Re: [SIGFS] hostname configuration annoyance

[Josh Stern <jstern@citilink.com>]

>Whenever I log in from the console or fire up an xterm, I get the   
>following error:

>hostname: Unknown host   
>hostname: Unknown host

As suggested by  recent discussions, the first thing to do is
to try the 'hostname' command.  If you do not see the desired answer
then you should be able to change it using arguments to 'hostname'
as described by the man page (you need to be running as root, of course).
     
>Furthermore, my command-line prompt should read '[chris@dusk ~ ]' but   
>instead reads '[chris@ ~ ]'. Also, Netscape sometimes poops out an error    
>whining about not being able to find the host 'dusk'. However, everything   
>works fine.           
                                                         
>Weirdly, when I login as root I don't have this problem.        
 
Assuming that hostname is setup correctly, then the other issues
sound like they are related to shell configuration/environment
variables.  For example, in my /etc/profile I use this
(assuming bash):

PS1='\h:\w\$ '

The "\h" part is a cue for bash to call hostname and the the "\w"
part translates into the output of pwd at a shell prompt.

If you see differences between running as root and a user then
look at the individual user configuration files for your shell.
In case of bash they would be ~/.bash_profile, ~/.bashrc, 
~/.profile, and ~/.bash_login 

The conditions under which any of those files are consulted is
described in the man page.

>Btw I am running S.u.S.E. 5.2, fwiw. Thanks in advance.       

How does it compare  to other linuxsen (besides more recent
X Servers)?



- Josh

jstern@citilink.com