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Software
XBian version: 20180627-0 (from /etc/motd)
XBMC/Kodi version: 17.6
Overclock settings: default

Hardware
Device type and model: Raspberry Pi 3 Model B
Power supply rating: 2A
SD card size and make/type: SanDisk EVO+ microSD 32GB
Network (Ethernet or wireless): Ethernet
Connected devices: TV

Problem description:
Cannot resolve .local host names via mDNS.

How to reproduce:
The following commands are run on the XBian system in an ssh session.

Avahi-daemon is running:
avahi 17390 1 0 Jun28 ? 00:00:00 avahi-daemon: running [xbian.local]
avahi 17392 17390 0 Jun28 ? 00:00:00 avahi-daemon: chroot helper

Host name resolution using the avahi tools works, e.g.
# avahi-resolve-host-name centos.local
centos.local 10.1.1.4

mDNS is configured in /etc/nsswitch.conf:
hosts: files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns

However resolution of .local hosts fails:
# ping centos.local
ping: bad address 'centos.local'

I see the requests for .local hosts being passed through to DNS.
It is though the mdns4_minimal directive in nsswitch.conf is being ignored.

The same setup works fine in Raspbian.

Hmm, actually I do not have a lot experience with that stuff, but

after installing avahi-utils package


it works out of the box without any additional configuration required:


Entry in /etc/nsswitch was already there

Do you have mdns4 in your nsswitch.conf?

I can't find it in your post , but after removing this parameter it's still working

Probably you're missing libnss-mdns package

Thanks Nachteule, installing libnss-mdns fixed the problem.

Fine, thanks for your response

I'm thinking about how to add this package to the standard image, because all my Pi installations have that package installed, and all that installations are 5 years old and originally based on Debian Wheezy. So, I would assume that when moved from Wheezy to Jessie that package was lost, probably due to a dropped dependency.

Set to solved