Do you use Avahi?
Submitted by Utumno on Sun 15 Mar 2009
| Often |
   8% | 115 votes |
| Rarely |
6% | 84 votes |
| Never |
17% | 221 votes |
| I don't have it installed |
4% | 55 votes |
| What is Avahi? |
62% | 807 votes |
| Total 1293 votes |
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Posted by Utumno (60.248.xx.xx) on Mon 16 Mar 2009 at 03:25
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That was my point - it is installed and running by default in Debian, a lot of packages have it as a dependency ( try purging libavahi! ) but does anyone actually use it?
[ Parent ]
Posted by Anonymous (70.105.xx.xx) on Tue 17 Mar 2009 at 00:24
I used to use GNUmeric without Gnome
I used to use CUPS without Dbus
Not any more, now I am looking for alternatives
I still avoid FAM and Avahi
These daemons should be optional and not mandatory dependencies.
Even Xorg is all messed up.
I have an ATI 9500 video card and an Nvidia x4000 etc
Since Lenny the max resolution without hand editing Xorg.conf is 1024x768.
With either open or closed drivers...
This is all because someone needs an automaticly configuring operating system.
I have totally used Debian since Potato.
If I have to hack these files manually then something's wrong.
I used to do that years ago with Slackware.
Can anyone explain all these supposedly new ways of doing things?
I used to use CUPS without Dbus
Not any more, now I am looking for alternatives
I still avoid FAM and Avahi
These daemons should be optional and not mandatory dependencies.
Even Xorg is all messed up.
I have an ATI 9500 video card and an Nvidia x4000 etc
Since Lenny the max resolution without hand editing Xorg.conf is 1024x768.
With either open or closed drivers...
This is all because someone needs an automaticly configuring operating system.
I have totally used Debian since Potato.
If I have to hack these files manually then something's wrong.
I used to do that years ago with Slackware.
Can anyone explain all these supposedly new ways of doing things?
[ Parent ]
Some of the dependencies are just crazy! If you install the flash player from debian-multimedia you get Avahi. (Debian-multimedia is not *Debian*, I know, this is just an example.) Why in the world would you need Avahi to play flash content? The newer flash installer that downloads directly from Adobe doesn't seem to need it.
[ Parent ]
Posted by Anonymous (2001:0xx:0xx:0xxx:0xxx:0xxx:xx) on Mon 16 Mar 2009 at 19:39
....Just waiting for "wide area avahi " support , where is frederico? :-)
[ Parent ]
Posted by Utumno (60.248.xx.xx) on Wed 18 Mar 2009 at 09:24
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Could those who use Avahi explain what do they need it for?
What is the typical usage scenario?
What is the typical usage scenario?
[ Parent ]
Posted by Anonymous (89.102.xx.xx) on Wed 18 Mar 2009 at 18:36
While it's actually much more general, it's typically used for discovery or share devices and resources shared on other network host. Say, a printer connected to a nearby computer (shared via cups), your colleague's music collection (daap, itunes), remote desktop or your publicly shared files to exchange.
[ Parent ]
Posted by Anonymous (89.102.xx.xx) on Wed 18 Mar 2009 at 18:40
Ah, I get the question now :)
I actually use it for all three (though very rarely for sharing files via DAV).
I love when things just work -- like, just plugging the printer for the first time to my wife's computer, and printing from my computer from it without any additional configuration.
Also, me and my friends, we usually all share our music connections via Rhythmbox, and our home server runs mt-daapd with common collection of ours for anyone to be just seen in our players.
I actually use it for all three (though very rarely for sharing files via DAV).
I love when things just work -- like, just plugging the printer for the first time to my wife's computer, and printing from my computer from it without any additional configuration.
Also, me and my friends, we usually all share our music connections via Rhythmbox, and our home server runs mt-daapd with common collection of ours for anyone to be just seen in our players.
[ Parent ]
Posted by Anonymous (76.66.xx.xx) on Thu 19 Mar 2009 at 18:39
I store all my music on a Debian server at home and use mt-daapd (which uses Avahi) to stream it to my laptop (from anywhere in the world, if I use an SSH tunnel).
At work, it's used to allow our Macs to see the Drobo's AFP shares.
As a side note, I would recommend *against* buying a Drobo + DroboShare.
-Aidan
At work, it's used to allow our Macs to see the Drobo's AFP shares.
As a side note, I would recommend *against* buying a Drobo + DroboShare.
-Aidan
[ Parent ]
Posted by Anonymous (76.66.xx.xx) on Thu 19 Mar 2009 at 18:45
Oh, the other thing I do pretty much all the time is using the .local domains, e.g. "ssh user@server.local". Much easier to remember. It's become such a standard way for me to access my various servers that I feel a little lost without it.
-Aidan
-Aidan
[ Parent ]
Posted by Utumno (60.248.xx.xx) on Fri 20 Mar 2009 at 08:47
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Eh? Avahi somehow automatically advertises machine's DNS name? I did not know that.
How about you register and write an article about Avahi?
How about you register and write an article about Avahi?
[ Parent ]
Posted by Anonymous (74.224.xx.xx) on Fri 20 Mar 2009 at 16:58
I really love that avahi and netatalk are available and work so well in Debian. It makes using Debian for my home multimedia server a piece of cake with my Mac desktop, so even my non-geek housemate can easily use the network. I do sympathize with the people who are vexed over it being "on" by default, however. Especially because until it's configured there's not a lot of reason to run it.
