Re: it is avahi? Re: network

[Daniel Landau <daniel.landau@iki.fi>]

Hi all,

I am also a customer of the same ISP (Sonera) and I too have today
gotten a new ZyXEL router and yes, I too now have the same error
message. The proper English language version for the message is:

"Network service discovery disabled

Your current network has a .local domain, which is not recommended and
incompatible with the Avahi network service discovery. The service has
been disabled."

As suggested, changing the DNS used from the ISP provided one to
openDNS or Google DNS removed the error. The user guide for my router
is at ftp://ftp2.zyxel.com/NBG-419N_v2/user_guide/NBG-419N%20v2_.pdf
but I would assume that the management is similar for other ZyXEL
routers too. In short, the procedure is to open the address
192.168.1.1 in your web browser, log in with the default password 1234
and follow instructions and poke around until reaching the setting for
the dhcp server and there change the setting for DNS server to
"User-Defined" and 208.67.222.222 for openDNS server or 8.8.8.8 for
Google DNS server.

However, with my previous router, I could connect to machines on my
wireless network  using their hostnames (which is e.g. useful for
moving files to/from Android devices wirelessly with ftp), now I
can't. I realize this is off-topic, but does anybody have any idea or
pointers to material on how to get resolving of local hostnames to
work again?

Daniel Landau

On Wed, Jun 26, 2013 at 4:59 PM, Sebastian Salvino <sas@noend.com> wrote:
> if you are using a router, reconfigure it to override the name servers
> assigned by your isp and use opendns, goggle public dns out any other of
> your choice.
>
> if you not using any router, setup your laptop to use the above fixed name
> servers, either by resolv.conf or interfaces.
>
> On Jun 26, 2013 10:44 AM, "Hannu Virtanen" <hannu_markus_virtanen@yahoo.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> ahaa.
>>
>> Now it seems that Sebastian Salvino found the problem.
>>
>> ---
>> Sebastian Salvino wrote:
>>
>>
>> "Configure your system to use dns forwarders that are not authoritative
>> for 'local' such as  OpenDNS or Google public name servers and
>> everything should be fine."
>> ---
>>
>> How to do that configuring?
>>
>>
>> Please tell me, which tools to use, or if I can write something directly
>> into some (which?) files
>>
>>
>> -hv
>>
>>
>> >________________________________
>> > From: Sebastian Salvino <sas@noend.com>
>> >To: Hannu Virtanen <hannu_markus_virtanen@yahoo.com>
>> >Cc: debian-laptop@lists.debian.org; Michael <codejodler@gmx.ch>
>> >Sent: Wednesday, June 26, 2013 4:15 PM
>> >Subject: Re: it is avahi? Re: network
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >Hi,
>> >It looks like your ISP has their name servers set up to be authoritative
>> > for 'local' domain, that's the reason why the avahi-daemon is complaining
>> > about .local unicast domain and it might even refuse to start.
>> >Configure your system to use dns forwarders that are not authoritative
>> > for 'local' such as  OpenDNS or Google public name servers and everything
>> > should be fine.
>> >Hope it helps!
>> >
>> >On Jun 26, 2013 6:53 AM, "Hannu Virtanen"
>> > <hannu_markus_virtanen@yahoo.com> wrote:
>> >
>> >Hello,
>> >>
>> >>"Sebastian Salvino":
>> >>
>> >>here you'll get some more info:
>> >>
>> >>------
>> >>
>> >># dig local. SOA
>> >>
>> >>; <<>> DiG 9.8.4-rpz2+rl005.12-P1 <<>> local. SOA
>> >>;; global options: +cmd
>> >>;; Got answer:
>> >>;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 63972
>> >>;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 2
>> >>
>> >>;; QUESTION SECTION:
>> >>;local.                IN    SOA
>> >>
>> >>;; ANSWER SECTION:
>> >>local.            14400    IN    SOA    ns1.inet.fi.
>> >> hostmaster.sonera.fi. 1 14400 7200 864000 14400
>> >>
>> >>;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
>> >>local.            14400    IN    NS    local.
>> >>
>> >>;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
>> >>local.            14400    IN    A    127.0.0.1
>> >>local.            14400    IN    AAAA    ::1
>> >>
>> >>;; Query time: 27 msec
>> >>;; SERVER: 192.168.1.1#53(192.168.1.1)
>> >>;; WHEN: Wed Jun 26 12:21:37 2013
>> >>;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 146
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>Where is the place I should change my .local into something else?
>> >>
>> >>Into what???
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>---
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>"Michael":
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>Actually I don't know where I would need the whole avahi and why it has
>> >> been installed... I don't remember, which package cased it to be installed.
>> >>
>> >>Do normal wlan networks work without that, too?
>> >>----
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>here is # less /etc/avahi/hosts
>> >>
>> >>
>> >># Examples:
>> >># 192.168.0.1 router.local
>> >># 2001::81:1 test.local
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>So there is nothing there.
>> >>
>> >>Maybe I should put there  gone.local???
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>---
