Solaris 8 named is ignorant

[Chris Thompson]

On Nov 6 2006, DrSpock wrote

>Hi.  I have a sun box running Solaris 8 (SunOS kernel 5.8) 
[...]
>
>Then I went into /etc/rc2.d and ran # S72inetsvc start, which starts
>in.named

It does ever so much more than that! Most of the messages you
report are the result of you starting a second instance of inetd.

If you aren't up to reverse-engineering the /etc/init.d/* scripts to
pick out the part that starts named, then you should stick to rebooting
in this situation.

>From a default multiuser boot in.named wasn't running.... 

The startup scripts won't start in.named unless there is an
/etc/named.conf file: no such file is provided by default.

But why do you want to run a local nameserver at all? Your said
that your /etc/resolv.conf referenced only your ISP's nameservers.

>But the main question is what do I need to do to be able to resolve DNS
>lookups?

Point /etc/resolv.conf at working nameservers and make sure that the
"hosts" line in /etc/nsswitch.conf (and "ipnodes" if you are using IPv6) 
specifies

hosts:      files dns

(At least, I am firmly of the opinion that /etc/hosts should be searched
first, but it has been known for people to disagree...)

Forget about running a local nameserver at least until you have got 
this sorted.

-- 
Chris Thompson
Email: cet1 at cam.ac.uk