Apache not starting properly -- "unable to gethostbyname"
 

Hello,

I use Linux (SuSE 8.1) on my home computer to develop a personal Web site. After a change in ISPs (I changed from DSL to a major cable provider), I've been having some difficulty getting Apache up and running. Whenever I try to start Apache, I get a message like this in the error log:

[Mon Apr 19 19:37:33 2004] [alert] mod_unique_id: unable to
gethostbyname("x1-6-00-03-47-39-f7-ad")

and Apache doesn't start.

I've noticed that this strange name ("x1-6-00-03-47-39-f7-ad") has shown up elsewhere, such as my default command line prompt, but I haven't been able to change it to something more appetizing to Apache. I've looked at httpd.conf and tried setting ServerName to 127.0.0.1 (i.e. localhost) rather than a specific host name, without any luck.

I'd appreciate any advice anyone may have in resolving this.

Thanks,
ColoRambler

That thing is either written to your /etc/hostname or assigned by the dhcp client.
Either way, hostname of your computer should be resolvable; there might be some problem with the domain search patch in /etc/resolv.conf.

Other way to fix the problem is to put a proper line to /etc/hosts, something like
. Or you can deny dhcp client to change your hostname in the first place.

Adding a line like that to the hosts file worked like a charm. Thanks for the tip!

ColoRambler

Hi, I tried that line and it worked but once I restarted the server it gave me
unable to gethostbyname("")

Any ways to solve this?

What does the 'hostname' command says? Does work?

Hi,

my HOSTNAME file says "debian" on it. Shouldn't that show up with the unable to gethostbyname("") error? Instead it just gives me a blank hostname.

It should. What does the hostname command says?

Hi,

the hostname command line trick worked. Thanks!

Just posting to say thanks :D This worked for me in FreeBSD 4.9-STABLE

I've never had any troubles with FreeBSD 5.2.1 and Apache 2.0.49... but this was my first runs with FreeBSD 4.9, and Apache 1.3.29 :O