- Learn How to Localize Your Installation on Oracle Linux
- Objectives
- Prerequisites
- Update the System Hostname
- Update the System Locale and Language
- Update the System Date and Time
- For More Information
- More Learning Resources
- Learn How to Localize Your Installation on Oracle Linux
- Objectives
- Prerequisites
- Update the System Hostname
- Update the System Locale and Language
- Update the System Date and Time
- For More Information
- More Learning Resources
- Changing the HOSTNAME on Oracle Enterprise Linux
Learn How to Localize Your Installation on Oracle Linux
Many Oracle Linux systems are installed without a desktop environment. However, multiple ways of using the command line are available to configure base system settings, such as the system hostname.
This tutorial describes how to configure the system hostname, locale, language, and date and time from the command line. This tutorial is targeted at users of Oracle Linux 8 or later.
Objectives
Upon completion of this Lab you will be able to:
- Set the system host name
- Set the system locale and system language
- Set the system date, time and time zone
Prerequisites
Update the System Hostname
Note: When using the free lab environment, see Oracle Linux Lab Basics for connection and other usage instructions.
In other distributions, configuring the system hostname typically involves editing system files, such as /etc/hostname and /etc/hosts , running the hostname command to set the hostname, and rebooting the system. With Oracle Linux, the process is simplified through the hostnamectl command.
- Review the static and transient hostnames for your Oracle Linux 8 system:
Note: The static hostname is the default host name for the system and is configured in the /etc/hostname file. The transient hostname represents the name that is set for the system by services such as DHCP or mDNS after a system boot. If the transient hostname is not set, the system uses the static hostname.
sudo hostnamectl set-hostname myoracle.oraclehost sudo hostnamectl set-hostname --pretty "My Oracle Linux 8 Server" Note: A pretty hostname is a friendly free-form system name that is displayed in user interface environments. Normally, the transient hostname and the pretty hostname are identical. However, with the hostnamectl command, you can set different values for each.
Update the System Locale and Language
Use the localectl command to set the default system locale and language settings. The command handles the generation of locale information and sets the default values for users when they log into the system, either throught the command line or on a desktop environment. The command can also be used to set default keyboard mappings for both the command line and the desktop environment.
- Review the current system locale:
sudo localectl list-locales sudo localectl set-locale en_GB.utf8 Note: The system locale defines the language and character set encoding used for presentation of information on a terminal and on many GUI applications as well. Locale options are usually listed in the following format LANGUAGE_COUNTRY.CODESET[@MODIFIERS] . The LANGUAGE is an ISO 639 language code, for example en for English; COUNTRY is an ISO 3166 country code, for example GB for Great Britain and the United Kingdom; CODESET is the character set or encoding, for example utf-8 . Thus, in this example, the locale is en_GB.utf8 .
sudo localectl list-keymaps sudo localectl set-keymap gb Note: A locale can also be configured for a specific sessions or user. For session-based configurations, set the LANG environment variable. For user-based configurations, set the LANG variable on the user’s profile or shell configuration. Thus, the environment variable is set each time a user logs into the system.
Update the System Date and Time
Use the timedatectl command to set the system date and time. The command updates the real time clock (RTC), also known as the hardware clock, as well as the system clock that is maintained by the system kernel.
- Review the current system date and time configuration:
sudo timedatectl list-timezones sudo timedatectl list-timezones | grep 'Los_Angeles' sudo timedatectl set-timezone America/Los_Angeles sudo timedatectl set-time '2100-01-01 00:00:00' Note: If the NTP service is set to active, your system’s date and time are automatically synchronized with the configured NTP server. In that scenario, you cannot directly modify the date or time on your system.
For More Information
Learn how to use chrony to synchronize the system date and time over the network: https://docs.oracle.com/en/learn/config_chrony_linux_8/
The video demonstration and tutorial provided at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8VlYiF5sx8 is also useful if you need more information on configuring the date and time from the command line interface.
More Learning Resources
Explore other labs on docs.oracle.com/learn or access more free learning content on the Oracle Learning YouTube channel. Additionally, visit education.oracle.com/learning-explorer to become an Oracle Learning Explorer.
For product documentation, visit Oracle Help Center.
Learn How to Localize Your Installation on Oracle Linux
Copyright © 2021, Oracle and/or its affiliates.
Learn How to Localize Your Installation on Oracle Linux
Many Oracle Linux systems are installed without a desktop environment. However, multiple ways of using the command line are available to configure base system settings, such as the system hostname.
This tutorial describes how to configure the system hostname, locale, language, and date and time from the command line. This tutorial is targeted at users of Oracle Linux 8 or later.
