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I'm using Lubuntu 12.04.

I was trying to change my computer name to "main" and I messed up, I'm not sure what to do now.

I was following the directions on this page.

Here's what I did:

sudo leafpad /etc/hostname

I changed the name, then stupidly closed the file, before changing "/etc/hosts"

Now when I try to move on to the next step (sudo leafpad /etc/hosts), or try any command that begins with "sudo" I get this error:

sudo: unable to resolve host main
No protocol specified
No protocol specified

I can see that the problem is that I've changed the hostname, so the computer's bewildered by my efforts to use sudo because now hostname and hosts don't match. All I need to do is change the name in hosts, but of course I can't do that without sudo.

Any ideas?

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  • Your hostname is in your /etc/hosts file
    – wojox
    Jul 12, 2013 at 12:44
  • /etc/hostname has a single line for me: vasa1-Inspiron-1545. Also, when using a GUI-editor, use gksudo or gksu, not sudo.
    – user25656
    Jul 12, 2013 at 12:49
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    Lekensteyn - Thanks so much. I don't know how to implement the solution in that question without the ability to use sudo, any ideas?
    – begtognen
    Jul 12, 2013 at 13:36
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    Boot into a LiveUSB, mount your partition, and edit /etc/hosts. If you don't know the steps, tell us what's the output of mount | grep '/ '
    – Alaa Ali
    Jul 12, 2013 at 13:44
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    I appreciate your help, everyone. I tried this solution first and it worked beautifully: You should be able to fix it from the recovery console, you will need to remount the filesystem with rw permissions and then use a commandline editor e.g. after dropping to the root shell, Code: # mount -o remount,rw / # nano /etc/hosts and make your changes... Ctrl-o to save and Ctrl-x to quit
    – begtognen
    Jul 12, 2013 at 14:20

1 Answer 1

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SOLVED:

You should be able to fix it from the recovery console, you will need to remount the filesystem with rw permissions and then use a commandline editor e.g. after dropping to the root shell,

Code:

# mount -o remount,rw /
# nano /etc/hosts

and make your changes... Ctrl-o to save and Ctrl-x to quit

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