Help! Knoppix 4.0.2 CD upon bootup, changed my Hostname

**Terry Kemmerer** · 02-20-2006, 07:47 AM

I am running Mandriva2006. Yesterday, I downloaded and created a iso cd of Knoppix 4.0.2 and booted up on it to look at Knoppix. I have since proven that just booting up on a Knoppix CD and then shutting down leaves my Hostname changed to "Knoppix", and Gnome complains that it can not find my IP Address.

I am unfamiliar with what all I need to do, to put my system back the way it was, as the Hostname and IP Address, etc., was automatically configured when I installed Mandriva2006. And while I have managed to change the Hostname to anything I want, I still have Gnome complaining about not being able to find my IP Address. What files does the Knoppix CD access and change, when it changes the Hostname of a computer system?

What do I need to do, to repair this?

**Harry Kuhman** · 02-20-2006, 08:04 AM

Originally Posted by Terry Kemmerer

I have since proven that just booting up on a Knoppix CD and then shutting down leaves my Hostname changed to "Knoppix", and Gnome complains......
.... And while I have managed to change the Hostname to anything I want, I still have Gnome complaining about not being able to find my IP Address. What files does the Knoppix CD access and change, when it changes the Hostname of a computer system?....

Who have you proven this to? You certainly haven't proven it to me, or offered any "proof" at all. You claim the host name is changed. Where do you think it is changed? On the computer? Or could it perhaps be a router or other DHCP server on the network that is retaining the Knoppix setting? You have given no information about your network configuration, yet I believe that it being ratained externally is far more likely than being retained internally. It is also of interest that you point out that you can change the hostname now, yet you still think it being Knoppix while Knoppix was running is an issue.

Knoppix changes no file on the hard disk when normally run unless you remount partitions are read/write and then do things that would cause these changes. The one exception that I know of to this is that if you have a Linux swap partition Knoppix considers itself free to use it for temporary swap space and will do so. That's it. Knoppix can run perfectly well with no hard disk at all; it doesn't need to change anything on your hard disk to access the network.

**Terry Kemmerer** · 02-20-2006, 09:41 AM

Thanks for your response Harry! I am a novice at linux, at best.
I am running a desktop machine, Compaq 5838, a Mandriva2005 only system.

Please don't think I was denigrating Knoppix. I have heard only good things, and was thinking it would be a great tool to have. And that I would make copies of the CD and give them to my M$ friends. From what I had heard, I did not expect it to change anything on my system harddisk right out of the box, so to speak....at least not without some kind of authorization. But somehow, it has. Or at least it seems so to me at this point. But I will explain what I did...

Also, since I am a novice to linux....You will need to tell me what information you specifically need and the linux commands that I need to paste on the commandline to get that info for you. And I will do so. I have no home router, unless the broadband box from ComCast is such.....(however, at one point, I unplugged from it and powered it down, and also powered down my computer, trying to see what would happen. It made no change in the situation.)

Perhaps "proven" was the wrong choice of words......I ran a test that seemed to say Knoppix changes my hostname. I will explain. You decide since you obviously know more about it than me. My interest is in getting my system fixed up if you can help me. And it would be nice to know what I did wrong or how this happened before I recommend my M$ friends give it a try....

Here is what happened from the beginning-- The first time: I booted up on Knoppix I did click on the mount points on the left side of the screen to see what they were, but that I know of, I didn't have it do anything, I just read what it reported and moved on. I then checked out the menu, and all the neat applications, and decided to shutdown as I didn't have a whole lot of time left to play at that point....I was just making sure I had a good iso. However, when I returned, and booted Mandriva up later, just after I entered my username and password, as Gnome loaded, Gnome reported that it could not find the IP Address for Knoppix. I called up a Terminal, and my commandline prompt, looked like this: [lucky@Knoppix Desktop]$

There were two things strange about this, as I was thinking the Terminal always opened at /home/lucky rather than Desktop, but maybe I am wrong, I use the GUI's a lot, and maybe this has changed. Of course, the primary strange thing is Knoppix was my Hostname......whereas, before, their had been something that looked like an IP addrss and at least part of "hsd1.wa.comcast.net" as part of what has been there....and of course, Gnome wasn't bitching at me. Ha.

