no networking

Hi all,
Just started to configure my Pi for networking and just keep getting problems.
I have an ethernet cable plugged in and followed the intro about enabling networking but it only seems to allow usb networking. If i disable that I cannot set ip address either via dhcp or manually as there is no option to do so.
If I configure it via USB it seems to work but it cannot contact to nameservers to do a lookup. Under Host names I have the correct nameserver ip addresses set. It works fine under raspian wheezy – ifconfig shows an ip address for the interface. Pinging local addresses works as does eg ping www.bbc.co.uk.
I did try several things before posting this so wonder if I need to reset the config to the original and if so how?

tia
norman

Okay thanks David I will do that and post back so anyone else with this problem will know what to do.

Okay so I burnt a new image ro519-rc6-1876M.img and followed the instructions for enabling the networking.
On rebooting it said only local browsing could be done as DNS servers could be found.
Had to choose manual rather then DHCP to allow me to enter DNS server ips. Ran configure selected host names, clicked on “Try name server too” and entered the DNS Servers I use on my laptop and which also work on Raspian – these are picked up automatically via DHCP so don’t need to configure them under raspian.
Re-booted and then running netsurf I get “Could not reslove host news.bbc.co.uk ( Could not contact DNS servers )”
So I still have the same problem.
Found out that ifconfig -a shows an ip address for the interface of 169.254.89.9 with a netmask of 169.254.255.255 so it is obviously failing to take the 192.168.1.50 which I set it to so it would match my LAN.
I will try configuring it via ifconfig and see if that will work although the syntax seems different to the Linux one I am used to.
Any ideas please?

Trying to use ifconfig allowed me to set the ip address of the interface. Still not working so tried using Route but I could not find the right syntax to add the route. Tried using netsurf to reach the www.bbc.co.uk using ip address but it said “unreachable”.i am still at a loss as to how to get this working.

Okay so I burnt a new image ro519-rc6-1876M.img and followed the instructions for enabling the networking.
On rebooting it said only local browsing could be done as DNS servers could be found.
Had to choose manual rather then DHCP to allow me to enter DNS server ips

Whoah, stop. Recheck everything. Go no further until you fix the DHCP issue. Once you fix the DHCP pickup of address and gateway etc then all else will probably work.

Steve, I am sure you’re right but how I do that is the problem. The intro screen at first boot says you just “Enable TCP/IP Protocl Suite” nothing else but that fails as i initially said. I have been running Linux since slackware 3.5 when I had to configure just about everything manually but this just seems to defy me. I have burnt a new image 3 times so far to make sure I am starting from scratch but I am still at a loss.
if you have and insights i would be happy to try them out. Not that I am an expert but I am thinking that if I am stuck then O/S newbies will really be in a mess.

Right I have found the problem and I am afraid it seems it’s riscos.
Let me explain. My setup is perhaps unusual.
On my landing I have:
An ADSL modem/router with wireless/G and 4 ethernet ports.
Connected directly to one port is my HP Officejet all-in-one printer.
From another port is a utp cable down to a socket in my lounge.
From there is a connection to a small 4 port netgear hub.
From the hub I have :
A connection to my Humax freesat box.
A connection to my Fonera wireless/n router to which I connect my HP laptop.
When I connect the Pi to this hub and boot raspian it works fine.
When I connect the Pi and boot riscos it doesn’t. Giving the various errors I have described.

If I connect the Pi directly to the wall socket and boot riscos it works fine.

It does not work through the hub even if nothing else is connected and I tried it in each of the ports.

I also have a a HP 8 port hub and a Sweex 8 port switch and riscos does not work with either of them.

I have to conclude that it is a riscos problem.

I am running the ro519-rc6-1876M.img from the downloaded package.

I hope someone can figure this out although, at a pinch, could run another utp cable down to my lounge :-(

Have you tried a different cable? I’m not convinced the Pi on RISC OS automatically deals with the wrong type of cable, whereas linux might.

(I have to use a crossover to use my wifi adaptor, wheras with the PC I don’t)

How much does it look like this problem https://www.riscosopen.org/forum/forums/4/topics/1165 ?

Okay further work on this and I think I have it cracked.
What I did was boot it connected directly to the wall socket.
I left it switched on but then put everything back together using the 8 port switch.
I then was able to surf the net.
I shut down the Pi and unplugged it and when I booted it again it was still fine.
Then I shut it down, put my other SD card in and rebooted. it connected without problems.
So I burnt another image on a different SD card so there could be no confusion.
This time I plugged it into one of the hubs with nothing else, booted it up did the Enable TCP/IP stuff and it wouldn’t connect. transferred it back to the switch along with all my other stuff connected, rebooted and away it went – no problems.
So is it some timing issue or some conflict with other devices which prevents it from scratch.
My ( very tenuous ) theory is that the switch, unlike a hub routes incoming traffic only to a specific card using it’s Mac address and once it’s learned that it doesn’t matter which SD card I am booting it isolates the traffic.
So it might be that riscos connections timeout quicker than Linux and because of interference via the hub it just fails to get the lan card set up.

@Jess It’s a nearly new straight cable which works with my desktop computer and my laptop fine. Some older kit does not understand crossover cables and when linking old hubs they would need a crossover cable although for a while some hubs had a switch so one port could be in normal or uplink mode. That’s what my netgear hub is like.

@Wouter thanks for the input but I don’t think it’s the same. I don’t have anything here running MS Windows. Even my wife has linux on her laptop, she’s never used anything else on it. Our phones are android and I have a feeling none of the modem/routers, hubs or the switch run Windows software.

@DavidS You might be right but if your Pi is connected to a switch not directly to the hub and especially if you have had your switches running for some time before you got your Pi it would not get any chatter from the other devices so I guess that unless someone else gets the same problems I have been having and then tries the same things to overcome them we might never know.

Thanks everyone for your input, much appreciated