[TriLUG] On resolving local names with dnsmasq

[Kevin Hunter]

At 10:18am -0400 Fri, 05 Oct 2012, Brian Henning wrote:
> I tried adding nameserver 127.0.0.1 to the end of /etc/resolv.conf,
> but that made no difference.
>
> Short of editing /etc/hosts (which seems like the wrong approach for
> a host assigned by DHCP), how can I get this to work?  I'd like to be
> able to do
>
> $ ssh blueman
>
> and have it work instead of it saying "name or service not known."

I believe Aaron Schrab has correctly identified the issue: move the 
127.0.0.1 to the beginning of /etc/resolv.conf.

Aaron Joyner will correct my understanding here (yes, please!), but the 
underlying assumption of the resolv.conf file is that each DNS server 
listed is equivalent: a query for a hostname should return the same 
response from all the IPs.  So, if one returns a "host not found", then 
the hostname does not exist.  The point is that a response was returned. 
  The multiple servers are for redundancy: if one can't reached at all, 
then try the next one.  As soon as a response is received either 
positive or negative, then the client (your machine) can quit.

This is _not_ the expectation at the DNS server, which exists within a 
hierarchy: if it can't resolve the name, it asks the next higher-up DNS 
server if it knows the name; and so on, until the root servers.

On your local network then, you want *all* machines to use your dnsmasq 
machine, including the dnsmasq machine, which means making sure that the 
IP address of the dnsmasq machine is first in their respective 
/etc/resolv.conf file.  It does not have to be 127.0.0.1 on the dnsmasq 
machine, as long as the first IP address does to the dnsmasq machine.

Cheers,

Kevin