diff --git a/mixer/configure b/mixer/configure
index efdf4c6..5a6a28d 100755
--- a/mixer/configure
+++ b/mixer/configure
@@ -26,4 +26,17 @@ suggest_package XPM 2.0.0 xpm
 
 test_version `version_of liblo` 0.26 || warn "Version $(version_of liblo) of liblo is slow to create servers. Consider upgrading to 0.26 or later"
 
+if ! hostname_resolvable
+then
+    echo "Your hostname \"$(hostname)\" does not resolve to a valid address."
+    echo "This is a broken configuration and will cause liblo (the"
+    echo "OSC library) to fail to function. Add the line:"
+    echo
+    echo "127.0.0.1 $(hostname)"
+    echo
+    echo "to your /etc/hosts file to fix. And consider switching to a saner distribution."
+    echo
+    fail "Invalid hostname!"
+fi
+
 end
diff --git a/scripts/config-funcs b/scripts/config-funcs
index be1f400..7180243 100644
--- a/scripts/config-funcs
+++ b/scripts/config-funcs
@@ -344,6 +344,11 @@ version_of ()
     echo `pkg-config --modversion $1`
 }
 
+hostname_resolvable ()
+{
+    ping -c1 `hostname` >/dev/null 2>/dev/null
+}
+
 require_FLTK ()
 {
     local use
diff --git a/session-manager/configure b/session-manager/configure
index b2ff068..38766a4 100755
--- a/session-manager/configure
+++ b/session-manager/configure
@@ -26,3 +26,16 @@ suggest_package XPM 2.0.0 xpm
 test_version `version_of liblo` 0.26 || warn "Version $(version_of liblo) of liblo is slow to create servers. Consider upgrading to 0.26 or later"
 
 end
+
+if ! hostname_resolvable
+then
+    echo "Your hostname \"$(hostname)\" does not resolve to a valid address."
+    echo "This is a broken configuration and will cause liblo (the"
+    echo "OSC library) to fail to function. Add the line:"
+    echo
+    echo "127.0.0.1 $(hostname)"
+    echo
+    echo "to your /etc/hosts file to fix. And consider switching to a saner distribution."
+    echo
+    fail "Invalid hostname!"
+fi
diff --git a/timeline/configure b/timeline/configure
index 1202937..6822b72 100755
--- a/timeline/configure
+++ b/timeline/configure
@@ -31,6 +31,19 @@ require_package liblo 0.23 liblo
 require_package sigcpp 2.0.0 sigc++-2.0
 suggest_package XPM 2.0.0 xpm
 
+if ! hostname_resolvable
+then
+    echo "Your hostname \"$(hostname)\" does not resolve to a valid address."
+    echo "This is a broken configuration and will cause liblo (the"
+    echo "OSC library) to fail to function. Add the line:"
+    echo
+    echo "127.0.0.1 $(hostname)"
+    echo
+    echo "to your /etc/hosts file to fix. And consider switching to a saner distribution."
+    echo
+    fail "Invalid hostname!"
+fi
+
 if ! test_version 1.1.10 $FLTK_VERSION 
 then
     warn "*** PERFORMANCE WARNING ***"