Re: panel error *** ORBit patch ***

[Jeff Steele <steele cheesesteak physics drexel edu>]

On 13 Aug 1998, Elliot Lee wrote:
> I refuse to put broken DNS hacks in in order to cater to broken system
> setups. I quite honestly do not care to support broken systems - should I
> also check to make sure that you have IPv4 support on your system before
> attempting to use it? :)
> 
> I'm not asking for the world - just edit your /etc/hosts so that your
> hostname can be turned into an IP address, and back into a FQDN (e-mail me
> privately if I can help you out with this).
> 

Hi Elliot,

	I agree that the proposed patch (i.e., killing all possibility
of networked applications) is not desireable.  But please don't
dismiss the problem too quickly !  I think it's *very* important to
make ORBit/GNOME stable even in the face of flaky networking setups.
Sometimes it's hard to avoid them !

I'm not asking for a personal consult here, but as an example of
things that can get screwy consider my setup at home. (I haven't tried
Gnome 0.25 at home, but it sounds like it *might* be a nightmare.)

I boot up my machine and since I'm not on any network, the only
"legal" name for it is "localhost".  For grins, I gave it a name
"scrapple" (a tasty Pa. Dutch treat : be sure to try some before you
learn whats inside).  Then (optionally) I dial up the PPP provider at
school and get a dynamic IP number and an associated FQDN
(e.g. "dt90m1-ppp8.physics.drexel.edu : blecch!).  I never know what
my IP number or FQDN will be.

So what happens if I start ORBit, then make a PPP connection ?  Or
start PPP first, start ORBit, then have to re-connect after a glitch
("Oops ! Were you on the phone ?").  Can ORBit handle the fact that my
hostname is a variable ?  Or will all the IORs suddenly be broken ?
I've had headaches with "ssh" which makes the incorrect assumption
that there is a fixed 1:1 mapping between hostname and host. (For ssh
to work right, I need to generate a key for every possible dynamic IP
hostname !)

Again, I'm not posting to get a fix for my particular case so much as
to encourage you (et al.) to keep an open mind about how ORBit can
handle "odd" network situations.  Off the top of my head, I'd suggest
the following : Offer a fallback mode where the FQDN is simply set to
"localhost"; this doesn't have to be the default, but would be nice to
have available.  For the normal (networked) mode, try the hostname ->
IP -> hostname lookup, but if any of these steps fail, then revert to
the non-networked ("localhost") mode, hopefully with a diagnostic
message somewhere.

Does this seem like it might work ?

Cheers,

	Jeff