Fedora 9: Change Linux Hostname or Computer System Name

One of the basic requirement of identifying your computer system besides from its IP and MAC address is by its system host name. These host names are used by many of the networking programs to identify the machine.

To view your current computer host name, simply type as root

# hostname

Now, to change your current system host name,

# hostname newhost.domain.com

and verify again

# hostname

Using Fedora, to permanently change your linux system name, backup and modify /etc/hosts for similar lines as shown below

127.0.0.1              localhost

83.83.83.83           vertito.ilovetux.com

Save and exit.

Backup and modify /etc/sysconfig/network for similar lines as shown below

HOSTNAME=vertito.ilovetux.com

Restart your network system to permanently take effect between reboots.

# service network restart

# hostname