SAP Note 23198 - In sm04, the terminal name appears as "????"

Symptom:

In the transaction sm04, "????" appears in the column "terminal"

Cause and prerequisites

The value for "terminal" is transferred by the frontend when setting up the connection to the application server. The algorithm from 2.1J / 2.2D is as follows:

If the DISPLAY variable is set
use the DISPLAY variable
If the host name can be determined (gethostname)
use this hostname
(only the first 20 characters),
therwise
use ????

Possible causes for incorrect values of "terminal":

(1) Before 2.1J/2.2D, ???? was also set if the hostname was longer than 20 characters.

(2) The hostname cannot be determined because an operating system
error or TCP configuration error exists.
SAP immediately goes for the TCP function gethostname, which
should provide a sensible value in an error-free configuration

(3) For PC frontends which are linked via logs (such as SLIP or PPP)
to the network, the IP address will be dynamically assigned.
The PC then has no hostname at all and the function gethostname
provides values such as .wdf.sap-ag.de

Solution
(1) Use the latest frontend (2.2D or set the DISPLAY variable on the
PC.

(2) Configure the operating system or TCP in such a way that
gethostname provides a useful value.

(3) Set the DISPLAY variable on the PC