System unusable when internet connection down and domain name set

I have this very same issue, it's really annoying....
Any workarround?

workaround is unset domain name :/

or manually disable ethernet device after boot, via networking menu (takes a lot of time to get there) or rather switching to first console (ctrl+alt+f1) and running "sudo ifconfig eth0 down" (substitute eth0 with your device)

The thing is: this issue happens even when i don't have any domain name set...

and are you also aware of this bug
https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/gnome-system-tools/+bug/72341
? you have to change localhost aliases manually, to "unset" domain name completely.

even after that (and possible restart), system is also unusable?

I dont ever have set domain name so i have:
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
127.0.0.1 osiris

delete "localhost.localdomain" keyword, so it looks like this:

127.0.0.1 localhost
127.0.0.1 osiris

and try again. still problem?

It's working flawlessly now, but maybe it's because i did a fresh install...

I also encountered this problem. It looks like gnome-session always asks a name server about the ipv6- and ip-adress of the host. Removing the domainname-part in the hosts file seems to fix the problem.

Do people having that problem have a loopback interface working correctly? Do "ping localhost" works fine?

Yes, "ping localhost" works fine. Also "ping HOSTNAME.DOMAIN" works fine. But a lot of programs are starting with a long delay. I have noticed, that some programs don't have this delay, eg. NX Client.

This bug is also reproducible on Feisty Fawn alpha LiveCD. Just boot the CD, have wired connection via dhcp, change the domain name, and unplug the connection. After few seconds, applications starts about half a minute. There is clearly visible that ubuntu loads some data from CD, after that there is a long pause of waiting, and after that it loads some more data from CD and application finally pops up.

Still an issue in Feisty final. Although the waiting interval for application to start has reduced to 10 seconds.

i have the same problem on a fresh gutsy setup. when i unplug the cable applications have about a 30 second start delay. as soon as i plug the cable back in everything works as expect. this is very annoying because i use a laptop.
this should be fixed as this is out-of-the box behavior.

I have the exact same problem, unplugging the network cable with a domain name set slows the system down. Running strace gives me the following log for gnome-terminal.

     0.000022 write(10, "\0\4\1\0\3\0\0\0\20\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\10\374V\257\352\233\333"..., 32) = 32
     0.000037 read(10, "\0\10\0\1\3\0\0\0", 8) = 8
     0.000054 read(10, "\7\0GnomeSM\0001.\6\0002.20.02747", 24) = 24
     0.000038 write(10, "\1\1\1\0\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0", 16) = 16
     0.000033 read(10, "\1\2\0\1\6\0\0\0", 8) = 8
    40.117303 read(10, "%\0\0\000103692cb5b000119274827100000"..., 48) = 48
     0.000200 write(10, "\1\f\1\0\n\0\0\0\1\0\0\0p\361]\267\20\0\0\0CurrentDire"..., 88) = 88
     0.000212 write(10, "\1\f\1\0\10\0\0\0\1\0\0\0p\361]\267\t\0\0\0ProcessIDre"..., 72) = 72
     0.000181 write(10, "\1\f\1\0\t\0\0\0\1\0\0\0p\361]\267\7\0\0\0ProgramIDrec"..., 80) = 80
     0.000183 write(10, "\1\f\1\0\t\0\0\0\1\0\0\0p\361]\267\f\0\0\0CloneCommand"..., 80) = 80

As you can see, it takes over 40 seconds, but I have no idea what's happening at that moment. Anything else I should provide you with?

Thanks to the people over at GoT, I've finally discovered where the problem lies.

Open /etc/hosts and add your hostname to "127.0.0.1 localhost", which should solve that annoying DNS issue. I think Ubuntu should automatically do this?

I've the same problem in a fresh hardy installation.
It seems to me something related to authentication. I can't open any administration window (like Network), gnome panel doesn't show the System Monitor Applet, and if I open a terminal and type a sudo command (like "sudo vim"), I get "unknow host: <myhostname> ".

 We were wondering if this is still an issue for you. Can you try with the latest Ubuntu release? Thanks in advance.

I can't really tell, because there seems not to be any way in Ubuntu 8.10 to set the domain name.

We are closing this bug report as it lacks the information, described in the previous comments, we need to investigate the problem further. However, please reopen it if you can give us the missing information and don't hesitate to submit bug reports in the future.