Folks Just for laughs, I tried installing Centos 6.3 on the laptop HP 8540w. Windows 7 installed earlier, but I had to import a driver for the Ethernet controller since it was not supported on the distribution DVD of Windows7. The Centos installation I chose was the "NetInstall". The installation process identified eth0, I selected IPV4 DHCP, disabled IPV6, and successfully completed the install of "desktop" using the wired connection through my home network. The wireless was turned off. The ethernet controller shows up in Windows with the name "Intel 8255LM". When the reboot occurred after installation, the Ethernet did not work. The "ifconfig eth0" command showed no IP address. Where do I go from here? Thanks David