OK, so far this is what I have:

I have tried editing the /etc/network/interfaces file with: 1492, 1452, and 1412. I also tried leaving out the up line altogether to no avial. DHCP is still failing upon setup.

Also things seem to be a bit unstable. PPP0 seems to appear and disappear. It also shows up sometimes as ppp1 or ppp2. When that happened I followed with ifconfig ppp_ and I received a "device not found " error.


Here I try to run netcardconfig which seems to stop eth0 from running:

root@ttyp1[knoppix]# ifconfig eth0
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:40:45:11:12:F3
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:317 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:674 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:100
RX bytes:19206 (18.7 KiB) TX bytes:38022 (37.1 KiB)
Interrupt:11 Base address:0xd000
root@ttyp1[knoppix]# netcardconfig
Sending DHCP broadcast from device eth0Operation failed.
Failed.
Hit return to exit.
root@ttyp1[knoppix]# ifconfig eth0
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:40:45:11:12:F3
BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:323 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:694 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:100
RX bytes:19568 (19.1 KiB) TX bytes:40354 (39.4 KiB)
Interrupt:11 Base address:0xd000

Here I am starting eth0. But notice ifconfig -a and ifconfig ppp0. ppp0 doesn't showup with -a :

root@ttyp1[knoppix]# pon
root@ttyp1[knoppix]# ifconfig eth0
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:40:45:11:12:F3
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:329 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:702 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:100
RX bytes:19932 (19.4 KiB) TX bytes:40656 (39.7 KiB)
Interrupt:11 Base address:0xd000

root@ttyp1[knoppix]# ifconfig ppp0
ppp0 Link encap:Point-to-Point Protocol
POINTOPOINT NOARP MULTICAST MTU:1492 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:3
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

root@ttyp1[knoppix]# ifconfig -a
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:40:45:11:12:F3
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:331 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:711 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:100
RX bytes:20052 (19.5 KiB) TX bytes:41042 (40.0 KiB)
Interrupt:11 Base address:0xd000

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:168 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:168 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:12272 (11.9 KiB) TX bytes:12272 (11.9 KiB)



Next I try netcardconfig again but eth0 stays running this time. Also note ppp0 is back and has now changed to mtu 1500:

root@ttyp1[knoppix]# netcardconfig
Sending DHCP broadcast from device eth0Operation failed.
Failed.
Hit return to exit.
root@ttyp1[knoppix]# ifconfig -a
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:40:45:11:12:F3
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:370 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:807 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:100
RX bytes:22404 (21.8 KiB) TX bytes:46507 (45.4 KiB)
Interrupt:11 Base address:0xd000

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:168 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:168 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:12272 (11.9 KiB) TX bytes:12272 (11.9 KiB)

ppp0 Link encap:Point-to-Point Protocol
POINTOPOINT NOARP 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:3
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)


Thanks to all who respond here.