> You'll lose that /etc/hosts file at reboot though.  You lose
> everything but config.xml at reboot.
> 

Why not use config.xml <earlyshellcmd> to populate the hosts file at 
boot time?

Edit your config.xml file and add the following (example) in the 
<system> section:

<earlyshellcmd>echo &gt;&gt;/etc/hosts 127.0.0.1 
www.playboy.com</earlyshellcmd>

That should work, but this solution is a bit ugly if you have more than 
20 entries in the file...

-- Vincent