Problem w/ hostname -f « vpsBible Forums

Problem w/ hostname -f

(17 posts) (9 voices)

Started 1 year ago by Christine Giglio
Latest reply from Marcus West

Topic Tags:-

Christine Giglio
Member

Following the article: http://vpsbible.com/email/setup-postfix-email/

and I followed both text and video and hostname -f works fine before I set everything up, but afterwards when I type hostname -f I get: hostname: Name or service not known

dig -x IPADDRESS still says the old hostname.

If I type plain hostname it comes up the proper hostname that I set up.

Advice anyone?

ALSO (for guvnr): http://vpsbible.com/server-distributions/edit-bashrc-for-user-friendly-linux-plus-system-updates/
On that page if you scroll down to the full Alias's copypasta there's a small typo which makes a big difference:
###My Aliases

#open bashrc
alias ebrc="nano ~/bashrc"
#update software source index
alias update="sudo aptitude update"

Add the . to this line:
alias ebrc="nano ~/.bashrc"

Invaluable site,guvnr, I really appreciate the time you took to do this and this was the best money I ever spent.

Thank you!
Also thank you to anyone who helps, in advance.

Posted 1 year ago #
Christine Giglio
Member
I figured it out. I had to do something different.

in my /etc/hosts I had to put:
```
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
127.0.1.1 mail.binarycat.com mail
69.164.219.249 mail.binarycat.com binarycat.com
```
And then in my /etc/hostname I had to put this:

mail

My output is as follows:
```
cgiglio@mail~ $ hostname
mail.binarycat.com
cgiglio@mail~ $ hostname -f
mail.binarycat.com
```
Using 10.04 LTS Ubuntu.
Not sure why the instructions didn't work for me, but in case someone has this problem, here's the solution. Maybe you can mark this resolved? Thanks!
Posted 1 year ago #
Tong Hui
Member

Thanks Christine, it work magically! Mind to share with me how did you figure this thing out?

Posted 1 year ago #
Darryl Whitworth
Member

I've had the same issue and I've followed the tutorial to a T so far.

I believe this part of the tutorial needs attention.

The only thing I did different and after doing some research elsewhere was to omit 69.164.219.249 mail.binarycat.com binarycat.com from your solution.

Regards,
Darryl

Posted 1 year ago #
Darryl Whitworth
Member

I should add the tutorial on the hostname file was more or less correct. There was no previous entry so I had to enter 127.0.1.1 mail.xxx.xxxx. I did not just enter the word mail as you suggest.

Posted 1 year ago #
Darryl Whitworth
Member

There is one more thing this could be caused by as I've seen strange things happen because of this.

Has the DNS for your domain propagated fully? If not, strange and undesirable things can happen.

A thought.

Posted 1 year ago #
the_guv
Key Master

could be .. have to allow for DNS propagation .. has been known to take up to 72 hours

Posted 1 year ago #
the_guv
Key Master

bashrc command updated .. thank you Christine (and for your kind words)

Posted 1 year ago #
Christine Giglio
Member

@Tong: http://www.faqs.org/docs/securing/chap9sec95.html

I found a page similar to this explaining exactly how an /etc/hosts file is setup.

In hindsight I may end up taking out the alias 'mail' and 'binarycat.com' I think I put those in just tossing stuff in hoping it works.

To confirm DNS propigation wasn't the problem I will test later.

Posted 1 year ago #
Darryl Whitworth
Member

An update.

I did not get this error if I used the 8.04LTS install. There's also a couple of other smaller issues such as having to sudo when it's not described to do so in the tutorial up until this point of the install.

Using 8.04 so far things have gone exactly as described. I'll give more feedback when I'm done.

Posted 1 year ago #
Darryl Whitworth
Member

I'm back at 10.04LTS to keep it short. I'll post the code I used for hosts and hostname once I prove a fully functioning VPS from the tutorial.

Posted 1 year ago #
the_guv
Key Master

hey Darryl, whole guide tested working for 10.04, and Ubuntu stacks written only for 10.04

.. I'd not recommend using 8.04 any more .. it's fine, but won;t be supported for as long

Posted 1 year ago #
jose ortiz
Member

Hi, I have to say I had the same "Name or service not known" message, but I followed what Christine put in "etc/hosts" and it worked like a charm. I did not have to put "mail" in "/etc/hostname"

Not sure why, but grateful for the guide and the forums.

Posted 1 year ago #
Daniel
Member

Following guide Ubuntu 10.04 I'd the same error "Name or service not known", fixed with (etc/hosts):

127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
127.0.1.1 mail.mydomain.ltd mail

Posted 1 year ago #
the_guv
Key Master

oh, misunderstood that ..

in that case i'm stumped .. do the logs throw up any clues?

maybe the best thing for you is to set up ssh keys for wordpress .. you can probably find some info about that in the codex

Posted 1 year ago #
aharown07
Member

I got the error as well- Linode 10.04 LTS. Christine's tweak resolved it.

But I did not wait 72 hours for the previous tutorial step to propagate, so it's still possible that this is what causes the error... and the different syntax is only temporarily necessary?

Posted 1 year ago #
Moses Drayne
Member

Bravo Christine. I started a new thread on this issue prematurely when the example in the hosts file didn't match the screen capture. I'll go back and link to this thread...

Posted 11 months ago #
Marcus West
Member

Cool. Followed your guide Christine

Posted 11 months ago #