Help with Avahi mDNS redirector, please

[robca]

I'm trying to set up a mDNS reflector using avahi on Merlin 386.11 (RT-68U). My goal is to enable a WiiM device on a segregated IoT network (per https://www.snbforums.com/threads/mdns-repeater-with-guest-network-vlan.86503/)

I finally realized that Avahi is enabled by default, and I tried editing the /tmp/avahi/avahi-daemon.conf file to add the "[reflector] enable-reflector=yes" configuration. But upon restarting the service with "service restart_mdns", the avahi-daemon.conf file is reverted to the one before I edited it.

How can I edit the Avahi configuration? I even tried adding a /jffs/scripts/avahi-daemon.conf file, but that doesn't work

Can I do what I want (mDNS between vlans) using the built in Avahi, or do I need to follow this tutorial to enable it? https://www.linksysinfo.org/index.p...figuring-a-reflector-aka-mdns-repeater.75706/

 

[ColinTaylor]

Custom config files

Third party firmware for Asus routers (newer codebase) - RMerl/asuswrt-merlin.ng

github.com

Use a avahi-daemon.conf.add file.

 

[robca]

Thanks @ColinTaylor . I actually tried using avahi-daemon.conf.add, and avahi-daemon.conf.postconf in /jffs/scripts (where I have other files). Those files are executable, but for some reason it still can't add the redirecto to the /tmp/avahi/avahi-daemon.conf file

Here's the content of my /jffs/scripts, in case I have a typo

admin@RT-AC68U-7BA8:/tmp/home/root# ls -la /jffs/scripts/
drwxr-xr-x    2 admin    root             0 Aug 27 15:26 .
drwxr-xr-x   13 admin    root             0 Aug 27 15:31 ..
-rwxrwxrwx    1 admin    root            33 Aug 27 14:52 avahi-daemon.conf.add
-rwxr-xr-x    1 admin    root            74 Nov 25  2018 dnsmasq.postconf
-rwxr-xr-x    1 admin    root          4831 Dec 30  2022 firewall-start
-rwxr-xr-x    1 admin    root            75 Feb 12  2020 post-mount
-rwxr-xr-x    1 admin    root           109 Jul 30  2022 service-event
-rwxrwxrwx    1 admin    root           962 Dec 26  2022 services-start
-rwxr-xr-x    1 admin    root            43 Feb 27  2019 services-stop
-rwxr-xr-x    1 admin    root            91 Jan 10  2018 smb.postconf
-rwxr-xr-x    1 admin    root           113 Feb 12  2020 unmount
-rwxr-xr-x    1 admin    root            11 Nov 25  2018 wan-start

I looked at the logs while I edited the /tmp/avahi/avahi-daemon.conf file, and I see the first 2 lines below (basically it notices that the file is changed and reloads it?)

I then executed the "service restart_mdns" and I see Avahi restart

Aug 27 15:37:54 avahi-daemon[2271]: Files changed, reloading.
Aug 27 15:37:54 avahi-daemon[2271]: No service file found in /tmp/avahi/services.

