[SOLVED] Trouble with CUPS (systemd-resolved + Avahi)

CuriousOne · 2025-12-17 16:02:36

Hello all,
I've been using Arch across different installs for the last six months or so.
On my current install I can't get printing to work. My printer shows up in the CUPS web interface at localhost:631, and goes through all the steps correctly, apart from the final one when I keep getting the error message "Unable to connect to HP6C02E03697B1.local:631: Temporary failure in name resolution".
CUPS error message
I think this is to do with CUPS not supporting systemd-resolved (what I use) for DNS-SD, as the wiki says at CUPS#Network.
I do have Avahi running also, but I can't find any documentation anywhere to "use systemd-resolved for domain resolution (works with browsers, unlike Avahi) and have avahi-daemon.service running for SD (Service Discovery) itself".

I don't know what to do. I think on previous installs I just enabled avahi-daemon.service alongside systemd-resolved and it worked, but that's not working now, and of course I should learn to fix the problem rather than just reinstalling with the hope that that fixes it.

Below is the output of `systemctl status` for the relevant daemons:

[user@casa ~]$ systemctl status cups.service
● cups.service - CUPS Scheduler
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/cups.service; enabled; preset: disabled)
Active: active (running) since Wed 2025-12-17 15:18:36 GMT; 49s ago
Invocation: b9fd486d86ef4715bfad49191a821c77
TriggeredBy: ● cups.socket
● cups.path
Docs: man:cupsd(8)
Main PID: 505 (cupsd)
Status: "Scheduler is running..."
Tasks: 1 (limit: 9077)
Memory: 8.8M (peak: 10.3M)
CPU: 25ms
CGroup: /system.slice/system-cups.slice/cups.service
└─505 /usr/bin/cupsd -l

Dec 17 15:18:36 casa systemd[1]: Starting CUPS Scheduler...
Dec 17 15:18:36 casa systemd[1]: Started CUPS Scheduler.

[user@casa ~]$ systemctl status cups-browsed.service
● cups-browsed.service - Make remote CUPS printers available locally
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/cups-browsed.service; enabled; preset: disabled)
Active: active (running) since Wed 2025-12-17 15:18:47 GMT; 45s ago
Invocation: 8e10bc0288aa443fbe399409b66c06e4
Main PID: 714 (cups-browsed)
Tasks: 4 (limit: 9077)
Memory: 10.4M (peak: 12.4M)
CPU: 125ms
CGroup: /system.slice/system-cups.slice/cups-browsed.service
└─714 /usr/bin/cups-browsed

Dec 17 15:18:47 casa systemd[1]: Started Make remote CUPS printers available locally.

[user@casa ~]$ systemctl status avahi-daemon.service
● avahi-daemon.service - Avahi mDNS/DNS-SD Stack
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/avahi-daemon.service; disabled; preset: disabled)
Active: active (running) since Wed 2025-12-17 15:18:36 GMT; 1min 5s ago
Invocation: dc2f470caf7a4a16908ef80a290f85ae
TriggeredBy: ● avahi-daemon.socket
Main PID: 504 (avahi-daemon)
Status: "avahi-daemon 0.8 starting up."
Tasks: 2 (limit: 9077)
Memory: 1.2M (peak: 2M)
CPU: 56ms
CGroup: /system.slice/avahi-daemon.service
├─504 "avahi-daemon: running [casa.local]"
└─508 "avahi-daemon: chroot helper"

Dec 17 15:18:44 casa avahi-daemon[504]: Joining mDNS multicast group on interface enp2s0.IPv6 with address fe80::127b:44ff:fe51:ec3f.
Dec 17 15:18:44 casa avahi-daemon[504]: New relevant interface enp2s0.IPv6 for mDNS.
Dec 17 15:18:44 casa avahi-daemon[504]: Registering new address record for fe80::127b:44ff:fe51:ec3f on enp2s0.*.
Dec 17 15:18:46 casa avahi-daemon[504]: Leaving mDNS multicast group on interface enp2s0.IPv6 with address fe80::127b:44ff:fe51:ec3f.
Dec 17 15:18:46 casa avahi-daemon[504]: Joining mDNS multicast group on interface enp2s0.IPv6 with address 2a00:23c7:f07:aa01:127b:44ff:fe51:ec3f.
Dec 17 15:18:46 casa avahi-daemon[504]: Registering new address record for 2a00:23c7:f07:aa01:127b:44ff:fe51:ec3f on enp2s0.*.
Dec 17 15:18:46 casa avahi-daemon[504]: Withdrawing address record for fe80::127b:44ff:fe51:ec3f on enp2s0.
Dec 17 15:18:47 casa avahi-daemon[504]: Joining mDNS multicast group on interface enp2s0.IPv4 with address 192.168.1.95.
Dec 17 15:18:47 casa avahi-daemon[504]: New relevant interface enp2s0.IPv4 for mDNS.
Dec 17 15:18:47 casa avahi-daemon[504]: Registering new address record for 192.168.1.95 on enp2s0.IPv4.

[user@casa ~]$ systemctl status cups.service
● cups.service - CUPS Scheduler
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/cups.service; enabled; preset: disabled)
Active: active (running) since Wed 2025-12-17 15:18:36 GMT; 2min 19s ago
Invocation: b9fd486d86ef4715bfad49191a821c77
TriggeredBy: ● cups.socket
● cups.path
Docs: man:cupsd(8)
Main PID: 505 (cupsd)
Status: "Scheduler is running..."
Tasks: 2 (limit: 9077)
Memory: 12.2M (peak: 28.3M)
CPU: 697ms
CGroup: /system.slice/system-cups.slice/cups.service
├─ 505 /usr/bin/cupsd -l
└─3097 /usr/lib/cups/notifier/dbus dbus://

Dec 17 15:18:36 casa systemd[1]: Starting CUPS Scheduler...
Dec 17 15:18:36 casa systemd[1]: Started CUPS Scheduler.

Installed CUPS packages:

[user@casa ~]$ pacman -Qs cups | grep '^local'
local/cups 2:2.4.16-1
local/cups-browsed 2.1.1-1
local/cups-filters 2.0.1-2
local/cups-pdf 3.0.2-1
local/libcups 2:2.4.16-1
local/libcupsfilters 2.1.1-2

I'd really appreciate some help with this.
Thanks.

Last edited by CuriousOne (2025-12-18 12:22:10)

Lone_Wolf · 2025-12-18 10:29:11

You need to change your /etc/nsswitch.conf file to solve .local resolution and prevent systemd-resolved from interfering.

See https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Avahi# … resolution and make sure to follow all links in the blue "Note" box.

CuriousOne · 2025-12-18 12:21:34

Thankyou Lone_Wolf, that was it. Now printing and scanning work correctly.

In case anyone else with the same problem in the future reads this, the exact steps I did were:
- install the package nss-mdns
- edit /etc/nsswitch.conf as described in the wiki ('s/\bmdns\b/mdns_minimal [NOTFOUND=return]/')

Arch Linux

#1 2025-12-17 16:02:36

[SOLVED] Trouble with CUPS (systemd-resolved + Avahi)

#2 2025-12-18 10:29:11

Re: [SOLVED] Trouble with CUPS (systemd-resolved + Avahi)

#3 2025-12-18 12:21:34

Re: [SOLVED] Trouble with CUPS (systemd-resolved + Avahi)

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