Fixing DNS servers in NetworkManager: Ubuntu Hardy

My office uses an ISP supplied DSL router to get its connectivity. The DSL router functions as a DHCP and DNS server for internal servers. However, its DNS is broken: it used to stop working every now and then, and it does not work at all now. We’ve setup an alternative DNS server, but there seems to be no way to tell the router to specify that DNS server’s address in the lease it gives out. (Well, we could set up an alternative DHCP server as well, I guess, but we haven’t gotten around to it.)

So, every time my desktop machine gets a new DHCP lease I have to go edit its /etc/resolv.conf to point to a working DNS server. This is painful.

This article describes two ways of solving the problem. I’ve just tried the first way: the jackol’s den » Fixing NetworkManager DNS issue in Ubuntu (Hardy Heron/Gutsy) – Mikhail Esteves.

1. edit /etc/dhcp3/dhclient.conf
2. Remove domain-name-servers from the request-options list.
3. Uncomment “prepend domain-name-servers” line and edit it to use my DNS servers.

Let’s see.