Aug 27 15:38:08 rc_service: service 2479:notify_rc restart_mdns
Aug 27 15:38:08 custom_script: Running /jffs/scripts/service-event (args: restart mdns)
Aug 27 15:38:08 avahi-daemon[2271]: Got SIGTERM, quitting.
Aug 27 15:38:08 avahi-daemon[2271]: Leaving mDNS multicast group on interface br1.IPv4 with address 192.168.20.1.
Aug 27 15:38:08 avahi-daemon[2271]: Leaving mDNS multicast group on interface br0.IPv4 with address 192.168.1.1.
Aug 27 15:38:08 avahi-daemon[2271]: Leaving mDNS multicast group on interface lo.IPv4 with address 127.0.1.1.
Aug 27 15:38:08 avahi-daemon[2271]: avahi-daemon 0.8 exiting.
Aug 27 15:38:09 avahi-daemon[2487]: Found user 'nobody' (UID 65534) and group 'nobody' (GID 65534).
Aug 27 15:38:09 avahi-daemon[2487]: Successfully dropped root privileges.
Aug 27 15:38:09 avahi-daemon[2487]: avahi-daemon 0.8 starting up.
Aug 27 15:38:09 avahi-daemon[2487]: WARNING: No NSS support for mDNS detected, consider installing nss-mdns!
Aug 27 15:38:09 avahi-daemon[2487]: No service file found in /tmp/avahi/services.
Aug 27 15:38:09 avahi-daemon[2487]: Loading new alias name RT-AC68U.
Aug 27 15:38:09 avahi-daemon[2487]: Joining mDNS multicast group on interface br1.IPv4 with address 192.168.20.1.
Aug 27 15:38:09 avahi-daemon[2487]: New relevant interface br1.IPv4 for mDNS.
Aug 27 15:38:09 avahi-daemon[2487]: Joining mDNS multicast group on interface br0.IPv4 with address 192.168.1.1.
Aug 27 15:38:09 avahi-daemon[2487]: New relevant interface br0.IPv4 for mDNS.
Aug 27 15:38:09 avahi-daemon[2487]: Joining mDNS multicast group on interface lo.IPv4 with address 127.0.1.1.
Aug 27 15:38:09 avahi-daemon[2487]: New relevant interface lo.IPv4 for mDNS.
Aug 27 15:38:09 avahi-daemon[2487]: Network interface enumeration completed.
Aug 27 15:38:09 avahi-daemon[2487]: Registering new address record for 192.168.20.1 on br1.IPv4.
Aug 27 15:38:09 avahi-daemon[2487]: Registering new address record for 192.168.1.1 on br0.IPv4.
Aug 27 15:38:09 avahi-daemon[2487]: Registering new address record for 127.0.1.1 on lo.IPv4.
Aug 27 15:38:09 avahi-daemon[2487]: Registering new address record for 127.0.0.1 on lo.IPv4.
Aug 27 15:38:10 avahi-daemon[2487]: Server startup complete. Host name is RT-AC68U-7BA8.local. Local service cookie is 2667339504.
Aug 27 15:38:10 avahi-daemon[2487]: Alias name "RT-AC68U" successfully established.

I even created a avahi-daemon.postconf like this

#!/bin/sh
CONFIG=$1
source /usr/sbin/helper.sh

pc_append "[reflector]" "enable-reflector=yes" $CONFIG

And I see it run in the log as follows

Aug 27 15:44:25 rc_service: service 3087:notify_rc restart_mdns
Aug 27 15:44:25 custom_script: Running /jffs/scripts/service-event (args: restart mdns)
Aug 27 15:44:25 avahi-daemon[2487]: Got SIGTERM, quitting.
Aug 27 15:44:25 avahi-daemon[2487]: Leaving mDNS multicast group on interface br1.IPv4 with address 192.168.20.1.
Aug 27 15:44:25 avahi-daemon[2487]: Leaving mDNS multicast group on interface br0.IPv4 with address 192.168.1.1.
Aug 27 15:44:25 avahi-daemon[2487]: Leaving mDNS multicast group on interface lo.IPv4 with address 127.0.1.1.
Aug 27 15:44:26 avahi-daemon[2487]: avahi-daemon 0.8 exiting.
Aug 27 15:44:26 custom_script: Running /jffs/scripts/avahi-daemon.postconf (args: /tmp/avahi/avahi-daemon.conf)
Aug 27 15:44:26 avahi-daemon[3096]: Found user 'nobody' (UID 65534) and group 'nobody' (GID 65534).
Aug 27 15:44:26 avahi-daemon[3096]: Successfully dropped root privileges.
Aug 27 15:44:26 avahi-daemon[3096]: avahi-daemon 0.8 starting up.
Aug 27 15:44:26 avahi-daemon[3096]: WARNING: No NSS support for mDNS detected, consider installing nss-mdns!
Aug 27 15:44:26 avahi-daemon[3096]: No service file found in /tmp/avahi/services.
Aug 27 15:44:26 avahi-daemon[3096]: Loading new alias name RT-AC68U.
Aug 27 15:44:26 avahi-daemon[3096]: Joining mDNS multicast group on interface br1.IPv4 with address 192.168.20.1.
Aug 27 15:44:26 avahi-daemon[3096]: New relevant interface br1.IPv4 for mDNS.
Aug 27 15:44:26 avahi-daemon[3096]: Joining mDNS multicast group on interface br0.IPv4 with address 192.168.1.1.
Aug 27 15:44:26 avahi-daemon[3096]: New relevant interface br0.IPv4 for mDNS.
Aug 27 15:44:26 avahi-daemon[3096]: Joining mDNS multicast group on interface lo.IPv4 with address 127.0.1.1.
Aug 27 15:44:26 avahi-daemon[3096]: New relevant interface lo.IPv4 for mDNS.
Aug 27 15:44:26 avahi-daemon[3096]: Network interface enumeration completed.
Aug 27 15:44:26 avahi-daemon[3096]: Registering new address record for 192.168.20.1 on br1.IPv4.
Aug 27 15:44:26 avahi-daemon[3096]: Registering new address record for 192.168.1.1 on br0.IPv4.
Aug 27 15:44:26 avahi-daemon[3096]: Registering new address record for 127.0.1.1 on lo.IPv4.
Aug 27 15:44:26 avahi-daemon[3096]: Registering new address record for 127.0.0.1 on lo.IPv4.
Aug 27 15:44:27 avahi-daemon[3096]: Server startup complete. Host name is RT-AC68U-7BA8.local. Local service cookie is 1601803446.
Aug 27 15:44:27 avahi-daemon[3096]: Alias name "RT-AC68U" successfully established.

