Member Avatar for budroedotcom

I've looked and looked. Changed hostname files, nodename, played with init.d/network, sys-unconfig etc...
I'm using Solaris 9 on an x86 laptop. Here it goes:
I had booted Knoppix with the laptop. I took the hard drive out and installed a new one to use for Solaris (the point being this: there is no way Knoppix wrote to a drive it has never seen). Anyhow, the computer is devoted to Solaris (not sharing with any other OS). I installed Solaris 9. I'm assuming DHCP is throwing the hostname of "Knoppix" at me. I can't figure out how to get that changed. Any ideas? Any way to get that hostname to drop or recycle? I don't want my Solaris machine to be named "Knoppix". Please let me know if you need any more information from me on this. Thanks in advance.
-Todd

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Dani AI

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This is a common DHCP-side effect rather than a disk/OS corruption: a DHCP server will happily reassign whatever host name it has recorded for a NIC's MAC address, so swapping the hard drive does not prevent the network from handing back the old name. was right to point at the OS-side hostname settings for making a name persistent, and solved the immediate problem by forcing the DHCP lease on the interface to be dropped.

Why this happens: DHCP servers can accept and store a client-supplied host name (DHCP host-name option) or keep a lease entry that includes the name observed earlier. Live CDs commonly send a generic name; once the server has that mapping it will continue to hand the name out until the lease or server record is cleared. The NIC’s MAC address is the stable identifier the DHCP server uses, so changing the drive does not change what the server knows.

Practical troubleshooting and prevention:

  • Verify what the system and kernel think the name is with hostname and uname -n.
  • Clear the DHCP lease for the NIC and renew the lease, or remove/rename the lease entry in the DHCP server/router GUI so it stops supplying the old name.
  • Make the desired name permanent on the Solaris box (set the system nodename and ensure it’s in /etc/hosts) so services don’t get surprised on reboot.
  • For a long-term fix, reserve a static DHCP mapping on the DHCP server (bind the MAC to the correct name/IP) or configure the DHCP server to ignore client-supplied host-names.

Note: changing hostnames can affect network services (NFS, Kerberos, DNS), so use a fully qualified name where appropriate and restart affected services after making changes.

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Member Avatar for John A

Try editing the /etc/net/hostname file or something like that....

Member Avatar for budroedotcom

I found it.....ifconfig <device name> dhcp release

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