[Dnsmasq-discuss] Hostnames not being added to dnsmasq.leases file

[Simon Kelley]

Jason Baker wrote:
> I have DNSMASQ configured to run on a CentOS 4 server. It is acting as 
> both the DNS and DHCP server. All is working fine, except that when I 
> connect another linux machine to the network, the host name on the 
> client machine doesn't show up in the dnsmasq.leases file. Instead I get:
> 
>     1166770800 00:14:22:9b:10:47 172.16.41.40 * *
> 
> Because of the above, I cannot ping the linux machine by machine name. 
> When I plug a Windows XP machine into the network I get correct hostname 
> resolution
> 
>     1166770990 00:16:17:a8:c4:23 172.16.189.188 pommel 01:00:16:17:a8:c4:23
> 
> In this case, I can ping the machine named "pommel". The linux machines 
> host file is:
> 
>     127.0.0.1 MYLINUXBOX    localhost       localhost.localdomain
> 
> Any advice would be greatly appreciated. 

The problem lies in the client machine, not your dnsmasq configuration. 
Not all DHCP clients for Linux send the machine's hostname unless 
specialy configured to do so.

If the DHCP client on you Linux machine is dhclient, then adding

end host-name "MYLINUXBOX";

to /etc/dhcp3/dhclient.conf should do the trick. Other clients have 
other configuration methods.


HTH

Simon.