Objectives
Upon completion of this Lab you will be able to:
- Set the system host name
- Set the system locale and system language
- Set the system date, time and time zone
Prerequisites
Update the System Hostname
Note: When using the free lab environment, see Oracle Linux Lab Basics for connection and other usage instructions.
In other distributions, configuring the system hostname typically involves editing system files, such as /etc/hostname and /etc/hosts , running the hostname command to set the hostname, and rebooting the system. With Oracle Linux, the process is simplified through the hostnamectl command.
- Review the static and transient hostnames for your Oracle Linux 8 system:
Note: The static hostname is the default host name for the system and is configured in the /etc/hostname file. The transient hostname represents the name that is set for the system by services such as DHCP or mDNS after a system boot. If the transient hostname is not set, the system uses the static hostname.
sudo hostnamectl set-hostname myoracle.oraclehost sudo hostnamectl set-hostname --pretty "My Oracle Linux 8 Server" Note: A pretty hostname is a friendly free-form system name that is displayed in user interface environments. Normally, the transient hostname and the pretty hostname are identical. However, with the hostnamectl command, you can set different values for each.
Update the System Locale and Language
Use the localectl command to set the default system locale and language settings. The command handles the generation of locale information and sets the default values for users when they log into the system, either throught the command line or on a desktop environment. The command can also be used to set default keyboard mappings for both the command line and the desktop environment.
- Review the current system locale:
sudo localectl list-locales sudo localectl set-locale en_GB.utf8 Note: The system locale defines the language and character set encoding used for presentation of information on a terminal and on many GUI applications as well. Locale options are usually listed in the following format LANGUAGE_COUNTRY.CODESET[@MODIFIERS] . The LANGUAGE is an ISO 639 language code, for example en for English; COUNTRY is an ISO 3166 country code, for example GB for Great Britain and the United Kingdom; CODESET is the character set or encoding, for example utf-8 . Thus, in this example, the locale is en_GB.utf8 .
sudo localectl list-keymaps sudo localectl set-keymap gb Note: A locale can also be configured for a specific sessions or user. For session-based configurations, set the LANG environment variable. For user-based configurations, set the LANG variable on the user’s profile or shell configuration. Thus, the environment variable is set each time a user logs into the system.
Update the System Date and Time
Use the timedatectl command to set the system date and time. The command updates the real time clock (RTC), also known as the hardware clock, as well as the system clock that is maintained by the system kernel.
- Review the current system date and time configuration:
sudo timedatectl list-timezones sudo timedatectl list-timezones | grep 'Los_Angeles' sudo timedatectl set-timezone America/Los_Angeles sudo timedatectl set-time '2100-01-01 00:00:00' Note: If the NTP service is set to active, your system’s date and time are automatically synchronized with the configured NTP server. In that scenario, you cannot directly modify the date or time on your system.
For More Information
Learn how to use chrony to synchronize the system date and time over the network: https://docs.oracle.com/en/learn/config_chrony_linux_8/
The video demonstration and tutorial provided at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8VlYiF5sx8 is also useful if you need more information on configuring the date and time from the command line interface.
More Learning Resources
Explore other labs on docs.oracle.com/learn or access more free learning content on the Oracle Learning YouTube channel. Additionally, visit education.oracle.com/learning-explorer to become an Oracle Learning Explorer.
For product documentation, visit Oracle Help Center.
Learn How to Localize Your Installation on Oracle Linux
Copyright © 2021, Oracle and/or its affiliates.
Changing the HOSTNAME on Oracle Enterprise Linux
Either due to cloning or corporate naming standards, you may find the need to change the hostname of an Oracle Enterprise Linux System.
The current hostname for this machine is odlinux.oracledistilled.com and it will be changed to secondary.oracledistilled.com. The hostname can be changed by editing /etc/sysconfig/network as the root user.
[root@odlinux ~]# hostname Odlinux.oracledistilled.com [root@odlinux ~]# cat /etc/sysconfig/network NETWORKING=yes NETWORKING_IPV6=no HOSTNAME=odlinux.oracledistilled.com [root@odlinux ~]# [root@odlinux ~]# cat /etc/sysconfig/network NETWORKING=yes NETWORKING_IPV6=no HOSTNAME=secondary.oracledistilled.com [root@odlinux ~]#
After changing the hostname in you should also change the hostname in /etc/hosts .
[root@secondary ~]# cat /etc/hosts # Do not remove the following line, or various programs # that require network functionality will fail. 127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost 192.168.4.111 wrath.oracledistlled.com wrath 192.168.4.115 secondary.oracledistilled.com secondary ::1 localhost6.localdomain6 localhost6 [root@secondary ~]#
While changing the host name is fairly easy care should be taken with applications that might already be installed on the system. Many applications will store the hostname of the system in configuration and start up files at the time of installation. You should check your applications and update their configurations with the new hostname.