[/opt/local/etc]# avahi-daemon 
Failed to find user 'avahi'.

 
None of the stuff that runs on top of avahi will run, for obvious reasons. 

should there a stanza like this

pre-activate {
        addgroup messagebus
        adduser messagebus gid=[existsgroup messagebus] realname=Message\ Bus
}

in the Portfile? 
--
Paul Beard / www.paulbeard.org/
< paulbeard@gmail.com/paulbeard@mac.com>