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I have a Linux server in my cupboard. My Windows machines can connect to it via its hostname. I have never configured any DNS server; all I did was assign the Linux box a name when I installed Ubuntu on it. It's running a Samba file server.

My Macbook Pro doesn't recognize the host name. How can I make my Macbook find the machine the same way the Windows machines can? The Linux machine's IP is dynamically assigned via DHCP so I don't want to add a permanent entry to a hosts file or similar. (Despite this, the Windows machines can always find it.)

Update: I can't ping the machine, but nmblookup can find it.

grahamb@pickle:~$ ping fry
ping: cannot resolve fry: Unknown host
grahamb@pickle:~$ ping fry.local
ping: cannot resolve fry.local: Unknown host
grahamb@pickle:~$ nmblookup fry
querying fry on 192.168.1.255
192.168.1.8 fry<00>
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  • nmb isn't in OSX's resolver by default. Though someone else will have to elaborate, because much of this stuff STILL eludes me.
    – Jason Salaz
    Commented May 24, 2011 at 9:37
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    I believe what you want to do is to make the linux machine announce itself using mDNS. But then it's not a Mac question anymore, but a Linux question.
    – Harald Hanche-Olsen
    Commented May 24, 2011 at 10:00
  • Great. Even though it may be off topic, would you mind briefly telling us what you did to solve it?
    – Harald Hanche-Olsen
    Commented May 24, 2011 at 10:55
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    On the Linux box: sudo apt-get install avahi-daemon
    – Graham Borland
    Commented May 24, 2011 at 12:08

1 Answer 1

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I believe what you want to do is to make the linux machine announce itself using mDNS. But then it's not a Mac question anymore, but a Linux question.

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    Thanks, after executing "sudo apt-get install avahi-daemon" on the Linux machine, the Mac can now see it as fry.local.
    – Graham Borland
    Commented May 24, 2011 at 12:09

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