Re: Changing Hostname?

["Karl E. Jorgensen" <karl@jorgensen.org.uk>]

Hi

On Sat, Dec 21, 2013 at 01:45:11PM -0500, Jon N wrote:
> I recently installed Jessie on a new computer.  Now that I have the
> system up and running I decided that I would like to have a different
> hostname than the rather unimaginative  'localhost-01' I picked during
> install.  I used the "mate-network-admin" utility to change it, and
> checked /etc/hostname and saw that the change was reflected there
> also.
> 
> Then I rebooted.  The display manager wouldn't load, leaving me with
> an almost blank screen (there was a blinking cursor in the upper left
> corner).  I switched to another virtual terminal, edited /etc/hostname
> back and was able to boot normally.  Although when I just opened
> "mate-network-admin" again it still had the new name in there.
> Apparently mate-network-manager changes /etc/hostname, but changing
> /etc/hostname doesn't reverse it completely??? (I'm thinking I must
> have done something wrong, because that doesn't make sense).
> 
> Anyway, the main question is, how do i change the hostname for my system?
> 
> I did do some searching online, and so far I found that I have to change:
> 
> /etc/hostname
> /etc/hosts
> 
> then run the command
> 
> sysctl kernel hostname=NEW_HOSTNAME.
> 
> There were also directions on how to change config files for some
> specific packages.  Am I missing anything?

In general, if you're changing host name, *ALL* references to the old
name should be tweaked.

I would recommend:

  # sed --in-place=.bak -e 's/localhost-01/yournewname/g' $(grep -lr localhost-01 /etc)

(followed by a reboot to completely eradicate all memory of the old name).

Some packages, e.g. require additional attention here.

Hope this helps

-- 
Karl E. Jorgensen