No Internet connection, Ubuntu 10.04

Hiya, all:

I'm a relatively neophyte Linux user, and I've been running 64-bit LTS Ubuntu 10.04. After just moments ago fixing a failure to boot problem (thanks to oldfred and YannBuntu), I noticed that my wired Internet connection no longer works.

How do I fix that?

The task bar atop the desktop screen shows a connectivity icon with a red exclamation mark on it. Hovering over the icon indicates, “No network connection.” Left-clicking the icon shows a menu consisting of:

Wired Network [non-clickable]
disconnected [this is grayed out]
VPN Connections [sub menu consisting of “Configure VPN...” and, “Disconnect VPN...” [grayed out]]

Right-clicking this same taskbar icon shows a checkmark by “Enable Networking” and “Enable Notifications.” “Connection Information” is grayed out, and clicking on “Edit connections...” brings up a dialogue box for Network Connections. Under the Wired tab, under Name, I see, “Auto eth0,” and under Last Used, next to “Auto eth0,” I see, “never.”

Not sure if that information is useful or not, but there it is. Any assistance on fixing this Internet connectivity issue will be greatly appreciated.

Oh, and I just ran ...

Code:

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sudo gedit /etc/network/interfaces

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...which generated this:

Code:

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*-network
                description: Ethernet interface
                product: 88E8056 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller
                vendor: Marvell Technology Group Ltd.
                physical id: 0
                bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
                logical name: eth0
                version: 12
                serial: 00:22:15:ea:41:a0
                capacity: 1GB/s
                width: 64 bits
                clock: 33MHz
                capabilities: pm vpd msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list rom ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
                configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=sky2 driverversion=1.25 firmware=N/A latency=0 link=no multicast=yes port=twisted pair
                resources: irq:25 memory:feafc000-feafffff ioport:e800(size=256) memory:feac0000-feadffff(prefetchable)
 

 - ---------------------------- -
 and down at the bottom, this
 - ---------------------------- -
 

 *-network DISABLED
        description: Ethernet interface
        physical id: 1
        logical name: vboxnet0
        serial: 0a:00:27:00:00:00
        capabilities: ethernet physical
        configuration: broadcast=yes multicast=yes

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Thanks again for your insight.

Mikhail Weiss