up vote 3 down vote favorite

I am using Raspbian with a static setup in /etc/network/interfaces. I have read from multiple credible sources that the /etc/resolv.conf file is populated by other software on the system, commonly DHCP.

To test this, in my /etc/dhcp/dhclient.conf I tried adding the following

prepend domain-name-servers 127.0.0.1 2.2.2.2;

I then rebooted my system, expecting to find these addresses as nameservers in my /etc/resolv.conf, however this was not the case, both addresses do not exist, and my resolv.conf file is untouched.

I also tried changing the prepend parameter to the following

supersede domain-name-servers 127.0.0.1 2.2.2.2;

After reboot, this also did nothing.

I also tried editing /etc/network/interfaces and added the following

dns-nameservers 55.55.55.55

Again, after reboot, no changes.

Is this intentional behavior? Why isn't resolv.conf being updated/overwritten?

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  • What is your DHCP client/server configuration? Complete files please. – Braiam Dec 23 '14 at 0:49
  • And the content of /etc/resolv.conf too. – Braiam Dec 23 '14 at 1:03
  • What do you mean by "static setup"? Sounds like you're not using DHCP at all. – Hauke Laging Dec 23 '14 at 1:25
  • @HaukeLaging I used parameters in both dhcpconfig file and /etc/network/interfaces, /etc/resolv.conf remains untouched. – UnixUnix Dec 23 '14 at 1:36
  • does your distribution have the package resolvconf installed? (check with dpkg -l | grep resolvconf). This guy is the responsible to handle nameservers as parameters of /etc/network/interfaces. More information: wiki.debian.org/NetworkConfiguration#The_resolvconf_program – nwildner Dec 23 '14 at 15:33
up vote 1 down vote

This seems to be a bug, which I've reported in the Debian BTS a few hours ago: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=773749

Look at /run/resolvconf/resolv.conf if something has changed.

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  • I tried nano /run/resolvconf/resolv.conf, returns a new file as the file doesnt exist. I read parts of your bug report, which file did you find was being updated on your end? (it sounded like in the report it was done elsewhere) – UnixUnix Dec 23 '14 at 0:34
  • How you know OP is using WiCD? – Braiam Dec 23 '14 at 0:49
  • @Braiam wicd does nothing concerning /etc/resolved.conf; it just uses dhclient, which has the responsibility of updating /etc/resolved.conf, and the OP uses dhclient too. I mentioned wicd in my bug report just for the context, but my bug report is against the isc-dhcp-client package, which provides dhclient. – vinc17 Dec 23 '14 at 1:02
  • Actually, you can't be sure who generates the /etc/resolv.conf file (if it's generated at all). That's my point actually. – Braiam Dec 23 '14 at 1:05
  • 1
    @Braiam /etc/resolved.conf should be generated by dhclient or something called by dhclient, since this is the file where the nameservers are taken from. – vinc17 Dec 23 '14 at 1:24

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