[Techtalk] Hostname/printer problem

[housekm at fastmail.fm]

This may be too elementary a question for this list, but here goes - 
I've had a persistent problem with my hostname:  whenever I go into X,
for instance, I get a "hostname lookup failure" message.  I wasn't able
to fix it, or find any information on what caused it.  

Now I'm trying to hook up a printer for the first time.  LPD keeps
failing, either with "2004-04-11-09:18:28.997 Get_local_host: hostname
'Bertie.localdomain' bad"

or if I set the hostname to localhost.localdomain:

hostname localhost.localdomain
[root at Bertie root]# lpd
Fatal error - Cannot bind to lpd port '515'

I got the printer to work once after reseting the host name to
localhost.localdomain and maybe doing something to the hosts file as
well.  Then I rebooted the system; the system recognized the printer for
the first time and configured it, but tbe LPD start failed, due to the
hostname problem.  

I had set the host name after loading linux for the first time, having
missed that part during the initial load. Since then, it seems that the
system hasn't set all the places where the name is referenced to the
right name.  I believe I set it with Kickstart, but can't remember now.  

My system right now is Redhat 8.0, Linux version 2.4.18 The printer is an
Epson Stylus 740, no problem with bootup recognizing it or locating
drivers.  This is from dmesg: 

parport0: PC-style at 0x378 (0x778) [PCSPP,TRISTATE,EPP]
parport0: irq 7 detected
parport0: Printer, EPSON Stylus COLOR 740

This is my hosts file right now:
# Do not remove the following line, or various programs
# that require network functionality will fail.
127.0.0.1               localhost
0.0.0.0                 localhost.localdomain Bertie

and resolv.conf:
nameserver 209.244.0.3
nameserver 209.244.0.4

I would really appreciate help with this - like I said, I can't find
anything that puts the hostname error together with a cause and solution
to the problem.  

Kathleen

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