[Solved]renamed computer now unable to resolve host

[houndhen]

I was trying share a printer on another xp pc from my linux box. I renamed the linux box from h-kubuntu to hkub to shorten the name and now adept won't start and konsole gives me "sudo: unable to resolve host hkub".

I have no clue of how to resolve this. How do I get out of this mess?

[MHD]

Re: renamed computer now unable to resolve host

check /etc/hosts.conf

Mine renamed my computer when I did the upgrade

[houndhen]

Re: renamed computer now unable to resolve host

I am not able to do anything as root or sudo.

I can look at the files about host in /etc/ but am not able to change anything because I can't edit them as root in dolphin.

This is what host.conf says: "# The "order" line is only used by old versions of the C library.
multi off"

hostname has this: "hkub"

the hosts file has this:

127.0.0.1 localhost
127.0.1.1 h-kubuntu

# The following lines are desirable for IPv6 capable hosts
::1 ip6-localhost ip6-loopback
fe00::0 ip6-localnet
ff00::0 ip6-mcastprefix
ff02::1 ip6-allnodes
ff02::2 ip6-allrouters
ff02::3 ip6-allhosts

hosts.allow is all commented out as well as hosts.deny.

Is there a way to log in from the boot menu as single like in some other distros?

[cantab]

Re: renamed computer now unable to resolve host

You need to change

127.0.1.1 h-kubuntu

to

127.0.1.1 hkub

(as you probably guessed).

As for how to actually edit them, well

1) This is one reason why ubuntu's idea of locking the root password is BAD. It's rather easy to break sudo and thus lock yourself out of your machine. If you have a real root password you need only worry about forgetting it.

but it's easily fixed. As you suggested, if you press Esc when booting to enter the grub menu(you need to keep your eye's open as there's like a 3 sec window to do it in, and if you do it too early you'll often end up in the bios instead), there should then be a 'recovery mode' or similar, that will give you the option to go into a root shell. Then you should be able to fix your hosts file.

If that fails, you'll have to use a LiveCD. Mount your drive (for example on /media/hda1), and then change the hosts file in /media/hda1/etc/hosts. You may need to be root on the live system.

[houndhen]

Re: renamed computer now unable to resolve host

Thanks, cantab. Your information worked fine. I was not able to hit the ESC key at the right time and work in the shell. Working quickly in the shell is not a strong point of mine anyway.

I used the live cd and edited the hosts file and now I am able to get back into adept.

Thanks so much for your help.