:
MTU:
Metric:
errors:
dropped:
overruns:
collisions:
Interrupt: