Getting “unknown host” on hostname despite adding it to /etc/hosts

Question

I have an Ubuntu server called crow:

$ hostname
crow

But when I try to ping it (from itself), I get unknown host:

$ ping crow
ping: unknown host crow

This is despite explicitly adding crow to /etc/hosts:

$ sudo cat /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1       localhost crow

What am I doing wrong?

Additional info in response to comments:

The hosts line of /etc/nsswitch.conf looks like this:

hosts:          files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns mdns4

Have you rebooted/restarted networking services after making the edit to your hosts file?
Modification of hosts file doesn't require restart of network services.
where do you ping it, from the server itself or from another machine in the same lan?

rvs · Answer 1 · 2011-02-02 19:36:23Z

up vote 3 down vote accepted

Check permissions on /etc/hosts and /etc/nsswitch.conf files. They should be world-readable.

answered Feb 2 '11 at 19:36

rvs
1,878414

	Indeed, there should be no need for sudo in `sudo cat /etc/hosts`. – hlovdal Feb 2 '11 at 21:04
	That fixed it, thanks! – sanity Feb 2 '11 at 21:20

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