[sf-lug] ERROR: getaddrinfo: Name or service not known

[jim]

    I don't have an answer, but I'll be interested in 
better understanding your command line: 
cje at rb:~$ rdesktop rds.xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx -f -a 16  -k en-us
^^^^^^^^^^--------your prompt, user cje on host rb 
..........^^^^^^^^---------the  rdesktop  connects to Windows RDP host 
...................^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^-------seems strange to me: [1] 
.......................................^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^--options [2] 

[1] I suppose one can use a sub-domain name with an IP address; 
    I've never tried it and my current set ups seem not to allow 
    me to try that exact syntax. If you've previously used that 
    exact syntax, okay. 
    I would have guessed  rdesktop cje at xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (assumes 
    the same username on the remote host). 
[2] -f  specifies fullscreen mode 
    -a 16  specifies color depth 
    -k en-us  specifies keyboard map 

ERROR: getaddrinfo: Name or service not known 
    This seems to complain about rds.xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx and I wonder 
if you didn't mis-type, maybe it should be 
rds at xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx ?? 

    As to changing config files, here are a couple of good 
(if not best) practice suggestions: 
* Make a copy of the config file you plan to modify; 
  give it a name with the last four characters .SAF 
  if the config file resides in a dedicated directory 
  such as /etc/avahi/ then keep the safe copy there 
  $ pwd 
  /etc/avahi 
  $ cp avahi-daemon.conf avahi-daemon.conf.SAF 
* In editing the conf file, add a comment at the top line 
  (or on the second line if the top line begins #!...) 
  with the date, the word CHANGED, and a brief description 
  of the change. 
* At the spot in the file that you make a change, put a 
  comment line immediately above the change that begins 
  with the date, the word CHANGED, and a brief description 
  of the change. 
! Note that you may make several changes in the file, so 
  the description you write at the top of the file will be 
  different from each of the individual descriptions. 
* Create a file that stores your maintenance log and in it 
  record the date, filename and path, and brief description, 
  all on a single line, for each change you make. 
* You surely have a regular maintenance schedule, so at the 
  time you dutifully do your backups and cleanup, use the 
  command 
  $ grep CHANGED /etc/* /etc/*/* 
  to remind yourself of what you've changed. 

    I hope this helps, if no one else, at least me after 
others correct, refine, improve.... 



On Thu, 2012-11-08 at 11:10 -0800, Christian Einfeldt wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I am trying to remotely dial in to my boss's server so that I can work
> from wherever I want using 12.04.  He is using a Windows server,
> probably Microsoft Windows 7.  I have successfully dialed in before
> using several different computers, but just recently recently have
> been getting this error:
> 
> cje at rb:~$ rdesktop rds.xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx -f -a 16  -k en-us
> ERROR: getaddrinfo: Name or service not known
> 
> I changed the IP address of my boss's server above to xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
> because I am not sure if it is smart to put that info up on the
> Internet.  (Would it be stupid to do that?)  
> 
> My boss says that he can still dial in from his home using his
> Microsoft Windows machine.  Googling, I see that it might have
> something to do with Avahi:
> 
> ********************************
> 
> http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1044302
> 
> There are a couple of reasons for this error. It is most likely caused
> by avahi. Avahi implements the zeroconf/Bonjour. Avahi is installed
> and turned on by default in most of the recent versions of ubuntu.
> Avahi uses .local by default (see
> http://linux.die.net/man/5/avahi-daemon.conf also
> http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=23255.0 ) It has also became
> a common practice to use .local for internal networks. 
> 
> The simplest test would be check if avahi is running and turn it off
> if it is, and then try and connect using the name.
> 
> ps ax | grep avahi
> service avahi-daemon stop
> rdesktop myserver.mydomain.local
> 
> if you can now connect you have a name conflict between your internal
> name, and avahi.
> if you don't need it you can turn it off, however you loose some of
> the cool features (automatic service discovery)
> 
> If you want to use avahi, then things get a bit more tricky
> you can change your internal DNS domain from mydomain.local to
> something like mydomain.private. However if you have even a moderate
> size network, then the likely hood of things breaking is quite high.
> 
> Here is avahi's page with work arounds
> http://avahi.org/wiki/AvahiAndUnicastDotLocal
> 
> I changed the avahi.conf file to .alocal but that didn';t work so I
> changed /etc/nsswitch.conf. I located the hosts line and put dns in
> front of the mdns stuff, like so
> hosts: files dns mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return]
> 
> after that I could start avahi, and still do .local lookups
> 
> Hope this helps.
> 
> *************************************************
> 
> I am a relatively simple end user, and so I would prefer to implement
> a solution or workaround that does not take me too far from a standard
> install, because I will probably forget this issue and then I will be
> creating more problems for gurus who might want to help me later.
> Thanks in advance for any help. 
> 
> 
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