Ethernet card won't take dcH Inititalization

[Bryan A. Zimmer]

Hello.

I have a computer with Comcast.net as my ISP. My Ethernet cable goes from the network
interface to the cable modem.

I have another computer with the same setup and DHCP is no problem.

On the problem computer, the card does not acquire an Ethernet address, and I don't
know enough about DHCP in Linux to configure the client software or configure the Ethernet
card.

Can anyone point me in the right direction? The non-working computer is a standard x86_64
machine with a RealTek "8139too". I compared the scripts and configuration I
could find, but got nowhere.

The giveaway is theat the "PCLiNK" on the modem does not illuminate (meaning
there is no signal from the ethernet card to the cable modem).

The thing is, in WindowsXP, this same computer works fine,