Hello...

I've just installed Slackware on my machine and I'm wanting to change the bash prompt to display something other than the hostname. I've read that creating a .bashrc file in the /etc directory with the PS1 variable set in it will set the prompt universally. Is this correct?

I've tried it but I can't get it to work at all. I've even tried rebooting to see if the changes would be reflected then. The only thing I can do is change it dynamically...but not permanently.

Also, I want to change the hostname of my machine. How do you do this and make it permanent? Thanks in advance for the help.

- Brad

to change your hostname run -
# netconfig

That worked, thanks for the help...

...still needing help with the prompt though, anyone?

To alter your prompt - add a line to your ~/.bashrc – its a hidden file - for example

PS1=”\w Hello $”

You need to check out the options for prompt string 1 for more info.

I have a line similar to that in my .bashrc file but it still doesn't alter anything. I'm stumped.

My current prompt reads bash-2.05b#.

My .bashrc file is set to PS1="\u@\H:\w>"

You've got the .bashrc in your home directory, do you have a .bash_profile with entries to run .bashrc ?

You can of course put the alter the PS1 stuff in /etc/profile too to make it global

Side note aswell - if you're opening an xterm or whatever terminal in a GUI use xterm -ls so that the prompt etc. are picked up the way you want.

ok a few things.
do export PS1='.......' and u should c your prompt change. of course replace those dots with wutever u want. now, this is only for that particular bash session. if u exit or open a new terminal, it'll go back to the default. want u want to do is to edit the .bashrc file in your homedirectoy. put the line export PS1='.....' in there, there should already b an existing PS1 entry in there so just edit. now, after saving and exiting, u need to do source ~/.bashrc and your prompt will change. the last thing u need to do is to check your .bash_profile file also in your home directory and u need in there source ~/.bashrc it may b commmented out, so just uncomment it. now u should b all set

don't forget to source the .bashrc file. i had the same problem. see my post:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=120121