# "This is laptop.unknown_domain" @ console-login

## there_is_no_spoon

Hi everyone

I've just installed gentoo linux. One of the few things that isn't working and I just can't get to work is the following: in the console (no X yet) it "greets" me with This is fortytwo.unknown_domain (Linux i686 2.6.5-gentoo-r1) <time>. fortytwo is the hostname (/etc/hostname).

Is it the "unknown_domain" the dnsdomainname? What is that anyway, and what is the difference inbetween the hostname and the dnsdomainname? Is the dnsdomainname the "workgoup" equivalent of window$? How do I get it to display something sensible?

Thanks

Ben

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## TommyB

You can change that text in the file /etc/issue

Mine looks like this:

```
Hello, this is \l at \n.\O (\s \m \r) \t
```

which gets translated into this greeting:

```
Hello, this is tty1 at tommy.b.local (Linux i686 2.6.5-gentoo-r1) 17:41:58
```

A list of escape sequences is probably given in the man page of your getty-program, in my case agetty.

And you can configure your dnsdomainname in /etc/dnsdomainname

----------

## 30726

```
echo "somedomain" > /etc/dnsdomainname

rc-update add domainname default
```

And edit your /etc/hosts file to have something like this:

127.0.0.1 twentytwo.somedomain twentytwo # if you have a dynamic ip

OR

static_ip_here twentytwo.somedomain twentytwo # if you have a static ip, replace static_ip_here with your actual ip

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## Daagar

How does one request updated to the Gentoo Handbook? The Handbook correctly describes the process of setting up /etc/dnsdomainname and adding the domainname service to the default runlevel, but (unless I overlooked it) there is no reference to the need to edit /etc/hosts (and even worse, the /etc/hosts file doesn't even exist on a clean install so a newbie wouldn't even be able to stumble across it by seeing an example hosts file).

----------

## DaveArb

In the "all on one page x86" handbook located at http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml?full=1 , /etc/hosts is discussed under "Writing Down Network Information", right after Code Listing 16.

Dave

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## Daagar

Thank you... I believe I skipped that and went to Code Listing 19 ("/etc/hosts for lonely or fully integrated PCs") which I assume the original author of this post may have done as well.

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## chris.pickett

Hi,

My problem is that I get "This is <hostname>.(none)" at startup, and when I boot into gnome it also complains and tells me to check my /etc/hosts file.  I can access the internet fine and everything, and have been doing so for over a month, but I would like to get this fixed.

I can't put a fixed IP address in my hosts file because they're allocated dynamically by my router (between 192.168.2.38 and 192.168.2.42) ... which has the same SSID as my dnsdomainname (not sure if this is a problem).  There are only two laptops using the network at my home, both wirelessly.

```

# cat /etc/hosts

127.0.0.1       localhost               miumiu

# cat /etc/hostname

miumiu

# cat /etc/dnsdomainname

miffy

# rc-update -s

               acpid | boot         

           alsasound |      default 

                apmd |              

             apmiser |              

               aumix |              

            bootmisc | boot         

          bootsplash |              

             checkfs | boot         

           checkroot | boot         

               clock | boot         

         consolefont | boot         

         crypto-loop |              

               cupsd |              

          domainname |      default 

              esound |              

                famd |      default 

           fetchmail |              

                 gpm |              

              hdparm |              

            hostname | boot         

             hotplug | boot         

             keymaps | boot         

               local |      default 

          localmount | boot         

             modules | boot         

                 nas |              

            net.eth0 |              

            net.eth1 |      default 

              net.lo | boot         

            netmount |      default 

                nscd |              

             numlock |              

              pcmcia | boot         

             portmap |              

             postfix |              

             pwcheck |              

           rmnologin | boot         

              rsyncd |              

               samba |      default 

           saslauthd |              

              serial | boot         

                slpd |              

                sshd |      default 

           syslog-ng |      default 

            timidity |      default 

             urandom | boot         

          vixie-cron |      default 

             winbind |              

                 xdm |              

                 xfs |             

```

If I need to post more stuff, please let me know.  It does report setting the domainname to "miffy" correctly upon boot, before I get to the login prompt (which is even more confusing).

Cheers,

Chris

EDIT:  If I change hosts to say:

127.0.0.1 miumiu.miffy miumiu

as suggested above for dynamic IP's, then the login prompt is fine, but I still get '(none)' from '# domainname' and GNOME still complains at boot about not being able to look up the internet address for miumiu.  And don't ask about the ridiculous hostname and domainname! :)

----------

## chris.pickett

An RTFM response would be fine here, I just have no idea which FM I need to R.  Likewise I don't know which configuration files need to be posted to get help with getting things working.  Even "ping localhost" doesn't work, neither does "ping `hostname`".  These configuration issues are killing me, I just don't have time to invest in gentoo anymore, and I still haven't got a whole bunch of things working (samba, printing, pinging myself, midi (+ studio), etc. etc.).  I guess I'm just really frustrated because I don't know where to look.

```

# cat /etc/conf.d/net | grep -v ^#

iface_eth0="dhcp"

iface_eth1="dhcp"

```

* EDIT *

I just discovered that pinging myself from a root account works, but pinging myself from my non-root account does not work.  Regardless, "smbclient -L localhost" does not work from either root or non-root accounts, it complains about not being able to connect to localhost.

* EDIT 2 *

```
miumiu /home/chris # ifconfig 

eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:02:2D:5F:F9:49  

          inet addr:192.168.2.40  Bcast:255.255.255.255  Mask:255.255.255.0

          UP BROADCAST NOTRAILERS RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

          RX packets:6591 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:5735 errors:1 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 

          RX bytes:6796266 (6.4 Mb)  TX bytes:1004338 (980.7 Kb)

          Interrupt:3 Base address:0x100 

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  

          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0

          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1

          RX packets:115 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:115 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 

          RX bytes:10094 (9.8 Kb)  TX bytes:10094 (9.8 Kb)

miumiu /home/chris # route

Kernel IP routing table

Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags Metric Ref    Use Iface

192.168.2.0     *               255.255.255.0   U     0      0        0 eth1

loopback        miumiu.miffy    255.0.0.0       UG    0      0        0 lo

default         192.168.2.1     0.0.0.0         UG    0      0        0 eth1

```

----------

## chris.pickett

Ugh.  /etc/hosts and /etc/dnsdomainname were not readable by non-root users.

```

# chmod a+r /etc/hosts

# chmod a+r /etc/dnsdomainname

```

Also, the information in this thread may be helpful to others:

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=166831

----------

