/etc/hosts not updated to reflect hostname set on initial setup

[o-alquimista]

What Happened?

/etc/hosts

• has no entry for the hostname you set in the initial setup (e.g. my-hostname).
• will contain references to the suggested hostname (e.g. Inspiron-3583-abcdefgh) even if you decide to use a different name.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Install elementary, get to the initial setup
2. In the last step, where you create a new user, define a custom hostname, such as my-hostname. The hostname field will be pre-filled with something like Inspiron-3583-abcdefgh; delete that and set a custom name instead.
3. Login as that user and run cat /etc/hosts

Expected Behavior

Expected contents of /etc/hosts:

127.0.0.1 my-hostname.localdomain my-hostname localhost.localdomain localhost
::1 my-hostname.localdomain my-hostname localhost.localdomain localhost

Actual contents of /etc/hosts:

127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
::1 localhost.localdomain localhost
127.0.0.1 Inspiron-3583-abcdefgh.localdomain Inspiron-3583-abcdefgh

It's a bit messy too, right? But the relevant problem here is the absence of my-hostname.

OS Version

6.1 (Jólnir)

Software Version

Latest release (I have run all updates)

Log Output

No response

Hardware Info

• Dell Inspiron 15 3583

[joeljosedev]

I believe this method is responsible for setting the hostname when the uesr clicks on the Finish Setup button.

[cassidyjames]

The utility method is here:

initial-setup/src/Utils.vala

Lines 186 to 226 in e34c159

	public static bool set_hostname (string hostname) {
	string? primary_text = null;
	string secondary_text = _("Initial Setup could not set your hostname.");
	string? error_message = null;
	try {
	var permission = new Polkit.Permission.sync ("org.freedesktop.hostname1.set-static-hostname", new Polkit.UnixProcess (Posix.getpid ()));
	if (permission != null && permission.allowed) {
	get_hostname_interface_instance ();
	hostname_interface_instance.set_pretty_hostname (hostname, false);
	hostname_interface_instance.set_static_hostname (gen_hostname (hostname), false);
	} else {
	primary_text = _("No Permission to set hostname '%s'").printf (hostname);
	}
	} catch (GLib.Error e) {
	primary_text = _("Unable to set Hostname '%s'").printf (hostname);
	error_message = e.message;
	}
	if (primary_text != null) {
	var error_dialog = new Granite.MessageDialog.with_image_from_icon_name (
	primary_text,
	secondary_text,
	"dialog-error",
	Gtk.ButtonsType.CLOSE
	);
	if (error_message != null) {
	error_dialog.show_error_details (error_message);
	}
	error_dialog.run ();
	error_dialog.destroy ();
	return false;
	}
	return true;
	}

If I'm reading this correctly, we just use org.freedesktop.hostname1.set-static-hostname and don't manually do anything else to set the hostname; I'd imagine the FreeDesktop DBus interface should handle that?

[pridumkuvatyj]

Also this proposed device name Inspiron-3583-abcdefgh is used in syslog and maybe other logs.

I have a bit more strange behavior. During installation I changed proposed Lenovo-IdeaPad-Y580-d4dce24c to prid-PC. Later during Dropbox authentication it showed me a pridPC name without a dash. And the /etc/hostname, /etc/hosts files contained only the initially proposed Lenovo-IdeaPad-Y580-d4dce24c name.
After changing manually the name in these 2 files and rebooting several times, I've noticed the Lenovo-IdeaPad-Y580-d4dce24c name in syslog:
Jan 25 02:29:42 Lenovo-IdeaPad-Y580-d4dce24c kernel: [26215.856346] [UFW BLOCK] ...

Something strange is going on with the device name.

[davidmhewitt]

This causes a secondary problem where sudo commands are really slow if you choose anything other than the default hostname. See the following for reference: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/22249688/linux-sudo-is-working-slow-after-changing-the-hostname