Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

terminal not showing machine's name. Why?

Akarin

Akarin

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Hi all,

When I open terminal, I see this:

terminal.png


Before I used to have "myname's Mac mini:" on the prompt. Now, I always have this "unknown..." line. Anybody knows why and how to fix it?

Thank you!
 
Does the "hostname" and "whoami" command list the correct info?

Try quitting Terminal completely and then logging on/off of your account.
 
Quad5Ny said:
Does the "hostname" and "whoami" command list the correct info?

Try quitting Terminal completely and then logging on/off of your account.
Click to expand...

This is what I get with those two commands, after logging off and back on:

terminal2.png
 
I tried both commands above and none of them work. My terminal just enters a mode with a prompt showing this:

>

...and nothing else. Then no command works and I have to quit & re-launch terminal before arriving to the same view as in the original post above. 😕
 
Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4: Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.3.3; en-gb; GT-I9100 Build/GINGERBREAD) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1)

Try setting your DHCP client ID to your machine name in network settings and then Renee your DHCP lease.
I've seen this before when a DHCP server updates the DNS server with unknown and the MAC address which then gets used as the hostname.
 
Phil A. said:
Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4: Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.3.3; en-gb; GT-I9100 Build/GINGERBREAD) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1)

Try setting your DHCP client ID to your machine name in network settings and then Renee your DHCP lease.
I've seen this before when a DHCP server updates the DNS server with unknown and the MAC address which then gets used as the hostname.
Click to expand...

Although the client ID was blank and I did what you propose, still no joy. Still having the unknown string in terminal...
 
I think Lion changed the name from something you name it to your MAC address. Check your Network settings and it probably matches up.
 
Are you using Ethernet ?

Hi,
I have this problem when I connect my mac book air to Ethernet using the Ethernet to USB adapter.

When I remove Ethernet I get my normal hostname back.

Hope this helps.
 
The problem isn't your computer. Phil A. is right. The problem is that is the name you DHCP server is handing you.

Edit your account's ".bash_profile" file and add this to it:

Code: 
PS1='$(networksetup -getcomputername):\W \u\$ '

The ".bash_profile" file should be at the root level of your user account. If it is not there, create it.

Now, if you put "8.8.8.8" at the top of your DNS list, I bet your hostname would work fine too.

S-
 
sidewinder said:
The problem isn't your computer. Phil A. is right. The problem is that is the name you DHCP server is handing you.

Edit your account's ".bash_profile" file and add this to it:

Code: 
PS1='$(networksetup -getcomputername):\W \u\$ '

The ".bash_profile" file should be at the root level of your user account. If it is not there, create it.

Now, if you put "8.8.8.8" at the top of your DNS list, I bet your hostname would work fine too.

S-
Click to expand...

I had the same problem and this worked for me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back