MDNS name resolving problem


Within a mixed Linux and Microsoft Windows network I ran into the following problem:

A host with the hostname linux1.firm.local could be pinged and found with nslookup and dig, but it was impossible to start a ssh session. The result kept being: Unknown host.

Playing Cherlock Holmes revealed that this had to do with Avahi and mdns, so with the .local part of the hostname.

In my /etc/nsswitch.conf the hosts: line read: (Using Ubuntu 8.04)

hosts: files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns mdns4

This results in searching the IP address of the host through mdns4_minimal. The .local domain now spoils it for me (use strings on mdns4_minimal and be amazed.

The problem can be solved very easy. Just replace the hosts: line in the /etc/nsswitch.conf with:

hosts: files dns mdns4

See also: Avahi

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See also