Set Linux Hostname And Domain Name Correctly

Why You Need Hostname

Some software needs to know your hostname. If not provide, they will throw a warning or not work.

You can use “hostname” command to see your current hostname. Use “hostname -f” to see your fully qualified domain name. If you get some error that cannot find fully qualified domain name, you need the following steps.

PC

Your PC usually does not have a domain name and never-change IP.

If you do not own any registered top level domain names, you can use a fake one, like myname.local , myname.lan , myname.geek. Note that .lcal .lan and .geek are not ICANN top level domains, so they will never conflict with sites on the internet. Some examples:

linux-desktop.guoyunhe.local
samba-storage.guoyunhe.local
laptop-1.guoyunhe.local

If you own a top level domain like yourname.com, you can use it as your device domain. This is because you can make sure the domain name won’t be used in other places. Some examples:

desktop.guoyunhe.me
laptop.guoyunhe.me
old-thinkpad.guoyunhe.me

Step 1: modify /etc/hostname file. Hostname should only contain letters, numbers and dash.

linux-desktop

Step 2: modify /etc/hosts file. Put full name “linux-desktop.guoyunhe.local” before hostname “linux-desktop”.

127.0.0.1    localhost
127.0.1.1    linux-desktop.guoyunhe.local linux-desktop

Step 3: restart system.

You can use “hostname” (output: linux-desktop) and “hostname -f” (output: linux-desktop.guoyunhe.local) to check if your new domain name works.

Server

If you have a server for your blog, wiki and web shop, the domain names are:

guoyunhe.me
www.guoyunhe.me
wiki.guoyunhe.me
shop.guoyunhe.me

You can use one of “www”, “wiki” or “shop” as your hostname. However, you can pick a new one, like “server”, “vps-1”.

Step 1: modify /etc/hostname file. Hostname should only contain letters, numbers and dash.

server

Step 2: modify /etc/hosts file. Put full name “server.guoyunhe.me” before hostname “server”.

127.0.0.1    localhost
127.0.1.1    server.guoyunhe.me server guoyunhe.me www.guoyunhe.me wiki.guoyunhe.me shop.guoyunhe.me

Step 3: restart system.

You can use “hostname” (output: server) and “hostname -f” (output: server.guoyunhe.me) to check if your new domain name works.

Develop Online Services for Chinese Customers

This year I met some people who have interest to Chinese market but do not know how to develop business in China effectively. So I try to share something I know as a native Chinese but not a business or technical expert. I hope it is helpful for you.

Social Media Channels

#1 WeChat Official Platform

WeChat, like a combination of Whatsapp and Instagram. It is now the most popular mobile application in China. Almost everyone has an account .

It has an Official Account service, which allows companies and organizations push content to users like instant messages.

The official account platform require a new account registered on their website, not your WeChat account. Here are two channels with different requirements:

Chinese – require WeChat account, Bank account in China, Chinese ID, and phone number in China.
International (Beta) – require WeChat account and phone number, only open to specific countries. Finland is not included currently.

Basic official account (free of charge) can send one text message, photo, or article per day. The advantage of WeChat is that you can control which group of users you want to send. Smartly group your users and you can avoid push things they might not be interested.

If users share your articles on WeChat Moments, their friends can read the article and might follow your official account.

#2 Weibo

Like Twitter, is a public social network. It is going down slowly. Active users are decreasing. Ads are too much. However, it is still a good place to attract thousands of people’s attention.

Weibo Personal account is free; Weibo Official account for foreign companies require 1000$ certificate fee. I suggest to use personal account. Register account require a phone number of specific countries. Unfortunately, Finland is not in the list.

#3 Qzone

An old-fashion website like MySpace. But it still has a lot of active users.

#4 Baidu Tieba

It is a great place to find people have similar interests.

#5 Douban

A community to share reviews of good books, movies, music, products. Poeple also share hobby and knowledge, organize offline events.

