Help!box is stuck in Shell Prompt

my other box is stuck at the unix shell prompt. i have red hat linux 7.3, i edited the hostname so i could set up internet...and now it doesn't start as a workstation...i've tried lots of things..its at the point where when you click the OS you want to run and then it goes into the startup then it takes me to "covad Login:" which used to be "Localhostname login:"(which i didn't have to type anything and it started to Gnome) i typed in root and my pass and it just brought me to unix, and i am stuck. :(

thank you for your help.

LOL.. yeah that happened to me also. Your gunna have to change your hostname back to what it was originally by hand.

You should have the prompt with your new hostname correct?

gimme a sec to remember what i did.

yeah it says "Covad LogIn:" thanx a bunch man

I assume covad was what you put as the new host name.

I think I went into the /etc/hosts.conf file and renamed the current hostname back to localhostname

ok...so i log in as root then i type somnething /etc/hosts.conf then rename it..please guide me through it step by step....lol i am a super n00b to unix. thanks

hmm.. i would suggest you go to the security chat and ask some of them, as i am still a newbie to linux myself. I can't remember exactly what to do unless i'm sitting in front of my box, and i'm at work for another 2 hours. If you still need help then i'll be more than happy to figure it out.

The problem is that covad (your new hostname) isn't set up in your /etc/hosts file. You need to have an entry that says something like this:

Code:

---

127.0.0.1          covad localhost locahost.localdomain

---

Then you can keep your new hostname and Xwindows will still know how to talk to itself.

did you try typing startx?