I'm new to OpenWRT and not a technical guy, so please forgive the ignorant question.
Does 25.12.5 ship with mDNS/Avahi/Bonjour installed, or is that something we need to add ourselves? I have some audio endpoints that connect for configuration via WAP but need to transition over to WiFi and with other routers, have had much frustration because it was either not provided or didn't work well.
If it's something we need to install, a guide would be appreciated.
Thanks!
I don't thinks so, but does it matter for your usecase? Who needs to resolve what *.local hostname? I mean: clients on the same L2 can query each other regardless whether router has mDNS. Or does the router need to resolve addresses like *.local? or does client need to resolve routers hostname, e.g. openwrt.local?
EDIT: or do you need some "reflector" between various L2s?
Your questions are pretty much above my head from a technical standpoint, but let me see if explaining my use case can help.
I have a number of audio endpoints (and two other devices) running on a Pi and the HiFiBerry OS. The configuration begins with either WAP and/or Bluetooth for network discovery to connect to my router via WiFi. What's supposed to happen next is for the router to issue an IP and the device reconnects via *.local, but that's not working for me.
Nearly any consumer device nowadays goes through this process, and relies on mDNS/Bonjour/Avahi to configure and in some cases operate for ongoing connections, such as my Pi running LibreELEC that looks for my server to connect to my NAS.
My understanding is that mDNS (by any other name) is necessary to help facilitate connections to .local addresses, hence the issue.
Hope that helps... LMK if I'm leaving anything out.
mDNS works without the router being aware if you have all the devices in the same subnetwork. So you don't need anything about mDNS installed in the router itself.
If you have devices in more than one subnet they don't "see" the devices from one to another and you just need to setup a mDNS reflector in the router to replicate multicast mDNS packets between the subnets.
Is very probable that you have only one subnet so you don't need to do anything in the router for it to work.
I'm going by this, which is typical of most consumer gear nowadays which start with Bluetooth or WAP and then connect the device to the network. Not happening in my case.
See Add a new Dock in the Web Configurator on how to start adding a new dock to the Remote. Instead of using the automatic discovery, a dock can also be set up manually.
This is for example required if mDNS is not active in your network, or the Dock cannot be discovered because it is located in a different, routed network.
Are those other routers/APs/etc. still existing in your network infrastructure?
I can't exactly understand this because as said mDNS is not network dependant it uses multicast with TTL 1 (that's why is only needed to setup a reflector when devices are in different subnetworks).
Trying to figure out what it means, probably, it could be that it uses mDNS from router announcing itself (need to investigate that docks and so to assure it 100%). If this is the situation if you install umdns the router will announce itself through mDNS.
You can try it, just install it and make sure the router adivises itself, then test again to connect.
What machine on what subnet needs to resolve IP of what machine on what subnet? Are the machines on the same subnet/L2?
Are the audio endpoints talking to each other?
Again mDNS will work even without router. You can connect two devices directly by ethernet cable and mDNS will work between them.
mDNS uses broadcast for IPv4 and link-local multicast for IPv6.
EDIT:
Again
mDNSwill work even without router.
Ovriously provided you are not trying to resolve the router itself via openwrt.local or something like that. Or router itself is not trying to resolve stuff like laptop.local.
EDIT2: I could be wrong on the IPv4, maybe also IPv4 uses link-local multicast, either way it works if devices are on the same L2.
How is your network designed? Could you draw some diagram? Is there multiple segments? You mentioned multiple routers, what do you mean by that? Do you have multiple APs? Are the APs running as "dump AP"?
If these devices are connected to various AP/Routers that are not on the same subnet, it would not work automatically. You might need some mDNS reflector.
EDIT: Just simple picture what networking equipment is connected to what and how it's configured.
given OP said:
I would not be so sure, there is single subnet.
EDIT: I suspect that OP might want mDNS reflector.
EDIT2: I may have misunderstand: reading "other routers" I thought OP means they have multiple routers connected together, buy maybe they meant "routers other than OpenWrt".
Router, no. AP's yes, but they're powered down for now until this gets sorted.
I have no idea what TTL1 means, but even if mDNS is not network dependent, devices depend on it to connect to the network for the purpose of configuration.
Other routers, as in: routers I've used in the past. My most recent (ASUS AC5300) had mDNS installed, and this issue has arisen when changing over to a GLI Flint2 w/OWRT. Hence the post.
Assuming for a moment that the manufacturers actually know what they're talking about in terms of needing mDNS/Avahi/Bonjour to configure which is why they put it into their documentation and write it into their software; and further assuming the fact it's missing from OWRT which is why I'm having the present trouble, how would I go about installing the missing components, and then remove them, should they be unnecessary or cause further issues?
So even with single AP (and single SSID) it does not work?
You can install avahi/umdns, see: https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/network/zeroconfig/zeroconf . To check if it helps but I doubt.
There could be more differences between your ASUS AC5300 and GLI Flint2, maybe it's something else other than mDNS?
Are the devices really connected to the network? Do you see them in "Network->Wireless" section?
Can you ping them via link-local multicast ping ff02::fb%<iface> from PC or OpenWrt router?
