Network Reset for DW Blackjack® (Ubuntu/Linux)
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Affected Roles: Owner, Administrator
Related Digital Watchdog VMS Apps: DW Spectrum IPVMS
Complexity: Medium
Software Version: Ubuntu 16.04, 18.04
Last Edit: March 8, 2022
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Forcing IP Address Renewal in Linux
In the event that a DW Blackjack® Server running on an Ubuntu/Linux operating system is losing its network connection with its WAN and/or local router, restarting the computer may help to resolve the issue. However, if rebooting does not resolve the issue, it may be due to an IP address retrieval error between the DW Blackjack Server and the router.
To resolve this issue, in addition to checking the physical Ethernet cable connections, the system administrator of the computer would possibly need to release the computer’s lease on its current IP address through the use of sudo dhclient commands in order to release and renew the connection through DHCP or by assigning a static IP address to the system. However, it may be easier and more successful to install the NetworkManager service instead.
What is NetworkManager?
By default, Ubuntu will use the system-networkd system daemon for automatically overseeing and configuring connections as they are detected by the computer system. However, installing the NetworkManager network service can help with the renewal and maintaining of the DW Blackjack Server’s network connections.
Once installed, the NetworkManager service will automatically supersede control of the computer’s networking, will create new netplan configuration files, and essentially refreshing the computer’s local IP configuration through DHCP. This allows the service to set itself as the new default network renderer of the computer and to begin overseeing DHCP configurations for Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and a variety of other services.
This article will outline how to use the Linux command Terminal application to clear and install the NetworkManager service to resolve IP address retrieval issues between the DW Blackjack Server and the local router.
**NOTE: An Internet connection is required to download system installation files. Additionally, if a broken repository dependency is preventing the acquisition of files, repository access can be restored to the DW Blackjack Server through the use of Linux commands.
Supported/Affected Devices:
- DW Blackjack® Bolt (Ubuntu/Linux 18.04)
- DW Blackjack® Cube (Ubuntu/Linux 18.04)
- DW Blackjack® P-RACK (Ubuntu/Linux 18.04)
- DW Blackjack® E-RACK (Ubuntu/Linux 18.04)
- DW Blackjack® Mid-tower (Ubuntu/Linux 18.04)
- DW Blackjack® Tower (Ubuntu/Linux 18.04)
- DW Blackjack® RACK (Ubuntu/Linux 18.04)
Clearing and Installing the NetworkManager Service
To install the NetworkManager Service on a DW Blackjack Ubuntu system:
- Launch the “Terminal” program (CTRL + ALT + T) on the computer.
- After launching the Linux Terminal, clear any configuration files related to the NetworkManager package with the command:
sudo apt-get purge network-manager
- Next, download package information from all configured sources to check for new versions of software with:
sudo apt-get update
- Clean up and remove unnecessary, redundant packages that were downloaded with the previous command with:
sudo apt-get autoremove
- Install any upgrades of the remaining available packages:
sudo apt-get upgrade
- Install the latest version of the NetworkManager program:
sudo apt-get install network-manager
- Finish by installing the latest desktop environment of your current Ubuntu build with:
sudo apt install ubuntu-desktop
