Comment 9 for bug 624043

I too have been affected by this bug. No issues with .local multicasting for me either. Running 10.4.1, intel E3300, 2gb ram, g43 chipset, sata hdd's, realtek onbord eth.

michael@server:~$ host -t SOA local
Host local not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)

after reboot:

michael@server:~$ ps -A |grep avahi
  872 ? 00:00:00 avahi-daemon
  873 ? 00:00:00 avahi-daemon
michael@server:~$ avahi-browse -a
+ eth0 IPv4 server [40:61:86:37:**:**] Workstation local
+ eth0 IPv4 Michael-NB Apple File Sharing local
+ eth0 IPv4 Michael-NB Microsoft Windows Network local

Network discovery from my mac does not work up to this point. Then i restart the avahi-daemon and all is good with the world.

michael@server:~$ sudo service avahi-daemon restart
[sudo] password for michael:
avahi-daemon start/running, process 2051
michael@server:~$ avahi-browse -a
+ eth0 IPv4 server [40:61:86:37:**:**] Workstation local
+ eth0 IPv4 server Apple File Sharing local
+ eth0 IPv4 server _device-info._tcp local
+ eth0 IPv4 Michael-NB Apple File Sharing local
+ eth0 IPv4 Michael-NB Microsoft Windows Network local

at this point my server appears in OS X's finder and my shares are accessible.

Here is the output from cat /var/log/syslog | grep avahi for the reboot and then the restart of the service:

Oct 24 23:05:21 server avahi-daemon[872]: Found user 'avahi' (UID 105) and group 'avahi' (GID 111).
Oct 24 23:05:21 server avahi-daemon[872]: Successfully dropped root privileges.
Oct 24 23:05:21 server avahi-daemon[872]: avahi-daemon 0.6.25 starting up.
Oct 24 23:05:21 server avahi-daemon[872]: Successfully called chroot().
Oct 24 23:05:21 server avahi-daemon[872]: Successfully dropped remaining capabilities.
Oct 24 23:05:21 server avahi-daemon[872]: Loading service file /services/afpd.service.
Oct 24 23:05:21 server avahi-daemon[872]: Network interface enumeration completed.
Oct 24 23:05:21 server avahi-daemon[872]: Registering new address record for fe80::4261:86ff:fe37:5e63 on eth0.*.
Oct 24 23:05:21 server avahi-daemon[872]: Server startup complete. Host name is server.local. Local service cookie is 2268463974.
Oct 24 23:05:21 server avahi-daemon[872]: Service "server" (/services/afpd.service) successfully established.
Oct 24 23:05:21 server avahi-daemon[872]: Registering HINFO record with values 'I686'/'LINUX'.
Oct 24 23:05:26 server avahi-daemon[872]: Joining mDNS multicast group on interface eth0.IPv4 with address 192.168.1.2.
Oct 24 23:05:26 server avahi-daemon[872]: New relevant interface eth0.IPv4 for mDNS.
Oct 24 23:05:26 server avahi-daemon[872]: Registering new address record for 192.168.1.2 on eth0.IPv4.
Oct 24 23:09:27 server avahi-daemon[872]: Got SIGTERM, quitting.
Oct 24 23:09:27 server avahi-daemon[872]: Leaving mDNS multicast group on interface eth0.IPv4 with address 192.168.1.2.
Oct 24 23:09:27 server init: avahi-daemon main process (872) terminated with status 255
Oct 24 23:09:27 server avahi-daemon[2051]: Found user 'avahi' (UID 105) and group 'avahi' (GID 111).
Oct 24 23:09:27 server avahi-daemon[2051]: Successfully dropped root privileges.
Oct 24 23:09:27 server avahi-daemon[2051]: avahi-daemon 0.6.25 starting up.
Oct 24 23:09:27 server avahi-daemon[2051]: Successfully called chroot().
Oct 24 23:09:27 server avahi-daemon[2051]: Successfully dropped remaining capabilities.
Oct 24 23:09:27 server avahi-daemon[2051]: Loading service file /services/afpd.service.
Oct 24 23:09:27 server avahi-daemon[2051]: Joining mDNS multicast group on interface eth0.IPv4 with address 192.168.1.2.
Oct 24 23:09:27 server avahi-daemon[2051]: New relevant interface eth0.IPv4 for mDNS.
Oct 24 23:09:27 server avahi-daemon[2051]: Network interface enumeration completed.
Oct 24 23:09:27 server avahi-daemon[2051]: Registering new address record for fe80::4261:86ff:fe37:5e63 on eth0.*.
Oct 24 23:09:27 server avahi-daemon[2051]: Registering new address record for 192.168.1.2 on eth0.IPv4.
Oct 24 23:09:27 server avahi-daemon[2051]: Registering HINFO record with values 'I686'/'LINUX'.
Oct 24 23:09:28 server avahi-daemon[2051]: Server startup complete. Host name is server.local. Local service cookie is 2482462368.
Oct 24 23:09:29 server avahi-daemon[2051]: Service "server" (/services/afpd.service) successfully established.
michael@server:~$

Please find a solution to this most annoying bug.