Network -> DIagnosttics
reasonably redact output as it may contain sensitive information.
Also isn't client isolation enabled on Wi-Fi by any chance?
Also also, do you use "vanilla" OpenWrt, or the GLI variant?
The problem is, that the traffic you describe is within the network. There's nothing needed on the router to accomplish the goal, provided all devices are on the same network.
This is why mutuple users are asking you in various ways if other routers exist.
You seem to miss the point due to a lack of understanding about the detailed nuisances of routing. No worries.
It only means the packet's Time To Live flag is 1, meaning the next time it passes a router, the value will decrement to 0, and will therefore not be routed.
It was another way of telling you the traffic isn't usually handled by a router.
Yes, I specifically did this to get through the learning curve so that if I ever change equipment in the future, I'm not tied to an OEM version (i.e. TPLink or ASUS) of software and can easily port settings.
That should have been clear from the get-go. 
Just came across this having found the system log. Been repeating itself endlessly. Is this normal?
[Sep 23, 2026, 4:58:21 PM EDT] daemon.notice: netifd: wan (2813): udhcpc: sending renew to server 100.64.0.1
[Sep 23, 2026, 4:58:21 PM EDT] daemon.notice: netifd: wan (2813): udhcpc: lease of 100.116.249.251 obtained from 100.64.0.1, lease time 300
[Sep 23, 2026, 4:58:29 PM EDT] daemon.info: dnsmasq-dhcp[1]: DHCPDISCOVER(br-lan) 0.0.0.0 b4:0f:3b:4c:df:0f
[Sep 23, 2026, 4:58:29 PM EDT] daemon.info: dnsmasq-dhcp[1]: DHCPOFFER(br-lan) 192.168.1.249 b4:0f:3b:4c:df:0f
[Sep 23, 2026, 4:58:39 PM EDT] daemon.info: dnsmasq-dhcp[1]: DHCPDISCOVER(br-lan) 0.0.0.0 b4:0f:3b:4c:df:0f
[Sep 23, 2026, 4:58:39 PM EDT] daemon.info: dnsmasq-dhcp[1]: DHCPOFFER(br-lan) 192.168.1.249 b4:0f:3b:4c:df:0f
[Sep 23, 2026, 4:58:53 PM EDT] daemon.info: dnsmasq-dhcp[1]: DHCPDISCOVER(br-lan) 0.0.0.0 b4:0f:3b:4c:df:0f
[Sep 23, 2026, 4:58:53 PM EDT] daemon.info: dnsmasq-dhcp[1]: DHCPOFFER(br-lan) 192.168.1.249 b4:0f:3b:4c:df:0f
[Sep 23, 2026, 4:58:59 PM EDT] daemon.info: dnsmasq-dhcp[1]: DHCPDISCOVER(br-lan) 0.0.0.0 b4:0f:3b:4c:df:0f
[Sep 23, 2026, 4:58:59 PM EDT] daemon.info: dnsmasq-dhcp[1]: DHCPOFFER(br-lan) 192.168.1.249 b4:0f:3b:4c:df:0f
[Sep 23, 2026, 4:59:09 PM EDT] daemon.info: dnsmasq-dhcp[1]: DHCPDISCOVER(br-lan) 0.0.0.0 b4:0f:3b:4c:df:0f
[Sep 23, 2026, 4:59:09 PM EDT] daemon.info: dnsmasq-dhcp[1]: DHCPOFFER(br-lan) 192.168.1.249 b4:0f:3b:4c:df:0f
[Sep 23, 2026, 4:59:19 PM EDT] daemon.info: dnsmasq-dhcp[1]: DHCPDISCOVER(br-lan) 0.0.0.0 b4:0f:3b:4c:df:0f
[Sep 23, 2026, 4:59:19 PM EDT] daemon.info: dnsmasq-dhcp[1]: DHCPOFFER(br-lan) 192.168.1.249 b4:0f:3b:4c:df:0f
[Sep 23, 2026, 4:59:33 PM EDT] daemon.info: dnsmasq-dhcp[1]: DHCPDISCOVER(br-lan) 0.0.0.0 b4:0f:3b:4c:df:0f
[Sep 23, 2026, 4:59:33 PM EDT] daemon.info: dnsmasq-dhcp[1]: DHCPOFFER(br-lan) 192.168.1.249 b4:0f:3b:4c:df:0f
[Sep 23, 2026, 4:59:39 PM EDT] daemon.info: dnsmasq-dhcp[1]: DHCPDISCOVER(br-lan) 0.0.0.0 b4:0f:3b:4c:df:0f
[Sep 23, 2026, 4:59:39 PM EDT] daemon.info: dnsmasq-dhcp[1]: DHCPOFFER(br-lan) 192.168.1.249 b4:0f:3b:4c:df:0f
Yes what? You use "clean openwrt" or the variant "GLI openwrt". The thing is that GLI has it's own flavour of OpenWrt with slight differences.
Sorry, a bit rushed and missed the 2-part query. I flashed the 'sysupgrade' 25.12.5 file over the GLI version, which is built on OpwnWRT.