How do I "rename" my computer?

ViperX883 · 01-21-2005, 04:34 PM

Currently my login screen for gnome says "Welcome to [IP Address]". Well, frankly I think that looks awful so I was wondering if there was a way to change the IP Address part to say something else like "Universe" or "Merovinigian". Thanks for the help!!!

marghorp · 01-21-2005, 04:36 PM

look at the file in the etc folder called hostname and change it according to your own wishes.

cswor · 01-21-2005, 04:41 PM

i believe the previous response is essentially correct, but the file name on Fedora is /etc/hosts. leave the localhost line intact and add a new line following the format.

michaelk · 01-21-2005, 04:51 PM

The /etc/hosts file resolves names to IP addresses.

Which file used to store the hostname AFAIK depends on the distribution but look at the /etc/sysconfig/network file. If it exists there will be an entry hostname= change that value as desired.

The command hostname will also change the hostname but does not save it.

wpn146 · 01-21-2005, 05:11 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by michaelk
The command hostname will also change the hostname but does not save it.

You could put it into /etc/rc.local so that it will run every boot.

twantrd · 01-21-2005, 06:34 PM

Code:

You could put it into /etc/rc.local so that it will run every boot.

Michaelk's suggestion is more appropriate as you don't want to bandaide a problem when you can just fix it right at the source.

-twantrd

ViperX883 · 01-21-2005, 06:45 PM

OK, it turns out that I had to edit both the /etc/hosts amd /etc/sysconfig/network files. At first I simply edited the network file and the name shown on the login screen did change to Merovingian, but then when I loaded Gnome I got a warning that Gnome didn't have a network address for Merovingian so some programs may not function correctly. I had looked in the hosts file and seen that it looked like 127.0.0.1 was being assigned to localhost, so I just used the same format to assign 127.0.0.1 to Merovingian and everything seems to work now. Below are posts of these files. Please let me know if they look correct.

The /etc/hosts file:

# Do not remove the following line, or various programs
# that require network functionality will fail.
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain Merovingian

The /etc/sysconfig/network file:

NETWORKING=yes
#HOSTNAME=localhost.localdomain
HOSTNAME=Merovingian

Thanks in advance for anymore advice!!!

Linux~Powered · 01-21-2005, 06:47 PM

marghorp is correct. You want to edit your /etc/HOSTNAME file.

jonr · 01-21-2005, 07:27 PM

Take a look at

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=268008

for the solution that works for me.