Using Mandriva Control Center, I found that I could either RECONFIGURE a connection and type a name, like "starfire" into the DHCP blank and it would change the Hostname to "starfire" in my command prompt. Or, I could use the control center to delete my connections and then use the wizard to re-create them, in which case, I could give it a hostname. (I know nothing about what a hostname needs to be or what needs to be declared to make one.) So, I gave it the name "starfire" which made my commandline prompt looke like this when I rebooted: [lucky@starfire Desktop]$

And yes, Gnome complained that it didn't know the IP Address of "starfire" also!

Then, I pulled out my new CD of Knoppix and put it in the machine and booted on it. As soon as Knoppix finished the bootup, I immediately did a shutdown. I then pulled the Knoppix CD out of the machine and laid it asside, and booted back up on Mandriva2006 from harddisk. Again, for the second time, as I came up, Gnome complained it that it did not know the IP Address for Knoppix and when I opened a terminal the command prompt looked like this: [lucky@Knoppix Desktop]$

SO, what I am saying is, my Mandriva2006 Linux system THINKS its hostname is Knoppix!!!

That is why I am saying that it "appears" to me that Knoppix changed my Hostname and messed up whatever IP Address Gnome needs to find upon bootup. And this is where I am asking for help in returning my system to normal so that Gnome is happy upon bootup, and in finding out WHY Knoppix is changing my system. Obviously, if this is only happening to me, I must have something set up wrong on my computer somewhere....maybe. And it seems to me, it will be risky to use Knoppix for me, if "we" can't discover why it feels free to change things on my system.....

So, just tell me what you need, and how I can get it for you. Like, what do you mean information about my network configuration? I think I am set up as a LAN connected directly to broadband....at least, after playing with it and deleting it several times, that is where I am at right now....Seems to work. So did the CABLE setting when I tried that. HA HA HA

**Harry Kuhman** · 02-20-2006, 08:33 PM

Originally Posted by Terry Kemmerer

I think I am set up as a LAN connected directly to broadband....at least, after playing with it and deleting it several times, that is where I am at right now....Seems to work. So did the CABLE setting when I tried that. HA HA HA

In all of my use of Knoppix and all of my experience here in these forums I have never found a verifable case of Knoppix making any such change to the hard disk except for use of the swap file where there was one. There have been some reports similar to this one that say Knoppix did something, but if resolved at all it always turns out to have been something else.

Knoppix certainly does identify itself as hostname Knoppix to the network. If some device giving out the DHCP lease saw this and is now insisting that the IP address is associated with the hostname Knoppix, that does not mean that your hard disk was changed. I'm still not sure about your broadband configuration; apparently you are not either. If you are getting DHCP configuration from a cable company then they might be part of the issue. I know some cable systems do some strange thinks like lock your service to a particular mac address and I don't use cable and don't have a good understanding of all the strange things that they do. But this does bring up the advice that I feel would solve over half of all networking problems we see here, my generic answer #4. Yiou can get one this week for under $10 after rebate at CompUSA., and if the ISP is the problem this would resolve it. It's a good idea anyway.

There are certainly tests that you could do to prove if Knoppix is or is not making any hard disk changes. You could make a md5 profile of all of your files with your hard disk based OS. Then before running Knoppix reboot and check that profile against the files to catch fies that do get changed by your OS (such as logs). After running Knoppix do the md5 test again and see if any other files are changed. If none are then it should be apparent that Knoppix didn't make changes. Another approach would be to get your old system working, then shut it down before running Knoppix and physically disconnect the hard disks. Boot Knoppix. After you shut down reconnect your hard drives and run your old OS. If it again thinks that the host name is Knoppix then this information must be coming from the network.

**Terry Kemmerer** · 02-21-2006, 04:34 AM

Harry. I have performed all kinds of tests, both with and without my cable modem, etc. and can no longer re-dupplicate what went wrong to cause me to end up with Knoppix as my hostname. Knoppix behaves quite well and my hostname is not being changed.

Further, in fiddling around with editing files and making changes, Gnome is no longer complaining about not finding a IP Address on boot up, and my new Hostname of starfire seems to be accepted. This is what my entries look like at this point:

/etc/sysconfig/network:
HOSTNAME=starfire
NETWORKING=yes
/etc/hosts:
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain starfire localhost

So, I think I will quit while I am ahead and everything is working, and call this whole episode a UFO siting.
I am keeping my new Knoppix CD and will be playing with it.....carefully.....in the future. Ha Ha Ha
Thanks for your help.