Change the "device name" in the details window of System settings

Question

I would like to change my "Device name" as shown in the settings panel. How do I do this?

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1st answer worked fine for me on 14.04, many thanks – May 02 '14 at 21:06 — , May 02 '14 at 21:06

vine_user · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-06T05:52:34.877

28

Execute the following command using a terminal:

sudo sed -i 's/present-host-name/new-host-name/' /etc/hosts
sudo sed -i 's/present-host-name/new-host-name/' /etc/hostname

You can check your present-host-name by cat /etc/hostname or hostname.

Then reboot the computer, to see the changes.

edited Jul 06 '12 at 05:52

answered Jul 04 '12 at 15:39

vine_user

2,891

3

Only renaming the hostname change the device name in details. but There will be an error relating to hostname in each sudo command to terminal – Anwar Jul 06 '12 at 03:26
Thats right. I rewrote the description. – vine_user Jul 06 '12 at 05:57

Anwar · Answer 2 · 2012-07-06T04:42:35.397

10

Open a terminal and issue the command
```
gksu gedit /etc/hosts
```

Then change the line

127.0.1.1   victor-System-Product-Name

with

 127.0.1.1    your-desired-name

Then also open the file /etc/hostname with command gksu gedit /etc/hostname and change the hostname there to reflect the new name.
Then reboot the computer, to see the changes

edited Jul 06 '12 at 04:42

answered Jul 04 '12 at 14:49

Anwar

77,924

Or sudo hostname preferredname ? – Samik Jul 04 '12 at 15:00
@Samik, unfortunately sudo hostname preferredname won't work. I checked that. thanks – Anwar Jul 04 '12 at 15:07
1

Sorry, these steps don't work, but I guess it's good to change the etc/hosts file to reflect what is in etc/hostname anyway. Thanks. – Victor S Jul 04 '12 at 15:52
@VictorS, yes, only changing the hostname causes errors to be shown in terminal – Anwar Jul 06 '12 at 03:32

score 4 · Answer 3 · edited Aug 07 '20 at 18:44

4

You can use the built in service hostnamectl

sudo hostnamectl set-hostname [NEW-HOSTNAME]

replacing [NEW-HOSTNAME] with the hostname you would like this should work immediately on most things but I would reboot for good measure.

edited Aug 07 '20 at 18:44

Zanna

72,471

answered Aug 07 '20 at 16:41

Ember

161

1

very nice.. Changes are immediate.. – PRATAP-PANABAKA Aug 07 '20 at 16:47

score 2 · Answer 4 · edited May 24 '13 at 15:51

2

Since there are plenty of ways to get something done here is one more:

While in your root directory:

cd /etc
sudo vi hostname

Type in your admin password, press Enter.

Press i to 'insert' and change existing device name to the desired device name.

Press Esc and type :wq!, press Enter.

Restart the system for the change to take affect.

edited May 24 '13 at 15:51

Seth

59,442
44
149
201

answered May 24 '13 at 15:44

Naveed Choudhry

21

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 04 '12 at 15:24

0

Run this command , it will open up Text editor

sudo gedit /etc/hostname

Replace the present name to your Desired name. Save and close. Reboot for it to take effect.

answered Jul 04 '12 at 15:24

atenz

12,868

Only changing the hostname, causes error to be shown on each sudo command to the terminal – Anwar Jul 06 '12 at 03:30
Thanks for noticing me about that , can you post the exact errors you see . According to Hostname man page Edit /etc/hostname for permanent change, even i tried this method and haven't encountered any such errors. – atenz Jul 06 '12 at 05:19
I edited /etc/hostname to a new name anwar from previous one anwar-precise. The error after rebooting the system and executing a sudo command is sudo: unable to resolve host anwar. It may be only warning. I executed sudo gedit command – Anwar Jul 06 '12 at 05:32
I searched for these and concluded you need to change both hosts and hostname to reflect complete changes , depending on maybe loopback , DNS , domain-name, resolv.conf. But its better to do changes in both of them. Yet i haven't encountered any such error ,must be different interface. – atenz Jul 06 '12 at 06:00

Change the "device name" in the details window of System settings

5 Answers5