Re: Hostname set to localhost.localdomain at reboot

[Dan Williams <dcbw redhat com>]

On Thu, 2008-11-20 at 11:05 -0700, Michael W wrote:
> Hello there! I hear this is a common problem and I hear that you think
> it's been fixed. However, it most certainly has not.
> 
> My computer is a Dell Vostro 1500 running Ubuntu Intrepid with the
> latest updates as of today (11/20). My networkmanager package version is
> "0.7~~svn20081018t105859-0ubuntu1", as reported by aptitude.
> 
> So I start my computer up normally. The /etc/init.d/hostname script runs
> and sets my hostname to northbound, like it should be. Then,
> NetworkManager runs and changes it to localhost.localdomain. Boo. Here's
> an example session that I set up to show you just what I mean:

NetworkManager will only change it to localhost.localdomain if it cannot
get the persistent hostname that you've specified in /etc/hostname.

When nm-system-settings starts up, it should be loading the ifupdown
plugin, which will read /etc/hostname and provide that hostname to
NetworkManager.  NetworkManager will then use that hostname
_exclusively_.

So the fact that it's getting set to localhost.localdomain means one of
a few things:

1) nm-system-settings + ifupdown isn't able to read the persistent
hostname from /etc/hostname

2) NM isn't able to get the persistent hostname from nm-system-settings
(which is done using dbus) and can be verified with the following
command:

dbus-send --print-reply --system --dest=org.freedesktop.NetworkManagerSystemSettings /org/freedesktop/NetworkManagerSettings org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.GetAll string:org.freedesktop.NetworkManagerSettings.System

3) NM isn't able to set the hostname for some reason

4) NM isn't able to update /etc/hosts with your new hostname

Are there any errors printed out in /var/log/daemon.log after NM sets
the IP address?  They would reference 'hostname' if there are any.

Dan

> michael northbound:~$ hostname
> northbound
> michael northbound:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/NetworkManager restart
>  * Stopping NetworkManager...
> [ OK ] 
>  * Starting NetworkManager...
> [ OK ] 
> michael northbound:~$ hostname
> northbound
> # About 5-10 seconds later:
> michael northbound:~$ hostname
> localhost.localdomain
> # About 15 minutes later in a separate shell when NM's connected to my
> network:
> michael localhost:~$ hostname
> northbound.uccs.edu
> michael localhost:~$ aptitude show network-manager | grep -i version
> Version: 0.7~~svn20081018t105859-0ubuntu1
> 
> Does anyone know how to help? I'd be happy to provide more details if
> you'd like. Thank you for your time.
> Michael
> 
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