How do I connect my Linux laptop to my Stellarmate via ethernet?

I've been having a lot of connection trouble when trying to communicate with my laptop in the field with my Stellarmate. I transferred the Pi to a new cooled metal case, because the Pi gets quite hot at times; the metal case apparently increased wifi connection issues, so I added a wifi antenna. That improved things, but not much. I still get frequent dropped connections, frozen connections, etc. And the connection speed is so slow that it seems like every time I try to focus or redo alignment is another 30-60 minutes of wasted time.

The connection issues are bad enough that I bought an ethernet cable and an ethernet adapter for my Linux (Linux Mint) laptop, hoping to get a solid, fast connection that way. I cannot, however, figure out what actual settings to use to connect to the Stellarmate via ethernet. What are all the netmask, gateway, etc. etc. etc. settings I need to use? What Method do I use -- Automatic (DHCP), Link-Local Only, Shared to other computers, or what? What Additional DNS servers? There are so many different connection settings... I don't know which ones to use. And it seems like almost all sources on the web about connecting a laptop to a Raspberry Pi assume the laptop is running Windows.

The documentation on the SM website is somewhat contradictory, making it hard to know what to follow. I wrote to Jasem to get support, and he suggested I set the laptop IP to 192.168.100.2 and gateway to 192.168.100.1. I can do that, but if I'm on the laptop and ping 192.168.100.1, I get "Destination Host Unreachable". When I log into the Stellarmate via wifi, it shows the same info in the ethernet connection window: address 192.168.100.2, netmask 24, gateway 192.168.100.1. I don't know what to do next. I wrote back to Jasem, but apparently he's away from his computer, and I'd really like to get this working before this weekend (a new moon, after all).

Can anyone help? Thanks!

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