For various reasons, I want to setup some kind of printer discovery - at least to figure out the printer's IP address. (As opposed asking the router's DHCP server what address it assigned - which is not possible on somebody else's LAN)

I see that AntiX has libavahi-client3 installed by default, so I figured the printer tool would be able to find the printer given any of several host names the printer claims: npiff843f.local, deskjet.local, hp5850.local, 5850.local, hp5800.local, 5800.local and several others I could think of. Did not work.

I found and installed mdns-scan. It found the printer and all the computers - except the AntiX system.

I tried the funny names (like [0c:09:a4:86:54:ca]._printer._tcp.local) that mdns-scan listed. Still did not work.

I tried all these various names in FireFox (the printer has a built in http server), also did not work.

I then found and installed libnss-mdns. After the install was complete, the antiX computer started being listed by mdns-scan. The only other difference I could see is that the installation updated the /etc/nsswitch.conf file.

Even after rebooting at various points after installing things, nothing could find the printer (except via IP address).

So far, nothing I've found by googling has suggested anything that I haven't already done (or was done automatically).

Any suggestions?

Have you tried"avahi-discover". It claims this functionality.

eriefisher

avahi-discovery just seems to be a better version of mdns-scan.

The one I thought would work for sure is libnss-mdns, but still no luck.

Strangely, the mDNS stuff started fully working with no further reboots - not that they were helping.

What happened, I went to a book clucb meeting, taking my laptop (the antiX system). While I was there, I tried fetching a drawing a friend did, from his laptop, without first getting his current IP. It just worked.

So, when I went home, I found it all working there, too.

No reboots. Just unplugged form my own LAN, plugged into the host's LAN, and it worked. Then, vice-versa, returning home. (I live close enough to the host's home, I didn't bother to shutdown. (and used the power adaptor while I was there)

I guess I was right about libnss-mdns (and/or any of the other packages it pulled in when I installed it) being the key.