I just installed Red Hat 9. Right after I logon, I get the following error:

Could not look up internet address for dhcp-82-86. This will prevent GNOME from operating correctly. It may be possible to correct this problem by adding dhcp-86-82 to the file etc/hosts.

[Log in Anyway] [Try Again]


Bypassing the error by hitting Log in Anyway continues the login, and I have no problems accessing the internet or anything else for that matter. I tried adding the line suggested to hosts, which didn't change anything. I have cable internet, and network prefs are set to use automatic dhcp configuration, so I'm not sure what is going on. When I log on, it also lists my account as 'dhcp-86-82@localhost.localhost. What's going on here?

Thanks in advance - any help or advice is greatly appreciated!

I also use cable modem and I have the same problem.
Linux will work correctly (including GNOME).

If I understand what is happening, your system is getting this address (dhcp-86-82) from your ISP and, unfortunately, when the system tries to resolve it, it will not find it, because dhcp-86-82 is not valid.

Long story short. I do not know how to correctly fix this issue. I ended up using one of my valid domain names as a hostname for my box. -> Problem fixed.
But not everyone as a domain name.

If you plan on using SendMail locally, every e-mail you send out on the internet will have a return-path: root@dhcp-86-82, which may caused some problems when some people, not all, try to reply.


If anyone knows how to fix this correctly, please post all suggestions.

i think it's trying to find that address on your local
machine, and your hostname isn't set up right, or
it's loopback entry doesn't exist in /etc/hosts, such
as
127.0.0.1 localhost
or whatever yourhostname is.

In order to fix this just do the following.

hostname <makesoemthingupthat'scool>
vi /etc/sysconfig/network
Change your hostname to what you changed it to above
vi /etc/hosts

Since the dhcpwhatever your ISP issues you isn't a real hostname you can make your computer think it's a real hostname by adding it to /etc/hosts since your computer will search it first.

# Do not remove the following line, or various programs
# that require network functionality will fail.
192.168.0.3 Shadow dell
192.168.0.4 Crackwhore laptop
192.168.0.2 Daemon daemon
127.0.0.1 localhost Router

in the above example "Router" is what I named that machine as so I added that to hosts.

Once you name it whatever you want and add it to hosts you won't have this problem.

seabass

Thanks seabass55, your solution worked great! Much obliged!

lnxusr01