Grappling with Networks and Bootup/Login

I have two Linux machines with RHL9 and in each I installed somewhat different
packages in each. I'm trying to network them with another non-Linux machine. I can
ping other machines from any machine. However, during bootup and login I observe two
strange things.

1. One machine spends a lot of time in bootup at Starting Send Mail and Start Mail
Client before getting to the login.

2. In the other machine, it whizzes through those two items but upon login issues the
message:
"Could not lookup IP address for Astro_PC. This will prevent GNOME from operating
correctly. It may be possible to correct this by editing /etc/hosts and adding an
Astro_PC entry. I've used Network Device Control (tool) to look at my config on both
machines, and they seem identical, except for the IP addresses. The hostnames seem
right. My hosts files look like:

#remarks
#more remarks
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
192.168.0.x Computer_x.galaxy Computer_x

where x is 1 and 2 on their machines.

Why is GNOME objecting? I'm using KDE on that machine. Why is the other machine
stalling so long at bootup?
--
Wayne T. Watson (Watson Adventures, Prop., Nevada City, CA)
(121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N) GMT-8 hr std. time)
Obz Site: 39° 15' 7" N, 121° 2' 32" W, 2700 feet
(Formerly Homo habilis, erectus, heidelbergensis and now sapiens)

"The free market is a great thing--we should try it sometime."
-- Jim Hightower

Web Page: <home.earthlink.net/~mtnviews>

W. Watson wrote:

> I have two Linux machines with RHL9 and in each I installed somewhat
> different packages in each. I'm trying to network them with another
> non-Linux machine. I can ping other machines from any machine. However,

.... snip

I have no idea why this works, but it does. To get rid of the stall on "Starting
Sendmail" during bootup, adding a domain name to my host anme solve the problem. For
example, I had /etc/sysconfig/network:
HOSTNAME=MeteorPC
and in /etc/hosts:
127.0.0.1 localhost ... blah, blah
192.168.0.2 MeteorPC

Changing these two files to:
HOSTNAME=MeteorPC.bluesky
and
127.0.0.1 localhost ... blah, blah
192.168.0.2 MeteorPC.bluesky

where bluesky is a completely arbitrary domain name caused all problems to vanish.
Well, OK. It caused all startup and login network symptoms to vanish.

Case closed? I hope so. Thanks to all participants.



--
Wayne T. Watson (Watson Adventures, Prop., Nevada City, CA)
(121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N) GMT-8 hr std. time)
Obz Site: 39° 15' 7" N, 121° 2' 32" W, 2700 feet
(Formerly Homo habilis, erectus, heidelbergensis and now sapiens)

Sign in Programming Department: Mistakes made while you wait.

Web Page: <home.earthlink.net/~mtnviews>