[H-GEN] Cannot control Linux configuration

[David Seikel]

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 --- Alex Delaforce <alextdel at bigpond.net.au> wrote:
> that at the Humbug meeting I can pick up a DHCP address 100% of the time
> but at home using a Windows 2K gateway machine

Some Linux DHCP clients don't like talking to some buggy DHCP servers.  You
should have two or three clients available with SUSE 8.1, try them all.

> to resolve machine names. The book says that a file called '/etc/host'
> should be set up. But the file header tells me that /etc/host is for
> when DNS is not used??

Depending on how things are configured, /etc/hosts can be used as a backup
for addresses that DNS can't find.  Usually you would use /etc/hosts for
local addresses when you don't have a local DNS serving the local names.

> Have I chosen a difficult distribution of Linux to learn on? 

While I haven't read them, SUSE do have a reputation for writing good
manuals.  Personally, I find my SUSE 8.0 system at home a lot more
transparent and complete than my Red Hat 8.0 system in the office.  With
SUSE I tend to try YAST2 for configuring things, then do it manually if
YAST2 doesn't cut the mustard.  So far, YAST2 has done the trick for most things.

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