Re: [gentoo-user] Painted into a corner: avahi and mDNSResponder

["Andrey Vul" <andrey.vul@gmail.com>]

On Sun, Oct 12, 2008 at 3:51 AM, Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sunday 12 October 2008 08:04:22 Volker Armin Hemmann wrote:
>> On Sonntag 12 Oktober 2008, Alan E. Davis wrote:
>> > Almost perpetually, the following packages or their versions are
>> > blocking.  I have run emerge -e system several times.  Some other
>> > problems were cleared up, and this
>> > avahi--mDNSResponder/mdnsresponder-compat whatever it all is, just
>> > keeps coming back even when solved by some skullduggery.  I've removed
>> > both of them at one time or another.
>> >
>> > [blocks B     ] net-dns/avahi ("net-dns/avahi" is blocking
>> > net-misc/mDNSResponder-107.6-r5)
>> >
>> > [blocks B     ] net-misc/mDNSResponder ("net-misc/mDNSResponder" is
>> > blocking net-dns/avahi-0.6.23)
>> >
>> > I guess the problem is that I am running gnome and also have two or
>> > three different versions/slots of kde installed.  I suppose, then,
>> > it's remarkable that only these blocks are showing up?
>> >
>> > Can someone lend a hand on this?  Anything I do is little more than
>> > blind tinkering.
>> >
>> > Alan
>>
>> set the avahi useflag, unmerge mdnsresponder, emerge avahi.
>
> That looks familiar. I remember similar deep blocks myself - it was nasty at
> the time.
>
> For the OP's benefit, here's a high level summary of what is going on:
>
> Avahi and mDNSResponder implement a system called ZeroConf, first designed by
> Apple. It's a way for machines on a network to find each other and what
> network features they support. These systems are quite low-level so
> unfortunately the implementations are often incompatible.
>
> By and large you will find that Gnome stuff supports Avahi and KDE stuff
> supports mDNSResponder, so the only way out of this mess is often extensive
> use of 'equery hasuse', 'equery depends' and 'emerge -pvt' so see what pulls
> in what. But first you should research what these things are so you can make
> intelligent decisions about what to include and what to drop. The thing that
> cleared it up for me was an interview with the KDE team lead responsible for
> these features - Google will find it for you.
IIRC mdnsresponder-compat USE flags allows use of avahi in KDE (3).
>
> Personally, I find these things more trouble than they are worth. They seem to
> be designed for the "Apple Generation User" (whatever that is), and I have no
> use for that on the networks I work on. ZeroConf is not necessarily something
> you have to have installed...
>
> --
> alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com
>
>



-- 
Andrey Vul

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