Editing /etc/default/avahi-daemon to enable avahi-daemon (after reading the init script, since it just aborted silently) AND running "dpkg- reconfigure -plow avahi-daemon" did the trick.
-- Several services no longer startup automatically https://launchpad.net/bugs/55463 -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
