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Something Not working correctly with hostname of router screwing up Time Machine

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This does still sound like a race condition or misconfig...

Something to try in your avahi-daemon.conf fle...

Back up the existing file first, and then use only the lines below, remove everything else - then restart the process and see where things are from there.

Code:
[server]
use-ipv4=yes
use-ipv6=yes
ratelimit-interval-usec=1000000
ratelimit-burst=1000

[wide-area]
enable-wide-area=yes

[publish]
publish-hinfo=no
publish-workstation=no
 
This does still sound like a race condition or misconfig...

Something to try in your avahi-daemon.conf fle...

Back up the existing file first, and then use only the lines below, remove everything else - then restart the process and see where things are from there.

Code:
[server]
use-ipv4=yes
use-ipv6=yes
ratelimit-interval-usec=1000000
ratelimit-burst=1000

[wide-area]
enable-wide-area=yes

[publish]
publish-hinfo=no
publish-workstation=no
Where do i find that file ! I'm kinda a novice at this stuff / learning ! Thanks.
 
Where do i find that file ! I'm kinda a novice at this stuff / learning ! Thanks.
See if the avahi-daemon.conf file exists in the following directory on your AC86U: /tmp/avahi
 
Where do i find that file ! I'm kinda a novice at this stuff / learning ! Thanks.

Should be here if I recall...

/tmp/avahi/avahi-daemon.conf

backup the original one first...

cp avahi-daemon.conf avahi-daemon.conf.backup

Then you can edit the config file and restart the daemon..
 
Last edited:
my point for the edit on the config file is that one doesn't need to declare the hostname - avahi will get it from the OS directly
 
my point for the edit on the config file is that one doesn't need to declare the hostname - avahi will get it from the OS directly
Wow thanks for this it seems to have fixed the problem.. Maybe @RMerlin can make this the default cause I searched and other users are having the problem of the hostname changing.
 
Maybe @RMerlin can make this the default cause I searched and other users are having the problem of the hostname changing.
This would need extensive testing, and I can't test TimeMachine. I'll see if it can be introduced during the 388.3 beta cycle.
 
Wow thanks for this it seems to have fixed the problem.. Maybe @RMerlin can make this the default cause I searched and other users are having the problem of the hostname changing.
How do you know it fixed the problem? The suggestion was to edit the config and restart the daemon. But you already said that restarting the daemon fixed the problem before you made any changes.
 
How do you know it fixed the problem? The suggestion was to edit the config and restart the daemon. But you already said that restarting the daemon fixed the problem before you made any changes.
So changing that file to say this :
[server]
use-ipv4=yes
use-ipv6=yes
ratelimit-interval-usec=1000000
ratelimit-burst=1000

[wide-area]
enable-wide-area=yes

[publish]
publish-hinfo=no
publish-workstation=no


Seems to have fixed the host name issue because now if I change a Wi-Fi setting such as adding something to the roaming blocklist the host name doesn’t change on its own to a new one with a different number. Before if I made any change to Wi-Fi I’d get all errors stating the host name was in use and it would finally settle on a random one with numbers. Then I’d have to log in to ssh and run the Time Machine command and the host name would change back to what I set it as.
 
This does still sound like a race condition or misconfig...

Something to try in your avahi-daemon.conf fle...

Back up the existing file first, and then use only the lines below, remove everything else - then restart the process and see where things are from there.

Code:
[server]
use-ipv4=yes
use-ipv6=yes
ratelimit-interval-usec=1000000
ratelimit-burst=1000

[wide-area]
enable-wide-area=yes

[publish]
publish-hinfo=no
publish-workstation=no
How do I make this change stick after reboot??? Cause when I reboot it comes back the way it was before..
 
@sfx2000
Is there a way to make this change permanent in the avahi-daemon.conf file during reboot...

Code:
[server]
use-ipv4=yes
use-ipv6=yes
ratelimit-interval-usec=1000000
ratelimit-burst=1000

[wide-area]
enable-wide-area=yes

[publish]
publish-hinfo=no
publish-workstation=no

Doing these changes seems to fix the problem. However when I reboot the router these changes are lost =(
 
bump.. Is there a way to make this config permanent.. I read something about postconf scripts but I don't understand that.
The Google Pixel 8's are sure looking pretty sweet! Just sayin' :p

But yeah... You could use a method like this to write a config file after a reboot. Let me know if I can be of help.
 
The Google Pixel 8's are sure looking pretty sweet! Just sayin' :p

But yeah... You could use a method like this to write a config file after a reboot. Let me know if I can be of help.
Ok so @Viktor Jaep if you could help that would be great !! I want my avahi-daemon.conf config to change from this:
[Server]
host-name=AX86U-DEN-418
aliases=RT-AX86U
aliases_llmnr=RT-AX86U
use-ipv4=yes
use-ipv6=no
deny-interfaces=eth0
ratelimit-interval-usec=1000000
ratelimit-burst=1000

[publish]
publish-a-on-ipv6=no
publish-aaaa-on-ipv4=no

[wide-area]
enable-wide-area=yes

[rlimits]
rlimit-core=0
rlimit-data=4194304
rlimit-fsize=0
rlimit-nofile=768
rlimit-stack=4194304
rlimit-nproc=3


To this:
[server]
use-ipv4=yes
use-ipv6=yes
ratelimit-interval-usec=1000000
ratelimit-burst=1000

[wide-area]
enable-wide-area=yes

[publish]
publish-hinfo=no
publish-workstation=no

Meaning I want that other stuff removed. I tried the instructions earlier in this thread but what happens is after reboot the config goes back to the default one and again the problem starts with the drifting host names changing with random numbers added to the end.
 
