zeroconf and kubuntu

[Daniel Pittman]

"Donatas G." <dgvirtual at akl.lt> writes:

> How is zeroconf networking supposed to work on Kubuntu? 

Which release?  My comments pertain to Feisty, and your millage may vary
in earlier releases.

The answer is through a combination of services that provide various
parts of the overall picture.

> Do I have to specify something in the settings for my computer to
> automatically obtain IP address when connected to another computer?

When you say "connected to another computer" what do you mean?

If you mean "both on the same network" then, no, the avahi-autoipd
process will assign an IPv4 stateless autoconfiguration "link local"
address to the machine using the same process that XP and (as I
understand it) OS-X will use.

> I tried to simply connect two computers with a cable, then waited for
> them to find each other and choose IP addresses. Nothing happened...

Was that a cross-over cable or straight through?  Normally you need to
go through a switch or use a specially wired cable rather than just run
a network cable between the two machines.

However, in some cases your network card /may/ detect the other machine.

You can determine this by running this command at the console:

    sudo mii-tool

That should report the link status of your network cards.

> Do I need to do something else? Or, was it a problem that one computer
> has Kubuntu feisty, and the other - Kubuntu edgy (with avahi enabled,
> able to announce services, etc)?

I don't recall if edgy would auto-configure a link local IPv4 address; 
I think it only did that if there were no other IP addressing services
on the link.

You /should/, if you have a network link and the appropriate ZeroConf
stuff turned on in system settings, be able to access the other machine
via the MDNS host resolution.

That is, 'hostname.local' should work for connecting to the other
system.


I suspect, though, that your problem is that you ran a network cable
between the two machines and one or both don't have an auto-sensing NIC
installed so, consequently, no Ethernet link was established.

Regards,
        Daniel
-- 
Digital Infrastructure Solutions -- making IT simple, stable and secure
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