Window Maker Live (Linux distro)

[jeffburg]

Yeah, pinging the IP's manually works. So it's just a hostname resolution issue. I want this guide to broadly usable on "normal" networks which have dynamic IP's so hardcoding them isn't an option in my use case. Again, totally fine to make an opinionated choice here. Things don't need to work for my weird use case.

I looked and it looks like Debian and Ubuntu use avahi-daemon to do this
https://avahi.org

[wmlive]

I looked and it looks like Debian and Ubuntu use avahi-daemon to do this

Which, of course, is included with wmlive:

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# grep avahi wmlive-bookworm_12.12-arm64.list
avahi-daemon    0.8-10+deb12u1
avahi-utils    0.8-10+deb12u1
libavahi-client3:arm64  0.8-10+deb12u1
libavahi-common-data:arm64      0.8-10+deb12u1
libavahi-common3:arm64  0.8-10+deb12u1
libavahi-core7:arm64    0.8-10+deb12u1
libavahi-glib1:arm64    0.8-10+deb12u1
libavahi-ui-gtk3-0:arm64        0.8-10+deb12u1
Of course, this begs the question why it doesn't work as expected in wmlive...

Now you gave me another incentive to look into how this works. Thanks!

[wmlive]

I looked and it looks like Debian and Ubuntu use avahi-daemon to do this

Now you gave me another incentive to look into how this works. Thanks!

Apparently, a few more avahi-related packages need to be installed:

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# apt-get -m -t bookworm-backports install avahi-discover avahi-dnsconfd avahi-ui-utils
Would something like what is shown on the attached screenshot be more to your liking?



EDIT: replaced the screenshot with a better one

[jeffburg]

It is cool that Avahi includes that GUI for listing all of its discovered services. Let me fire up WMLive again when I get home and I will see if I can get it working. Maybe QEMU just had a networking glitch at the time... unfortunately it's not uncommon.

But I bet you it was installing these 2 that fixed the problem
apt-get -m -t bookworm-backports install avahi-discover avahi-dnsconfd

[wmlive]

But I bet you it was installing these 2 that fixed the problem
apt-get -m -t bookworm-backports install avahi-discover avahi-dnsconfd

Yes, that was most probably the missing link.
If you find more stuff failing or not working in wmlive, please let me know.

Contrary to common belief, the best feedback are complaints about broken things as this helps fixing stuff for future releases.

[jeffburg]

Thanks so much for bearing with me. I installed the extra utilities you shared. And now the discover UI shows my devices, but DNS still does not resolve them. Take a look at this example where I can ping my device called Lamps-Plus.local with IP 192.168.0.98 but if I use its hostname, it does not resolve. And yes, I restarted after installing just in case.

[wmlive]

Thanks so much for bearing with me.

I have to rather thank you for bearing with me.

Take a look at this example where I can ping my device called Lamps-Plus.local with IP 192.168.0.98 but if I use its hostname, it does not resolve. And yes, I restarted after installing just in case.

Does the same happen when you ping just Lamps-Plus (without .local)?

[jeffburg]

I just tried it and yes, ping Lamps-Plus gives the same error

[wmlive]

I just tried it and yes, ping Lamps-Plus gives the same error

Ah, the convoluted joys of network configuration!

Thes reason i asked is that i noted on my own system that some hosts were not pingable when adding the .local domain extension to the bare hostname, or the reverse, while others worked both ways. And i still can't see any reason or pattern explaining this due to lack of prior experience with things avahi.

So, for the time being, no further questions asked from my side.
Neither can i provide any useful answer.

While we are at it, please also make sure to have installed following three packages:

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# apt-get -m -t bookworm-backports install avahi-autoipd libnss-mdns mdns-scan
No promises this makes a difference in your specific case, but we've seen before how missing components negatively affect function.

[jeffburg]

@wmlive those extra packages did it! thanks!

[wmlive]

@wmlive those extra packages did it! thanks!

Thanks for the confirmation and for helping to sort this out!

In the meantime i found out how to force using the graphical installer frontend also on the ARM64 variant of the wmlive ISO. This finally removes the need for bothering with a serial console.

A new ISO including the complete range of avahi packages has been built and currently undergoes some  testing. If successful, it will be uploaded to replace the currently available experimental ARM64 ISO on sourceforge.

[jeffburg]

That would be awesome! I will try the new installer and let you know how it goes!

[jeffburg]

There is one more thing that is not working. Which is copy and paste (and possibly other QEMU VM services). This works on this preconfigured UTM Debian download. That said, I am not sure how they got it to work because when I use a fresh VM and install Debian manually it does not work for me. But if I keep reusing this VM config and just reinstall fresh debian it does work so I am not sure what magic is going on to make that work.

https://mac.getutm.app/gallery/debian-12

[wmlive]

There is one more thing that is not working. Which is copy and paste (and possibly other QEMU VM services).

Please define what context for "copy and paste" is meant. Copying a text selection and pasting it to another writable location (editor, terminal)? Using the mouse or keyboard shortcuts? Restricted to within the VM environment or rather between the VM and your host system?

Apparently you are referring to something that might be obvious to you but not necessarily for me. Therefore i need a more explicit description to enable me to reproduce it.

[jeffburg]

ah sorry. I mean copying and pasting between the QEMU virtual machine and host machine.