hostname curiosity [SOLVED]

[Aaron Konstam]

On Mon, 2009-01-26 at 11:20 -0500, Steve wrote:
> ---- Steve <zephod at cfl.rr.com> wrote: 
> > 
> > ---- "Mikkel L. Ellertson" <mikkel at infinity-ltd.com> wrote: 
> > > Steve wrote:
> > > > When I boot my F9 box it can have one of two different host names
> > > > and I would like to figure why this is.
> > > > 
> > > > One of the hostnames, hp<number> is the name set by the manufacturer
> > > > and it's probably in the BIOS. I think that the other one is set via
> > > > dhcp. Our network dhcp server is a Windows box. The pattern seems to
> > > > be that when I first turn the machine on, it gets the hp<number>
> > > > hotsname but if I reboot, I get the dhcp name. I would like to
> > > > always get the dhcp name.
> > > > 
> > > > Any suggestions how on to investigate this?
> > > > 
> > > The only way I could see the hostname being set by the BIOS is if it
> > > did the connection to the DHCP server. (Network boot?) It is
> > > possible to set up the DHCP request to request a specific hostname,
> > > or the DHCP server to assign a specific hostname.
> > > 
> > > You can try setting "DHCP_HOSTNAME" in the config file for the
> > > interface and see if that helps.
> > > 
> > > You can also set the hostname in /etc/sysconfig/network.
> > 
> > I *could* set dhcp to request a specific filename - I do this on my home machine by creating a /etc/dhclient.conf file containing "send host-name "my host name";" - but that wouldn't satisfy my curiosity and besides, the host name really should be set by the dhcp server.
> > 
> > I'll try adding DHCP_HOSTNAME to /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0. Currently it contains BOOTPROTO=dhcp plus a few other things.
> > 
> > /etc/sysconfig/network contains
> > NETWORKING=yes
> > HOSTNAME=localhost.localdomain
> > 
> > so the system seems to be ignoring that hostname altogether.
> 
> Cool! Adding 
> 
> DHCP_HOSTNAME=yes
> 
> to /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 seems to have done the trick. Now there is a longer pause during booting when it gets to the Setting up eth0...[OK] line so I'm guessing it is waiting a little longer to get an answer from the dhcp server. 
> Btw, where are the docs for the ifcfg-eth0 file syntax? There is no man page for it.
> 
> Thanks
> Steve
> 
/usr/share/docs/initscripts.../sysconfig.txt
search for ifcfg

explanation is there.
-- 
Aaron Konstam <akonstam at sbcglobal.net>