[LUGSB] GNOME desktop weirdness

[Akshat Aranya]

> 
> 
> It is possible to configure your host in such a way that it
> always identifies itself as "foobar" to local programs regardless of
> what its hostname is to external hosts. /etc/hosts is the relevent
> file, and depending on some other variables (such as the software
> you are using) you may (or may not) have to run local DNS software.
> 
> 

My /etc/hosts contains the standard localhost entry for 127.0.0.1. 
Shouldn't all local programs address the X server by this name?  No 
matter what network I am on, this does not change.

-Akshat
>From vinay at mnl.cs.sunysb.edu Mon Mar 15 19:17:09 2004
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Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2004 19:17:10 -0500 (EST)
From: Vinay Pai <vinay at cs.sunysb.edu>
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> My /etc/hosts contains the standard localhost entry for 127.0.0.1.
> Shouldn't all local programs address the X server by this name?  No
> matter what network I am on, this does not change.

The whole point of network transparancy is that a program doesn't know
that its "local". It will identify itself as whatever gethostname()
returns.

To be honest, I'm still not sure why you've got a hostname assigned by
DHCP.  Why should the name of your computer change depending on where
you're plugged it?  Isn't it easier to just have a static hostname and let
DHCP assign you the IP address, nameservers, DNS suffix etc.

Vinay