For some fun reason, Solaris has this great idea that your DHCP server will provide your hostname as well. Well, for some that might work, but for people like me who have the DNS/DHCP server as a teeny weeny broadband router, that is of no use. Your Solaris will tell you “unknown” as your own hostname in this case.

To remedy this, open a text editor and create the file /etc/nodename and enter your desired hostname on a single line. Terminate with the Enter key or you will get into trouble later. Next, open the file /etc/default/dhcpagent, search for the line containing the PARAM_REQUEST_LIST and remove the token 12. This will inhibit Solaris from requesting the hostname from the DHCP server that won’t be provided anyway.