Spoke with Jeff on IRC; apparently he's getting bind9 installed when he wasn't expecting it, and this is where resolv.conf is being pointed. So the bug here is with bind9: the debconf question bind9/run-resolvconf defaults to 'true', which means that if resolvconf is present (which, as of 12.04, it always is), it automatically registers itself as a caching nameserver - but at least in some cases is failing to actually resolve anything.
This may be particular to the case where you have a firewall blocking access to port 53 on the public Internet and are required to use the DHCP-provided DNS information. In that case, installing bind9 is probably a bad idea... but just to be sure, assigning this bug to bind9 so we can consider whether bind9 should be hooking into resolvconf by default. ** Package changed: resolvconf (Ubuntu) => bind9 (Ubuntu) ** Changed in: bind9 (Ubuntu) Importance: Undecided => Low -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Server Team, which is subscribed to bind9 in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/933723 Title: resolvconf creating bogus resolv.conf file To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/bind9/+bug/933723/+subscriptions -- Ubuntu-server-bugs mailing list Ubuntu-server-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-server-bugs