I just re-read the whole discussion and thought it would be useful (for me, at least) to summarize it.
The original bug report was that NM+dnsmasq and standalone dnsmasq are incompatible because they have overlapping network socket address ranges, 0.0.0.0:53 and 127.0.0.1:53. One solution is for the administrator to comment out "dns=dnsmasq" in /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf. Another solution is as described by the submitter's title: "[Hey NetworkManager,] Don't start local resolver if a DNS server is installed". Another solution favored by Mathieu is for the NM-enslaved dnsmasq and the standalone dnsmasq to use disjoint network socket address ranges. Early on, Mathieu said that solving this problem would not be a top priority because not many users want to combine the DNS server role (running bind or dnsmasq) with the DNS client role (running NM+dnsmasq). Alkis argued that the incompatibility is a serious bug that should be prevented using package dependencies or eliminated automatically by maintainer scripts or other means. The administrator shouldn't have to search the web to figure out how to make the dnsmasq package work. Troublesome is the fact that standalone dnsmasq sometimes works, sometimes doesn't, in the presence of NM+dnsmasq. Along the way Alkis levelled some fundamental criticisms against the design of NM+dnsmasq. I think that there is a clash of civilizations here: the Debian way (modular components that just work together in any combination allowed by package dependencies) versus the RedHat way (big daemons with limited options that own subsystems). -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to network-manager in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/959037 Title: Local resolver prohibits DNS servers from running Status in “dnsmasq” package in Ubuntu: Confirmed Status in “network-manager” package in Ubuntu: Triaged Bug description: As described in https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/foundations-p-dns- resolving, network manager now starts a dnsmasq instance for local DNS resolving. That breaks the default bind9 and dnsmasq installations, for people that actually want to install a DNS server. Having to manually comment out "#dns=dnsmasq" in /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf doesn't sound good, and if it stays that way, it should be moved to the bind9 and dnsmasq postinst scripts. Please make network-manager smarter so that it checks if bind9 or dnsmasq are installed, so that it doesn't start the local resolver in that case. To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/dnsmasq/+bug/959037/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages Post to : desktop-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
