Hi, My friend .... i suppose you talk about "/etc/hosts" file.In this case i wish to remember what is this file: Hosts -> table lookup for host names. In fact ("localhost" with "localhost.localdomain") have the same effect.The difference between them, is that: localhost - is the host alias localhost.localdomain - is qualified full name of the host( it should be with D(omain).N(ame).S(erver). entry) My suggestion is, to use directly IP address (127.0.0.1) in mysql.user table because you have some network configuration problem.Linux(Unix OS in general) work anyway but if you don't have a name server in your LAN network, you must configure your server like Name Server. If you don't believe me, try this from Linux terminal:

nslookup localhost.localdomain...

..nslookup will respond with : "i can't find server localhost"...,and it's normal because "localdomain"(which is responsable for "localhost") it's not configured like a domain.Why Red Hat after installing "put" this in hosts file ?... it's try to simulate a domain. So...if you do it a "ping localhost.localdomain", you can observe it's is the same like "ping localhost".

Regards, Gelu