roboRIO mDNS Problem

[Crossle86]

Installed all software, firmware, imaged, JVM etc. accessing roboRIO internal web server via USB via browser no problems (team 4450). However, using wireless connection, PC browser would not connect using the roboRIO-4450.local mDNS address. Going back to USB I looked at the roboRIO home page and observed that the HostName is roboRIO-4450 as expected but the dns name shown on the home page is roboRIO-4451.local. Now if I switch back to wireless and use roboRIO-4451.local in the browser, it works.

I have no idea how this happened and have not seen any way to change the dns name on the roboRIO web interface to the correct value.

As an addtional issue, I have not been able to get the FRC dashboard app on the driver station to connect, even using 4451 as the team number. Don't know if this is somehow related to the incorrect roboRIO dns name or if this is a different issue. I can browse to the RIO from driverstation PC using roboRIO-4451.local so I would have thought the DS would work setting team to 4451.

Please note I have checked the firewall etc et.

[nickmcski]

Did you configure your Dlink router properly, its different than previous years since its useing a DHCP server instead of static ips.
If your router is configured properly then what OS and browser are you using, I know a few people that had a few problems with the mDns on Linux. Also if you go in command line and run the following command

ping roboRIO-4450.local

it will be able to tell you if its able to get a reply from your roborio.

[Crossle86]

The PC OS is Windows and the problem is the same no matter what browser you use or if you use ping. The RIO does not responed to the expected mDNS name of roboRIO-4450.local and it appears that is because the RIO thinks it's dns name is roboRIO-4451.local.

[acf]

The mDNS address of our roboRIO is definitely correct. I think the provided LabVIEW package comes with an application called "NI MAX" (Measurement & Automation Explorer), which you can use to configure RIO controllers. It might be possible to change the host name of your controller there, or at least determine what the controller thinks its name is.

Also, have you tried imaging your controller a second time? Perhaps something very strange happened during the imaging process.

[Crossle86]

What do you mean the mDNS address is correct? Its wrong, it shows a team number component of 4451 when it should be 4450. Further, the RIO Host Name is in fact correct, showing 4450. On the RIO home page, the Host Name and dns name are shown in two fields. You would expect them to be similar, using the same team number.

Reimaging is probably what I will do, but I prefer things to work and since I entered the team number correctly during imaging, it should have done it right. I am hoping someone at First or NI will see this and provide something more than reimage and see what happens...

I am going to get a picture of the RIO home page and post here on Saturday.

[Joe Ross]

A few beta teams saw this, and I don't think root cause was determined. You can reimage to a different number and then reimage back to your team number and it should fix the mismatch.

[CatalystV7]

What problems were there on Linux? We're running Ubuntu and having great difficulty connecting to our roboRIO.

[nickmcski]

Originally Posted by CatalystV7

What problems were there on Linux? We're running Ubuntu and having great difficulty connecting to our roboRIO.

A team at my local kickoff event was useing ubuntu and they had a problem with there computer not being able to connect to any hosts or any mdns records (ex they couldnt connect to http://dlinkap/ to setup their router)

[taichichuan]

Originally Posted by nickmcski

A team at my local kickoff event was useing ubuntu and they had a problem with there computer not being able to connect to any hosts or any mdns records (ex they couldnt connect to http://dlinkap/ to setup their router)

In order for Linux to connect with the RoboRIO via the mdns address, you'll need to have the Avahi service running. That's Linux's mdns resolver.

HTH,

Mike

[robert1356]

We were one of the beta teams that experienced this same issue. It is not very repeatable. In our case, the first time, we re-flashed the firmware (roboRIO imaging tool) to get it working correctly again. I don't recall what we did the second time. We have not seen the problem since, just twice.

[Crossle86]

Update on this problem. During the imaging and testing, the roboRIO was restarted either by the software doing the update or by pressing the reset button on the roboRIO. At the end of the day, the power was turned off. On Friday when the bot was turned back on, the roboRIO had the correct dns name and all is working correctly. Seems to be a transient problem after imaging and power cycle is needed to correct it. Sorry for the false alarm

[loafdog]

Originally Posted by taichichuan

In order for Linux to connect with the RoboRIO via the mdns address, you'll need to have the Avahi service running. That's Linux's mdns resolver.

HTH,

Mike

For linux users who have problems using mdns and resolving roboRIOxxyy-local.. make sure your /etc/nsswitch.conf file contains a line:

hosts:          files dns mdns

I guess some distros don't enable mdns lookup by default. I am using linux mint 17 and it was not enabled by default.

-Maciej