Comment 16 for bug 84876

I was having this same problem as well on a friends computer I was setting up with ubuntu Feisty on x86_64. This had happened over to installs and usually after I had just installed a pile of software so I did not know what was causing the problem however I was getting the Original qoute that started this message. I started reading this and then it occured to me, yes I had to have loop back installed, but what I had forgotten when setting up his firewall was to allow all traffic on lo to be accepted (on draconian rules.) If you are getting the original qouted error that started this message and you cannot ping localhost then you may have a firewall issue or loopback device just may not be setup. If it is a firewall issue (and this command is harmless even if it isn't) try typing => sudo iptables -I INPUT -i lo -j ACCEPT <= (and yes case sensitivity is important) and it may fix your problem. if it does not fix your problem the command will still not hurt your system in any way. If it does fix your problem you will need to find a way to make that command permenant. I don't know if Ubuntu has any rules for firewall specifications but I typically use => iptables-save > /etc/iptables.conf <= and then have it loaded at boot each time by adding the following line to /etc/rc.local, just before "exit 0" => /sbin/iptables-restore < /etc/iptables.conf <= I hope this at least helps some people with the problem.

Cheers
Joseph Tole
Joseph.Tole [at] gmail.com
www.joetune.com