[Freedombox-discuss] unable to find IP for freedombox

[hjenkins]

I'm having trouble configuring due to networking problems. Could anyone
advise?

I've installed Freedombox without X11 or a Desktop environment, on a local
network without DHCP, behind a firewall with heavy restrictions on its
ports. The network also has a server already. I'm interested in trying a
new system, but I'd like to test and configure it offline.

During and after the Debian install, the new box's network connection
worked, but then I installed Freedombox and removed the network config
from /etc/network/interfaces as per the instructions at

https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/Hardware/Debian
(I had no problems with the policykit-1 bug and did not do the workaround
for it; booting is fine)

Now I can't find an IP address for the Freedombox. It does not respond to
the IP I gave it during the Debian install (although it's still in
/etc/hosts). There is no ifconfig; "ip addr show" gets me only the IP for
localhost. Since there is no X11, and no command-line browser (like Lynx),
I can't access Plinth on localhost from the freedombox. I can't access it
from anything else as I can't address it, and I couldn't find it with nmap
from another computer on the network.

Since there is no network connection, I can't readily install anything
additional on the freedombox.

When I try to start plinth manually at the command line, it fails and
complains about the port 8000 on localhost not being free. It seems that
figuring out or changing what ports it needs is problematic:
https://salsa.debian.org/frhttps://salsa.debian.org/freedombox-team/plinth/issues/1110eedombox-team/plinth/issues/1110

In /etc/plinth/plinth.config, it says:
[Network]
host = 127.0.0.1
port = 8000

I changed "8000" to "80" and typed "plinth" into the command line again.
No effect; it says 80 isn't free either. Its own port 80.

I'm thinking I may have done something obvious and stupid. I'd be grateful
for any advice, or references to such (I've read what's in the online
Freedombox manual).