ubiquity tells me my computer name already exists on the network - hostname lookup can be slow

[Jeff Lane ]

Whatever ubiquity is doing when it tries to find out if a chosen hostname already exists, it's not working very well.

Ubiquity tells me that the hostname "already exists on the network" regardless of whether I'm actually ON a network, or whether that name already exists. It shows me big, warning red letters until it starts verifying my user name as I type that, at which point the hostname turns from a red warning to a green checkbox.

BUT the warning is confusing. If I didn't know better, I could easily stand there and re-enter hostnames over and over trying to get one that doesn't generate that warning. In fact, I gave it 4 different hostnames (test, edubuntu, edubuntu-64-1 and edubuntu-64) all of which caused the red "Name Exists" warning to appear, until I started typing in a different field.

This is very confusing to the users, and I imagine is not liminted to Edubuntu, but to ubiquity in general.

I'm attaching before and after screenshots to highlight this.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: ubiquity 2.9.15
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-12.20-generic 3.2.2
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-12-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 1.91-0ubuntu1
Architecture: amd64
CasperVersion: 1.302
Date: Tue Jan 31 15:45:08 2012
LiveMediaBuild: Edubuntu 12.04 "Precise Pangolin" - Alpha amd64 (20120131)
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: ubiquity
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Jeff Lane  (bladernr)]

Screenshot showing one of the host-names I tried that generated the "name already exists on network" error

[Ubuntu QA Website (ubuntuqa)]

This bug has been reported on the Ubuntu ISO testing tracker.

A list of all reports related to this bug can be found here:
http://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/qatracker/reports/bugs/924511

[Jeff Lane  (bladernr)]

THe warning persists for every name I try, until I just give up and move to the username field and start typing there. As soon as I enter something in the username field, the hostname warning changes to a green checkmark.

[Vadim Rutkovsky (roignac)]

Possibly, this is a duplicate of bug 828181?
---
Ubuntu Bug Squad volunteer triager
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[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

I was unable to recreate this using ubiquity 2.9.15 on an Ubuntu amd64 Live CD.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Discussed in #ubuntu-installer:

09:55 < stgraber> that test takes a while so it's done using the _async
                  function in ubiquity which means it can take up to 4-5s
                  before the warning shows up or disappears

So the warning probably would have disappeared if you had been more patient. ;-)
Additionally, a check may also be done when switching fields hence it sorting itself out.

[Stéphane Graber (stgraber)]

Hmm, even on Edubuntu using the same example as above I couldn't reproduce the issue, the dialog seems to behave as expected here.

Jeff: Could you try with a recent image (beta1) and confirm it still happens for you?

A change in ubi-usersetup that went in a bit before beta1 fixes a bunch of cases where the local DNS server gives IP addresses for pretty much any hostname, maybe that same fix fixed your problem?

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Bug 1030475 is from a user who seems to have been installing Quantal.

[Jeff Lane  (bladernr)]

Marking this back to confirmed as it is seen on Quantal as well.

[Marcus Tomlinson (marcustomlinson)]

This release of Ubuntu is no longer receiving maintenance updates. If this is still an issue on a maintained version of Ubuntu please let us know.

[Hans Joachim Desserud (hjd)]

I've seen this multiple times over the years, due to how I set up VMs with development release. Last verified earlier right now with the latest Ubuntu Focal live image.

1. On the "Who are you?"-screen, type in your name, for instance "ubuntu".
2. It will autosuggest your computer's name as "ubuntu-Virtualbox" (or machine name on physical machine)
3. The Virtualbox part is uneeded, remove that.
4. Ops, cannot end in a dash. Remove that as well.
5. Tab to the next field.

Expected:
Everything ok, I pick a username and fill in my password.

Actual:
When I tab to the username field, I get the error message stating "that name already exists on the network". It stays there until I start filling in my password, or (according to comments above) enough time has passed.

[Hans Joachim Desserud (hjd)]

Still present in current Ubuntu Jammy daily image