Hi Kurt, > I've been using dnsmasq (a lightweight alternative) on my computers to do the > job and it works great. By default, dnsmasq only replies to 127.0.0.1:53 > request, so this wouldn't introduce security weakness. > > Besides having a DNS cache (like dnsmasq) installed by default, the dhclient > add 127.0.0.1 as the first name server in /etc/resolv.conf. > > openSUSE is the only Linux distribution that has a DNS cache out of the box. > They just provide the nscd package installed by default. > > This is a pretty easy, simple, powerful feature. I strongly recommend it to > be implemented." > > How can I truly submit this proposal? My blueprint has been untouched and > unread for the last yo years.
I would like to add my support for this idea. I (and I assume several others) have problems with slow DNS lookups on my Ubuntu installations when compared to Windows; see bug #94940 [1]. Perhaps a DNS caching server such as dnsmasq would alleviate the symptoms of that bug. However, if dnsmasq were to be integrated into the default installation (and the package was pre-configured as per the dnsmasq wiki's instructions [2]), there would be a conflict with NetworkManager. As you can see from the community instructions, you need to edit your /etc/resolv.conf and add the local machine's address (127.0.0.1) as your first nameserver. This is a problem because any changes to this file will be overwritten by NetworkManager each time it initializes a new connection (which is warned in the commented section of the file). The only solution that I am aware of, is to edit your active network connection in NetworkManager's applet, change the setting from "Automatic (DHCP)" to "Automatic (DHCP) addresses only", and then manually input your DNS servers like so: "127.0.0.1, <your regular DNS server 1>, <your regular DNS server 1>". If we are going to integrate dnsmasq into the default installation it may serve us better to investigate the possibility of adding some kind of autodetection of the presence of dnsmasq to NetworkManager itself. We cannot expect users to manually edit their network connections for each new installation (or indeed, each new wireless network profile they create). Let me also mention that dnsmasq has the capability of providing ICS (internet connection sharing) [3]. This would be an excellent feature to add to NetworkManager's graphical interface, which is yet another feature that competing operating systems provide by default. Thanks, Conn [1] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nss-mdns/+bug/94940 [2] https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Dnsmasq [3] https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Internet/ConnectionSharing -- Ubuntu-devel-discuss mailing list Ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel-discuss