[ Parent ]
I said "rarely" because there was no "I don't care" option.
Personally, I'm a long time hardcore Linux user, been with Slack for a looong time. Debian has always been one of my "top 5" distros, if you will. What it boils down to is this: ease of use.
I'm accustomed to prepping a machine as a server. If you have a debian mailserver, you're not going to have avahi on there. You're not going to have X on there, you're not going to have many things on there.
It's serving one purpose alone, and that's what it will do. It will be easier to lock down and secure just running $your_mailserver_of_choice.
On the other hand, you're talking desktops. I just bough a netbook (HP Mini 1030nr) and I said to myself, it's going to run Debian 5.
I ran debian-live for a bit, keeping persistent changes. I replaced flash with adobe's plugin, and used the wl broadcom driver. Other than that, it worked perfectly out of the box (webcam and all).
So my netbook's not a server... I'm sure avahi is running in the background. Which comes back around to my response... I don't care! It works, right?
If I had to fiddle with my netbook, scrutinizing every detail (like I would for a secure mailserver) I would probably throw it out the window...
Personally, I'm a long time hardcore Linux user, been with Slack for a looong time. Debian has always been one of my "top 5" distros, if you will. What it boils down to is this: ease of use.
I'm accustomed to prepping a machine as a server. If you have a debian mailserver, you're not going to have avahi on there. You're not going to have X on there, you're not going to have many things on there.
It's serving one purpose alone, and that's what it will do. It will be easier to lock down and secure just running $your_mailserver_of_choice.
On the other hand, you're talking desktops. I just bough a netbook (HP Mini 1030nr) and I said to myself, it's going to run Debian 5.
I ran debian-live for a bit, keeping persistent changes. I replaced flash with adobe's plugin, and used the wl broadcom driver. Other than that, it worked perfectly out of the box (webcam and all).
So my netbook's not a server... I'm sure avahi is running in the background. Which comes back around to my response... I don't care! It works, right?
If I had to fiddle with my netbook, scrutinizing every detail (like I would for a secure mailserver) I would probably throw it out the window...
[ Parent ]
Posted by Anonymous (206.174.xx.xx) on Mon 23 Mar 2009 at 18:52
I use Debian Lenny desktops at work. They're not home machines, they're production workstations that have a full GUI environment.
The full GUI environment and the decision someone made that avahi is a critical piece of that puzzle makes it hard to throw it out the window.
The full GUI environment and the decision someone made that avahi is a critical piece of that puzzle makes it hard to throw it out the window.
[ Parent ]
Posted by Anonymous (217.91.xx.xx) on Wed 1 Apr 2009 at 10:56
Unfortunately this attitude doesn't stop at servers. It's true that avahi isnt part of a base install, but other likewise unnecessary packages are. For example an Ubuntu *server* installation (with the descriptive name "ubuntu-minimal") consists of stuff like pppoeconf, ntfs3g, pcmcia-utils, wpasupplicant, netcat, a C compiler (so when you break into a server, you have already all the tools you need at your fingertips), etc. Of course you're never asked if you want those things on your server, the installer only gives you the option of not installing software like OpenSSH. What the fuck. I guess some people want to put their maildirs on a NTFS partition, right after they open a bunch of netcat connections over wifi-cards, which they just plugged into their mailserver?!
And even worse, when you finally got rid of all those packages, they're pulled back in at the next distribution upgrade.
And even worse, when you finally got rid of all those packages, they're pulled back in at the next distribution upgrade.
[ Parent ]
Posted by Anonymous (12.228.xx.xx) on Wed 25 Mar 2009 at 16:37
My only debian box is an NSLU2 running as a daap server. While things like FirePlay let you connect to a specific server, I had the impression that iTunes itself relies on zeroconf and doesn't allow you to do a manual connect to library.
[ Parent ]
Posted by Anonymous (80.84.xx.xx) on Mon 30 Mar 2009 at 15:46
i had to remove libavahi because it messed up usb-ether connectivity to my mobile.
i love plug-n-play stuff but if it's not working its a pain, lately i deinstalled even network-manager (it grabbed random ip numbers from /etc/network/interfaces of deactivated ifs) and use ifup-down again.
cups is a nightmare too for me, with lprng i just say what i want and it works. same goes for avahi and all the other half working, fancy, automatic HAL9000: for now i --purge it. i will recheck if my time allows.
often these full automatic packages are not documented at all and have no proper logging so if its not working you need much more time to fix it than you need to setup a non-automatic package the first time...
i love plug-n-play stuff but if it's not working its a pain, lately i deinstalled even network-manager (it grabbed random ip numbers from /etc/network/interfaces of deactivated ifs) and use ifup-down again.
cups is a nightmare too for me, with lprng i just say what i want and it works. same goes for avahi and all the other half working, fancy, automatic HAL9000: for now i --purge it. i will recheck if my time allows.
often these full automatic packages are not documented at all and have no proper logging so if its not working you need much more time to fix it than you need to setup a non-automatic package the first time...
[ Parent ]
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I can see that there's alot of work that's gone in to the whole zeroconf/mdns stuff, and I'm sure it's all very clever. But I still can see the point for it in a structured, controlled, environment, like any reasonably sized network in a workplace.
So why is it always installed by default? What benefit can it possibly give me?
Cheers.
:wq[ Parent ]