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>here the status of libnss-mdns
>> >>
>> >># dpkg -l libnss-mdns
>> >>Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
>> >>|
>> >> Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
>> >>|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
>> >>||/ Name             Version       Architecture  Description
>>
>> >> >>+++-================-=============-=============-=====================================
>> >>ii  libnss-mdns      0.10-3.2      i386          NSS module for
>> >> Multicast DNS name res
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>-hv
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>P.S.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>By the way I have installed some kind of debian on at least 15 machines
>> >> and used debian  since "hamm". And never seen this avahi problem before.
>> >> Normally they work out of the box, so I don't know much about the insides.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>----
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>>________________________________
>> >>> From: Sebastian Salvino <sas@noend.com>
>> >>>To: Michael <codejodler@gmx.ch>
>> >>>Cc: debian-laptop@lists.debian.org
>> >>>Sent: Tuesday, June 25, 2013 9:09 PM
>> >>>Subject: Re: it is avahi? Re: network
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>>Please email back the output of:
>> >>>dig local. SOA
>> >>>On Jun 25, 2013 3:05 PM, "Michael" <codejodler@gmx.ch> wrote:
>> >>>
>> >>>Hannu,
>> >>>>
>> >>>>The only things a fresh avahi-daemon installation puts into the config
>> >>>> (that is, not commented) are:
>> >>>>
>> >>>>[server]
>> >>>>use-ipv4=yes
>> >>>>use-ipv6=yes
>> >>>>ratelimit-interval-usec=1000000
>> >>>>ratelimit-burst=1000
>> >>>>
>> >>>>[wide-area]
>> >>>>enable-wide-area=yes
>> >>>>
>> >>>>[publish]
>> >>>>
>> >>>>[reflector]
>> >>>>
>> >>>>[rlimits]
>> >>>>rlimit-core=0
>> >>>>rlimit-data=4194304
>> >>>>rlimit-fsize=0
>> >>>>rlimit-nofile=768
>> >>>>rlimit-stack=4194304
>> >>>>rlimit-nproc=3
>> >>>>
>> >>>>If there was a domain name default, it would be "domain-name=local"
>> >>>> (but commented out), without dot. But it will be derived from your hostname
>> >>>> anyway.
>> >>>>
>> >>>>So maybe try commenting (disabling) any domain setup. If any, it
>> >>>> should be something like 'gone.local' if gone is your machine.
>> >>>>
>> >>>>Check the /etc/avahi/hosts file too. My version has commented
>> >>>> examples, only:
>> >>>># Examples:
>> >>>># 192.168.0.1 router.local
>> >>>># 2001::81:1 test.local
>> >>>>
>> >>>>so i guess it should work w/o any manual explicit configuration too.
>> >>>>
>> >>>>Also check if you got libnss-mdns installed, which is recommended by
>> >>>> avahi.
>> >>>>
>> >>>>I am sorry i can not easily check how it works w/o manual
>> >>>> configuration. I just can't remember any installation asked me anything
>> >>>> about it so i guess the defaults should work out of the box.
>> >>>>
>> >>>>I deinstalled any avahi services on all machines in this small
>> >>>> intranet because we don't seem to have any need for it, and we didn't miss
>> >>>> anything afterwards. For example, i don't understand why laptops need a
>> >>>> avahi-daemon, or rather, why avahi-discover should be depending on the
>> >>>> daemon. Do you really want to publish your laptop 'files to access' in a
>> >>>> mixed environment ?
>> >>>>
>> >>>>We have one printer and it seems network access via IPP works fine
>> >>>> even without avahi. I guess a roaming laptop or smartphone could benefit in
>> >>>> some trusted environment though. But seriously, in which business or
>> >>>> university environment do you send off a printing job from your laptop
>> >>>> without first being granted explicit access to the printer ?
>> >>>>I admit i am oldfashioned and do not understand any modern usages of
>> >>>> multicast dns.
>> >>>>
>> >>>>Well. in your situation, i would deinstall (with complete 'purge')
>> >>>> anything with 'avahi' in its name, except it breaks essential other packages
>> >>>> (for example, cups and gvfs need some avahi libs), especially the daemon.
>> >>>> Then, i'd check if something i need does not work anymore. If so, reinstall
>> >>>> avahi-discover. With luck, the error will be gone with a new package default
>> >>>> config.
>> >>>>
>> >>>>It should be noted that such a task needs some experience (or
>> >>>> boldness) with 'apt-get' or a good package manager. It's rather easy, and
>> >>>> safe, if you know how to use 'aptitude'. If you configured things manually,
>> >>>> and want to preserve the config, don't use 'purge'. Keep in mind that even
>> >>>> if you deinstalled half your system, it can be reinstalled in a few moments,
>> >>>> if only you keep track of what was removed (for example, the
>> >>>> /var/log/aptitude).
>> >>>>
>> >>>>
>> >>>>gl mi
>> >>>>
>> >>>>
>> >>>>--
>> >>>>To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-laptop-REQUEST@lists.debian.org
>> >>>>with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact
>> >>>> listmaster@lists.debian.org
>> >>>>Archive:
>> >>>> http://lists.debian.org/20130625200440.0d571afa@mirrors.kernel.org
>> >>>>
>> >>>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>
>> >
>> >