I was trying out some of the newer distros,ubuntu 7.10, gOS, Knoppix 5.1, and none of then will connect up to the interwebs. However Knoppix 3.1 autoconfigures with no issues.
Whats up with that? Here is some low level info collected from Knoppix 3.1;
knoppix@ttyp0[knoppix]$ sudo ifconfig eth0
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:01:02:CE:64F
inet addr:192.168.0.135 Bcast:192.168.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:846 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:685 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:1 txqueuelen:100
RX bytes:493662 (482.0 KiB) TX bytes:107429 (104.9 KiB)
Interrupt:5 Base address:0x220

knoppix@ttyp0[knoppix]$ cat /etc/resolv.conf
search (null)
nameserver 192.168.1.254
knoppix@ttyp0[knoppix]$ sudo route
Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
192.168.0.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
default 192.168.0.1 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0
knoppix@ttyp0[knoppix]$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX Host bridge (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX AGP bridge (rev 03)
00:07.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ISA (rev 02)
00:07.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE (rev 01)
00:07.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 USB (rev 01)
00:07.3 Bridge: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI (rev 02)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV10 [GeForce 256 DDR] (rev 10)
knoppix@ttyp0[knoppix]$

Here is the same info from Knoppix 5.1;
knoppix@Knoppix:~$ sudo ifconfig eth0
eth0: error fetching interface information: Device not found
knoppix@Knoppix:~$ cat/etc/resolv.conf
bash: cat/etc/resolv.conf: No such file or directory
knoppix@Knoppix:~$ sudo route
Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
knoppix@Knoppix:~$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX Host bridge (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX AGP bridge (rev 03)
00:07.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ISA (rev 02)
00:07.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE (rev 01)
00:07.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 USB (rev 01)
00:07.3 Bridge: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI (rev 02)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV10DDR [GeForce 256 DDR] (rev 10)
knoppix@Knoppix:~$

This info means not much to me but maybe someone can see the problem and help me to fix it. hopefully the same fix works in all the newer distros.
Thanks,
Dragoon