How to change my device name?

Question

I want to change my device name but I have not found any option in the settings to do it. I am using Ubuntu for first time. Is there any way to change the device name that appears when I lock the desktop?

score 19 · Answer 1 · edited May 31 '19 at 07:01

19

Here is the command line way:

Open a terminal Ctrl+Alt+Tand enter sudo hostname newname. Replace newname of your device by the new name that you want to call your device. Enter your password.

Then, edit the oldname in /etc/hostname

sudo nano /etc/hostname

and change the old name. Do the same in /etc/hosts

sudo nano /etc/hosts

Now you're done.

edited May 31 '19 at 07:01

efthialex

3,831

answered Feb 21 '15 at 17:11

Jos

29,224

1

Jos: One point, The user might need to edit the /etc/hosts file too and replace the old hostname with the new one. – heemayl Feb 21 '15 at 17:37
I made a small edit ;) – Rinzwind Feb 21 '15 at 17:43
Never seen that GUI @Rinzwind. I wonder what other utilities are out there that are not installed by default, but would otherwise be useful. – Jos Feb 21 '15 at 17:48
Oh would not surprise me if there are more than 1000. I have seen so many nifty small gui tools that the gnome devs in the old days considered unwanted due to preferring the command line method :P – Rinzwind Feb 21 '15 at 17:49
1

@Rinzwind @Randeep or you can change host name using gksudo gedit /etc/hostname – Mudit Kapil Feb 21 '15 at 18:45

score 2 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 07 '15 at 19:38

You can change the host name from terminal Ctrl+Alt+T

gksu gedit /etc/hostname

this will open hostname(/etc) file in gedit,you can change your host name there and save the file.just restart your system and your host name is changed and when you lock the system that name will appears in top left corner of the desktop.However you can change the name of the user in System Settings->User Accounts click on the user in the right pane and change the name.logout and login again to see the change.

How to change my device name?

2 Answers2