Ok so @Viktor Jaep if you could help that would be great !! I want my avahi-daemon.conf config to change from this:
[Server]
host-name=AX86U-DEN-418
aliases=RT-AX86U
aliases_llmnr=RT-AX86U
use-ipv4=yes
use-ipv6=no
deny-interfaces=eth0
ratelimit-interval-usec=1000000
ratelimit-burst=1000

[publish]
publish-a-on-ipv6=no
publish-aaaa-on-ipv4=no

[wide-area]
enable-wide-area=yes

[rlimits]
rlimit-core=0
rlimit-data=4194304
rlimit-fsize=0
rlimit-nofile=768
rlimit-stack=4194304
rlimit-nproc=3


To this:
[server]
use-ipv4=yes
use-ipv6=yes
ratelimit-interval-usec=1000000
ratelimit-burst=1000

[wide-area]
enable-wide-area=yes

[publish]
publish-hinfo=no
publish-workstation=no

Meaning I want that other stuff removed. I tried the instructions earlier in this thread but what happens is after reboot the config goes back to the default one and again the problem starts with the drifting host names changing with random numbers added to the end.
Have a look here.

You just need to make yourself the new conf file as per the instructions in the link.
 
This would need extensive testing, and I can't test TimeMachine. I'll see if it can be introduced during the 388.3 beta cycle.
If this helps, it's the stock avahi-daemon config file that is packaged for other distros...

Might help clear out some other bonjour/avahi issues on the device side - as I mentioned earlier, host does not need to be declared in the avahi directly, as it should pull it from the OS - older SDK's would have to be looked at obviously, depends on the libc in use for the platform.
 
If this helps, it's the stock avahi-daemon config file that is packaged for other distros...

Might help clear out some other bonjour/avahi issues on the device side - as I mentioned earlier, host does not need to be declared in the avahi directly, as it should pull it from the OS - older SDK's would have to be looked at obviously, depends on the libc in use for the platform.
Yeah so whatever that code change does it seems to fix the drifting host name issue. I hope that @RMerlin can look more into this.
 
So scratch that.. the code provided from @sfx2000 doesn't appear to work when the reboot happens so meaning if I reboot the router and I add to /jffs/configs/avahi-daemon.conf with the changes I pasted above it still shows on reboot a roaming host name. The hostname as stated in lan ip administration page should be AX86U-DEN-418. The only thing that seems to work is have a services-start that states

sleep 600 # sleep for 600 seconds
service restart_timemachine


These are the logs:
Mar 30 15:22:53 avahi-daemon[15997]: Withdrawing address record for 192.168.50.3 on br0.
Mar 30 15:22:53 avahi-daemon[15997]: Withdrawing address record for 192.168.50.4 on br0.
Mar 30 15:22:53 avahi-daemon[15997]: Withdrawing address record for 192.168.50.2 on br0.
Mar 30 15:22:53 avahi-daemon[15997]: Withdrawing address record for 127.0.1.1 on lo.
Mar 30 15:22:53 avahi-daemon[15997]: Withdrawing address record for 127.0.0.1 on lo.
Mar 30 15:22:53 avahi-daemon[15997]: Host name conflict, retrying with AX86U-DEN-462
Mar 30 15:22:53 avahi-daemon[15997]: Registering new address record for 192.168.50.3 on br0.IPv4.
Mar 30 15:22:53 avahi-daemon[15997]: Registering new address record for 192.168.50.4 on br0.IPv4.
Mar 30 15:22:53 avahi-daemon[15997]: Registering new address record for 192.168.50.2 on br0.IPv4.
Mar 30 15:22:53 avahi-daemon[15997]: Registering new address record for 192.168.50.1 on br0.IPv4.
Mar 30 15:22:53 avahi-daemon[15997]: Registering new address record for 127.0.1.1 on lo.IPv4.
Mar 30 15:22:53 avahi-daemon[15997]: Registering new address record for 127.0.0.1 on lo.IPv4.
Mar 30 15:24:34 avahi-daemon[15997]: Server startup complete. Host name is AX86U-DEN-466.local. Local service cookie is 500176056.
Mar 30 15:24:34 avahi-daemon[15997]: Alias name "RT-AX86U" successfully established.
Mar 30 15:24:35 avahi-daemon[15997]: Service "AX86U-DEN-466" (/tmp/avahi/services/alexa.service) successfully established.
Mar 30 15:24:35 avahi-daemon[15997]: Service "AX86U-DEN-466" (/tmp/avahi/services/afpd.service) successfully established.
Mar 30 15:24:35 avahi-daemon[15997]: Service "AX86U-DEN-466" (/tmp/avahi/services/adisk.service) successfully
 
If this helps, it's the stock avahi-daemon config file that is packaged for other distros...

Might help clear out some other bonjour/avahi issues on the device side - as I mentioned earlier, host does not need to be declared in the avahi directly, as it should pull it from the OS - older SDK's would have to be looked at obviously, depends on the libc in use for the platform.
I don't understand however. Why would letting avahi find the hostname itself behave differently from explicitely specifying it in the config file? If there's a race condition, the automatic detection should also be affected and result in a deduped name being used, no?

Currently, Asuswrt uses the content of the lan_hostname nvram setting. If it's not a valid hostname (or empty), then the fallback is to use the product id as stored in odmpid (if this is an ODM SKU) or what's stored in productid.
 
I was no able to fix this problem but I made my life a lot easier by having my Mac constantly running a monitering script to keep this problem at bay.
 

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