#6 Zhihu

A Q&A website like Qura. But it is more like a place that everyone can give their oppions on the same topic. Users do not only ask questions that they want answers but also give interesting topic that worth communicating.

Search Engines

App Stores

All Android smart phones in China market has removed Google Play. Different smart phone brands have their own app stores, like Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi. Here are also some popular third-party app stores: (more…)

How Many Times I Type Password Everyday

Nowadays, Chen told me that I type password too frequently. So I figured out how many times I type password everyday.

My current mobile phone is LG Nexus 5. I like it because it allows you to set a complex password, while you cannot do that in an iPhone. My screen locker password is longer than 10 characters with upper case and lower case letters, numbers, and special symbols. I unlock my phone 10-20 times a day.

My laptop runs openSUSE 13.2, a distribution of GNU/Linux, with KDE desktop environment. My login password is another sequence longer than 10, consisting of upper case and lower case letters, numbers, and special symbols. (more…)

Wacom stylus, Krita digital painting software. 4 hours work.

The story is that a lady ate poisonous mushroom and died. Tell people knowledge of mushroom is important.

[Design & Culture] Diary 12: Designing Finnish Metal Music

Many crazy videos… I more like lyrical rock, like U2.

Visualizing music is a interesting task. It cannot be done by experts but music lovers. You must learn a lot of things of the band and understand it by heart. Images and videos show characteristics of the band, meaning and spirits of this song.

It seems that instant impression plays the key role in metal music. Detail crafting is not so important and sometimes inhibited for the expression of whole song. Design of posters and music videos also focus on the same goal. Usually there is only one chance to impress audiences. If they do not like it or cannot get the correct feeling, they will not try twice. (more…)

[Design & Culture] Diary 11: Finnish Consumer Ethos – Values and Service Design

It took me a while to understand the word “ethos”…

An article says there are 3 common consumer ethoses: agrarianism, economism and green consumerism. (Huttunen K, Autio M. Consumer ethoses in Finnish consumer life stories–agrarianism, economism and green consumerism[J]. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 2010, 34(2): 146-152.)

Agrarianism means everyone could get products or services their need at a reasonable price. For example, free education for everyone, a low internet fee without regional differences. People appreciate equal choices in consuming and do not want gap between rich and poor people. (more…)

[Design & Culture] Diary 10: Design and Contemporary Finnish Lifestyles

Finnish lifestyle is very different from Chinese lifestyle. Lifestyles reflect the attitude of people and are essential factor for design.

Finnish People…

Are Fast and Tough

Even there is snowy and extremely cold, you still can find Finnish man and woman running along the road. People like to ride a bicycle to not so far places.

In Finland, if designers design sport clothing, they should really consider sport usage. But in China, most young people do not do sports at all though they like wearing sport clothing. Sport products, like band to attach smart phone on your arm, have an extensive market. (more…)

[Design & Culture] Diary 9: Ideological Turns in Finnish Design

This lecture introduced Finnish design’s turn from nationalism to modernism.

Design of Nationality, Culture and Rule

In a long history, arts and design serve as substantiation of national identity, social system and royalty. There are many symbols of nationality and kingdom.

Before famous Arabia and other Finnish crafts companies were founded in 19 century, there had been a style of crafts, though it is not so clear. These crafts have many graphics of animals, birds, plants and stories of old Finland. (more…)

Wiki Stroll Design Notes

In this October, I and Wang Chen planed to start our collaborative design projects. Ever month we will do a new design project. The first is named “Wiki Stroll”, a data visualization web application that helps users to explore Wikipedia. (more…)

[Design & Culture] Diary 8: Design in Media

Media Representation

Designers are always trying to improve influence of design in society, but this goal cannot be achieved only through publishing more books about design. Press media, radio and TV programs are reflection of people‘s awareness to the world. Knowing how people understand design is important. It is the reason why we should study design representation in media. (more…)