diff --git a/lib/des/gethostid.c b/lib/des/gethostid.c
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..c6c68979b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/des/gethostid.c
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+/*
+ *
+ * Some systems doesn't have gethostid(2) (e.g Solaris if you don't
+ * link with libucb - and we don't want that...
+ *
+ * $Id$
+ *
+ */
+
+
+#include "config.h"
+
+#ifndef HAVE_GETHOSTID
+
+#include <stdio.h>
+#include <sys/systeminfo.h>
+
+long gethostid(void)
+{
+  static int flag=0;
+  static long hostid;
+  if(!flag){
+    char s[32];
+    sysinfo(SI_HW_SERIAL, s, 32);
+    sscanf(s, "%u", &hostid);
+    flag=1;
+  }
+  return hostid;
+}
+
+#endif