[Bug 80900] Re: problems resolving fully qualified domain names in environments where .local is used as a TLD

[Thomas Hood]

Will wrote:
> hosts: files dns mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] mdns4

I don't see the point of putting "mdns4_minimal" before "mdns4". Just
"mdns4" should be equivalent and faster, but maybe I'm missing
something.

Jeremy wrote:
> The nsswitch.conf edit fixed it for me. 
> Can we please get this as default configuration?

1. Jeremy, does the following also work?

    hosts: files mdns4_minimal dns mdns4

(I.e., *without* the "[NOTFOUND=return]".)

2. Upstream's documentation

    http://avahi.org/wiki/AvahiAndUnicastDotLocal

says

    If you come across a network where .local is a unicast
    DNS domain, please contact the local administrator
    and ask him to move his DNS zone to a different domain.
    If this is not possible, we recommend not to use Avahi
    in such a network at all.

So editing nsswitch.conf is not the recommended solution. Removing avahi
is the recommended solution. Obviously we shouldn't require the user to
do this by hand. Avahi should be disabled automatically on such a
network. Now, apparently avahi tries to do this (if
AVAHI_DAEMON_DETECT_LOCAL=1 in /etc/default/avahi-daemon) but this
doesn't always work properly; see, e.g., bug #327362.

Here's what Mac OS X 10.6 does (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3473).
(Bonjour plays the same role as avahi.)

«Host names that contain only one label in addition to local, for
example "My-Computer.local", are resolved using Multicast DNS (Bonjour)
by default. Host names that contain two or more labels in addition to
local, for example "server.domain.local", are resolved using a DNS
server by default.

Additionally, Mac OS X v10.6 automatically detects when the local
network operator has set up a name server that will answer name requests
for a domain ending in ".local". It does this by checking to see if
there is a Start Of Authority (SOA) record for the top level domain
"local", which is how a DNS server indicates that it claims to have
authority over a part of the DNS namespace. As long as the DNS server is
properly configured with the required SOA record, Mac OS X v10.6 will
detect this SOA record and automatically use this server to look up all
host names in the domain.»

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/80900

Title:
  problems resolving fully qualified domain names in environments where
  .local is used as a TLD

Status in “avahi” package in Ubuntu:
  Triaged

Bug description:
  Install Kubuntu Feisty
  Set the ip address to dhcp for eth0 (ethernet port)
  make sure the host name and domain name are set
  Hostname computer1
  DomainName mydomain.local

  allow DHCP to assign the IP address

  Ensure the computer details are registered in DNS for
  mydomain.local...

  computer names registered in DNS (FQDN) 
  computer1.mydomain.local
  computer2.mydomain.local
  computer3.mydomain.local

  computer2 and computer3 are both running Kubuntu Dapper and are both
  using DHCP.

  if I issue the following comands on computer2 or computer3, it works
  correctly:

  ping computer2      (response received - ping good)
  ping computer3      (response received - ping good)
  ping computer2.mydomain.local       (response received - ping good)
  ping computer3.mydomain.local       (response received - ping good)

  if i issue the same commands from the feisty box (computer1), these
  are the results..

  ping computer2       (response received - ping good)
  ping computer3       (response received - ping good)
  ping computer2.mydomain.local       (unknown host)
  ping computer3.mydomain.local      (unknown host)

  for some reason if you try to ping the fully qualified domain name on
  feisty, it cant resolve it, yet it can resolve it using both static IP
  Addressing and DHCP addressing on Dapper. (i set the IP to static as
  well for the test) Static and DHCP on Dapper works fine. Static and
  DHCP wont resolve fully qualified domain names on Feisty. (computer1,
  computer2 and computer 3 are all Kubuntu machines. DNS Server is a
  Windows 2003 Server (that will be changed a kubuntu server very soon
  though!)

  It can resolve the host name only though, and will return the fully
  qualified domain name in the response.

  cheers

  Rod.

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