DNS server not running - Debug

Please follow the below template, it will help us to help you!

Expected Behaviour:

DNS functioning correctly and not reporting "DNS server not running" in Admin Console. Console reports No stats on dashboard. I recently update/upgraded my Pi 2B software and Pi-Hole.

Actual Behaviour:

Admin Console reports that the DNS function is not running

Debug Token:

tey6s60e6y

what OS version are you on this sounds like the issues we experience with Raspbian Jessie?

Correct raspbian → 8 (jessie)

Also, when I visit the Pi-Hole test sites I do not seem to be getting ads, but the Admin Console is reporting that something is wrong.

so you have two choices

  1. upgrade to raspbian stretch. Jessie is EOL in terms of pihole supporting it due to changes in DNSmasq
  2. If you absolutely HAVE to stay on jessie use pihole checkout dev which includes FTLDNS and removes the issues with dnsmasq

personally i would prefer option 1 myself as the longer you run an older OS the more you will run into this

this guide is what i used myself

I followed your guide on how to upgrade to stretch but I am still having the same issue.

Please run pihole -d and get us a new debug log with the updated configuration.

Token: v7dmqbl6mg

You do not appear to have updated to Stretch (it still reports Raspbian GNU/Linux 8 (jessie)). However, you do have a good enough version of dnsmasq (2.76).

Dnsmasq is not running. What is the output of sudo service dnsmasq status -l

● dsnmasq.service
Loaded: not-found (Reason: No such file or directory)
Active: inactive (dead)

dsnmasq is what you checked, you need to check dnsmasq.service.

I am not sure what happened but I ran "sudo service dnsmasq -1" today and got this...

Usage: /etc/init.d/dnsmasq {start|stop|restart|force-reload|dump-stats|status}

"dnsmasq.service" yields...

bash: dnsmasq.service: command not found

The command is sudo systemctl status --full --no-pager dnsmasq.service

MCat's command is sudo service dnsmasq status -l That's a dash lowecase L character, not a dash one character.

"sudo service dnsmasq status -l" yields...

Usage: /etc/init.d/dnsmasq {start|stop|restart|force-reload|dump-stats|status}

"sudo systemctl status --full --no-pager dnsmasq.service" yields...

● dnsmasq.service - dnsmasq - A lightweight DHCP and caching DNS server
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/dnsmasq.service; enabled)
Drop-In: /run/systemd/generator/dnsmasq.service.d
└─50-dnsmasq-$named.conf, 50-insserv.conf-$named.conf
Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Wed 2018-07-11 05:33:10 EDT; 11h ago
Process: 714 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/dnsmasq systemd-exec (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
Process: 530 ExecStartPre=/usr/sbin/dnsmasq --test (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)

Jul 11 05:33:09 Pi-Hole dnsmasq[530]: dnsmasq: syntax check OK.
Jul 11 05:33:10 Pi-Hole dnsmasq[714]: dnsmasq: junk found in command line
Jul 11 05:33:10 Pi-Hole systemd[1]: dnsmasq.service: control process exited, code=exited status=1
Jul 11 05:33:10 Pi-Hole systemd[1]: Failed to start dnsmasq - A lightweight DHCP and caching DNS server.
Jul 11 05:33:10 Pi-Hole systemd[1]: Unit dnsmasq.service entered failed state.

This is a known issue with the Raspbian version of dnsmasq. Please see Dnsmasq Service Not Starting - #4 by Mcat12 for more information.

I was unable to get this to work.

Will this be solved it I re-image my SD card with Stretch?

Yes, re-image with Stretch and then reinstall pihole will fix it. Get the FTL version, it rocks!
https://pi-hole.net/2018/03/24/help-us-beta-test-ftldns/

Is there anything special I need to do when setting up Stretch/ftldns?

Nothing tricky. Go to RaspberryPi.org for the latest Stretch release: (https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/raspbian/)

Install PiHole as you have previously done with this command:

curl -sSL https://install.pi-hole.net | bash

Move to the beta FTLDNS branch: Help Us Beta Test FTLDNS.

1 Like

This topic was automatically closed 21 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.