Cfxtrjtrk

This may be related to running 18.04 LTS as a virtual machine (Host is Win 2016 DC) but I can't figure it out how. I have tried every method of I know of to change the hostname but it always reverts to the hostname I entered when I built the machine on reboot. I have tried the following:

1. hostnamectl set-hostname xxx.


2. Editing hostname directly.


3. Adding --static to hostnamectl.


4. Editing hosts file and adding desired hostname.


5. Searching drive for references to old hostname before reboot.


6. A few other weird suggestions I found on the internet not worth mentioning.

I have no DNS for this server at this time.

Example:

XXXX@iwrxmail:~# hostnamectl

Static hostname: iwrxmail

Pretty hostname: Interwrx Ubuntu Mail Server

Transient hostname: ctl

     Icon name: computer-vm

       Chassis: vm

    Machine ID: 01ef0d836d2c4945b51a4fab8e506381

       Boot ID: e6608fe238d843f883cde52af7631a79

Virtualization: microsoft

Operating System: Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

        Kernel: Linux 4.15.0-20-generic

  Architecture: x86-64

XXXX@iwrxmail:~# hostnamectl set-hostname test

XXXX@iwrxmail:~# hostnamectl

Static hostname: test

     Icon name: computer-vm

       Chassis: vm

    Machine ID: 01ef0d836d2c4945b51a4fab8e506381

       Boot ID: e6608fe238d843f883cde52af7631a79

Virtualization: microsoft

Operating System: Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

        Kernel: Linux 4.15.0-20-generic

  Architecture: x86-64

root@iwrxmail:~# cat /etc/hostname

test

root@iwrxmail:~# cat /etc/hosts

127.0.0.1       localhost.localdomain   localhost

::1             localhost6.localdomain6 localhost6

# The following lines are desirable for IPv6 capable hosts

::1     localhost ip6-localhost ip6-loopback

fe00::0 ip6-localnet

ff02::1 ip6-allnodes

ff02::2 ip6-allrouters

ff02::3 ip6-allhosts 



However on reboot I get this again ....



XXXX@iwrxmail:~# hostnamectl

Static hostname: iwrxmail

     Icon name: computer-vm

       Chassis: vm

    Machine ID: 01ef0d836d2c4945b51a4fab8e506381

       Boot ID: 25a00676b22048eb8d43492c9de4f147

Virtualization: microsoft

Operating System: Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

        Kernel: Linux 4.15.0-20-generic

Architecture: x86-64

I had had this issue with the beta of 18.04, but I figured I would wait for the release copy. I also considered it might be a problem with the fact I had cloned the VMs, but this was a brand new version built from scratch with the just released distro.

What am I missing?

Thanks in advance.

First edit /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg and set the parameter "preserve_hostname" from "false" to "true" and then edit /etc/hostname.

The hostname is being reset by cloud-init which can be disabled as follows (after which you can set the hostname in the normal way e.g. using hostnamectl):

sudo touch /etc/cloud/cloud-init.disabled

Or you can create/modify user-data file (/var/lib/cloud/seed/nocloud-net/user-data) so that the hostname is correct. Firstly you'll need to clean the existing config:

sudo cloud-init clean

And then reinitialise cloud-init's config from the new/modified user-data file:

sudo cloud-init init

Then reboot. See the cloud-init docs for more details.

For the "lazy guys" like me, a copy-paste solution :)

sudo sed -i '/preserve_hostname: false/cpreserve_hostname: true' /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg && sudo hostnamectl set-hostname ReplaceThisWithTheHostnamePreferred

First command allows the new hostname to be remembered by the OS.

The second part (after the &&) will only run if the first part has finished successfully and will set the hostname to the desired value.

Regards! L

I had the same issue and found that, after removing the cloud packages, you can change your hostname.

apt remove cloud-init cloud-initramfs-copymods cloud-initramfs-dyn-netconf

1- Edit vi /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg and change

preserve_hostname: false

To

preserve_hostname: true

Save and exit.

2- Edit vi /etc/hostname and replace your new name in this file or you can do this step with bellow command.

hostnamectl set-hostname NEWNAME

Enjoy it :)