> For as long as I can recall, Fedora has shipped with a default hostname of > "localhost.localdomain"[1]. This default was "safe" for a very long > time because > we also shipped an /etc/hosts entry that routed this hostname to the loopback > device for the benefit of some older system services (like sendmail). > > However, having the default be the same on all systems introduces other > problems, notably with regards to acting as a client to FreeIPA or Active > Directory domain controllers. > > When enrolling with one of these DCs, the machine's current hostname (up to the > first dot) is used to uniquely identify the machine into the domain. If the > machine's hostname is not unique in that domain, the enrollment will either fail > or the machine will take over that name (depending on the server-side > implementation). Neither case is likely to be what the user intended. > > > Some information on competing platforms: > > Windows deals with this on for its systems by assigning all new machines a > random hostname of the form WIN-XXXXXXXXXXX (that's a strict count of 11 random > characters of either capital letters or decimal numerals after the WIN- prefix). > This is because there is a 15-character maximum limit on the machine-name in > Active Directory, after which it is simply truncated (which is a bad behavior, > but one we have to deal with). > > Mac OS X and Ubuntu both require the user to pick a machine name at install time > explicitly. They do not autogenerate one at all. > > SUSE generates a random name of the format linux-XXXXXX (I'm not sure how many > random characters). > > > My proposal is that we should consider changing the default hostname for Fedora > 26 to be either FED-XXXXXXXXXXX or FEDORA-XXXXXXXX. The former allows for a > longer random string and therefore lower risk of collision in large > environments, while the latter would also provide improved branding for > Fedora[2]. Our default BASH shell prompt includes the current machine's hostname. > > > Thoughts on how to generate these random strings are of course up for > discussion. Given that initial machine creation may have limited available > entropy, we may want to avoid just calling out to /dev/random. Dusty Mabe > suggested in on IRC that one option might be to use either the first or last > 8/11 characters from /etc/machine-id, since presumably those would be > sufficiently random. > > > > > [1] Unless there is a DHCP-assigned hostname, in which case it will use that. > > [2] There is an ongoing discussion on the desktop@ list about how to subtly > brand the Workstation Edition such that when people are using it or showing it > to others, it is clear that it is *Fedora* as opposed to any other GNOME > distribution. I like Fedora-XXXXXXXX for default hostname. If I don't care to set a hostname it would be an ok hostname for my machine. I would however like if the hostname setting would be more prominent in the installer. Possibly generating based on my name along the lines of: fredriks-laptop.rambris.lan _______________________________________________ devel mailing list -- devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe send an email to devel-leave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