But when I issue a cat /tmp/avahi/avahi-daemon.conf I see

[Server]
host-name=RT-AC68U-7BA8
aliases=RT-AC68U
aliases_llmnr=RT-AC68U
use-ipv4=yes
use-ipv6=no
deny-interfaces=eth0
ratelimit-interval-usec=1000000
ratelimit-burst=1000

[publish]
publish-a-on-ipv6=no
publish-aaaa-on-ipv4=no

[wide-area]
enable-wide-area=yes

[rlimits]
rlimit-core=0
rlimit-data=4194304
rlimit-fsize=0
rlimit-nofile=768
rlimit-stack=4194304
rlimit-nproc=3

I can't make sense of this...

 

[robca]

Are those two lines/errors relevant?

Aug 27 15:38:09 avahi-daemon[2487]: WARNING: No NSS support for mDNS detected, consider installing nss-mdns!
Aug 27 15:38:09 avahi-daemon[2487]: No service file found in /tmp/avahi/services.

 

[ColinTaylor]

As per the wiki, .add files go in /jffs/configs. That's all you need, remove any other files you've made. Then reboot the router or restart avahi (service restart_mdns).

 

[robca]

As per the wiki, .add files go in /jffs/configs. That's all you need, remove any other files you've made. Then reboot the router or restart avahi (service restart_mdns).

I'm an idiot!

Not sure what I did wrong with postconf, which should have worked as well, but putting the avahi-daemon.conf.add in the right place worked. Thanks so much for the help and patience, @ColinTaylor

 

[ColinTaylor]

Not sure what I did wrong with postconf, which should have worked as well,

FYI. Your pc_append statement was syntactically incorrect.

 

[robca]

FYI. Your pc_append statement was syntactically incorrect.

Basically, I'm an idiot across the board Today I'd better not operate machinery of any kind... thanks again

 

[device]

Hi All,

Its interesting.... I have an openvpn server with 3 asuswrt connected client in Tun mode site-to-site. I can ping vica versa, works fine.

I tried to setup avahi which seemed to be installed but it was not working.

RT-AC86U with Merlin 386.12_4 amtm entware installed

I installed avahi with opkg following this tutorial: https://www.snbforums.com/threads/avahi-install.10218/

Then I filtered out user=admin in /opt/etc/avahi/avahi-daemon.conf and the daemon started...but:

Dec 25 13:40:46 avahi-daemon[9445]: *** WARNING: Detected another IPv4 mDNS stack running on this host. This makes mDNS unreliable and *
Dec 25 13:40:46 avahi-daemon[9445]: Host name conflict, retrying with RT-AC86U-virag-2
Dec 25 13:40:47 avahi-daemon[9445]: Host name conflict, retrying with RT-AC86U-virag-3
Dec 25 13:40:48 avahi-daemon[9445]: Host name conflict, retrying with RT-AC86U-virag-4

So the merlin had already had an avahi installed, then I installed it again from opkg :/

How can or how should I decide which one to keep and which one to run?

ps w :

9445 nobody 4744 S avahi-daemon: registering [RT-AC86U-virag-26.virag.local]
9904 admin 5976 S grep avahi
17559 nobody 3176 S avahi-daemon: running [RT-AC86U-virag.local]

service stop_mdns made the trick, but how can this happen? Why are there two installs?

Thanks for your help!

EDIT:

I got rid of opkg installed avahi. I removed all with their dependencies, now it is running with only one instance. Then I tried to locate the config file it is using, I removed all the .add files and all of them, the only one left is /tmp/avahi/avahi-daemon.conf

If I write different alias like alias=RT-AC86U2 instead of alias=RT-AC86U in the log file it is unchanged if I make it stop with service stop_mdns and start with service start_mdns, the output in /tmp/syslog.log is always:

Dec 25 23:39:36 avahi-daemon[28132]: WARNING: No NSS support for mDNS detected, consider installing nss-mdns!
Dec 25 23:39:37 avahi-daemon[28132]: Alias name "RT-AC86U" successfully established.

Why? Why are there no changes what so ever if I modify the config file? There is something I am missing truly