Gnome login error

pjfasi · 08-16-2004, 11:01 AM

I just installed Fedora Core 2. I get the following error when i am logging into Gnome. No error with KDE.

"Could not look up internet address fro HPPAV (my hostname).
Gnome will not work correctly. This problem may be resolved
if you enter HPPAV in /etc/hosts."

or something to that effect. The problem is i don't know what to do with
/etc/hosts .

rjlee · 08-16-2004, 11:20 AM

It looks like you have a problem with the setup of your computer's hostname.

The /etc/hosts file is a simple file mapping the names of computers to their IP addresses.

If HPPAV is your hostname, then you can append the line:

Code:

HPPAV 127.0.0.1

to /etc/hosts (127.0.0.1 is always the IP address of your local computer).

You might also be able to fix this problem using the hostname command

Code:

hostname HPPAV

as root.

Hope that helps,

— Robert J. Lee

pjfasi · 08-17-2004, 08:36 AM

The file contained the following:

Code:

#
# /etc/hosts: static lookup table for host names
#

#<ip-address>   <hostname.domain.org>   <hostname>
127.0.0.1               localhost.localdomain   localhost
# End of file

I added this

Code:

127.0.0.1              HPPAV

The error did not appear at login after that, but starting up programs lke Gedit still displayed an authentication error on the terminal.

The last time I messed around with this file, my system locked up.

rjlee · 08-17-2004, 09:23 AM

Your system shouldn't lock up just because of anything in /etc/hosts.

The worst damage you should be able to do here is break your network settings and make the network interfaces go down. Which may in turn break X-Windows, but you will still have a console login.

The authentication error could be any one of several things. What's the error message?

— Robert J. Lee

pjfasi · 08-17-2004, 01:04 PM

I had entered the wrong DNS for the localhost entry and everytime the login script got to the sendmail portion, it froze - could not or did not know how to break out of it ang go to the X console to fix it. I tried the <Cntrl><Alt><F1> entry sequence ang got nowhere. This does not seem to be a major issue, right now, since it doesn't seem to prevent me from doing anything, it's just annoying.

rjlee · 08-18-2004, 01:42 PM

If your system won't boot, you can pass the option “s” to the boot-up command-line to go into single-user mode. This won't start any services like sendmail, and so it won't crash. (Or networking, so you won't be able to start X directly either, but you can get a console login).

Incedentally, the reason Ctrl+Alt+F1 didn't work is because X hasn't got near to starting yet, and whatever pretty graphics you're seeing (or not) will actually be on the first virtual terminal (Alt+F1 or Ctrl+Alt+F1 from X). You can clear the splash screen by passing “splash=native” on the boot command-line, and actually see what's going on.

But I still can't guess what's causing your error message without knowing what it is…

Covenent · 08-18-2004, 03:36 PM

I just installed Fedora today, and I was messing with the Network settings (System Settings > Network), trying to connect my Linux box to my Windows XP laptop via crossover cable. Anyway I'm a complete Linux noob, and I have ended with the same GNOME error whenever I login.

I have gone to /etc/hosts and tried to open it, but each time I do I'm told that a file associated doesnt exist for that kind of file (what kind of file is it? - it has no extension), so I tried to setup up but I still could'nt get it working. So as a last ditch effort I tried dragging/dropping /etc/hosts to Text Editor (gedit) to see if it would open it, but it won't.

How can I edit /etc/hosts if I can't open it? Sorry for the ultra newbie question, but this is really beginning to annoy me.

Thanks for any help,

rjlee · 08-18-2004, 05:34 PM

/etc/hosts is a plain text file, like most configuation files on Linux.

Being a system file, you will need to be root to edit it. That's why you can't just open it as a regular user. Open a terminal and type

Code:

su -c 'gedit /etc/hosts'

or

Code:

sux -c 'gedit /etc/hosts'

(one of these should work!)

Unlike some operating systems, Linux does not have the notion of a filename “extension”; rather, the file type is determined by what the contents are. Try this to determine a file type:

Code:

file /path/to/filename

animehair · 12-09-2004, 06:17 AM

sorry for digging up an old topic, but I have the same error with my gnome, and for some reason i beleive the cause of this error may have something to do with the fact that my box isnt working as an ftp server when people try to connect from outside my network.

I have edited /etc/hosts as suggested but the error still appears. The OS is Gentoo. Thanks.