Red Hat Linux 5.3 new install

[Scott McDade]

I just installed Red Hat Linux 5.3 and went through the entire install without any issues. I am now trying to set up networking and when I give the device a hostname via NEAT>DNS>HOSTNAME it accepts it but upon reboot it won’t allow me to log back in. I am using DHCP so there should not be any conflicts. I have only set up 1 user in addition to root and both accounts allow me to put in user and password, then they hang for about 10 seconds and come back to login screen.

Any ideas or files I can look at that would show me what could be happening?

[Steven E. Protter · Accepted solution]

Shalom,

Your hostname could be set by the DHCP server. There is a network variable called DHCP_HOSTNAME which you can set, but many DHCP server tie back to databases locking in names.

See:
/etc/resolv.conf
/etc/nsswitch.conf

Name resolution problems often cause this issue.

Also a simple /etc/hosts hack can fix this.

IP_address hostname

This assumes nsswitch.conf does files resolution before dns, which is a good practice.

SEP

[Scott McDade]

Hey Stephen, I like the /etc/host hack idea. I assume these are env varaibles and not hardcoded ipaddress and hostname?

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

examples are helpful.

/etc/hosts

10.81.138.170 gitop2 gitop2.dana.com

If /etc/nsswtich.conf host resolution points to files before DNS, a hack here will work for you.

A lot of systems need a line in /etc/hosts to resolve their own hostname quickly, especially in an environment ruled by Unix unfriendly Microsoft Servers.

SEP