# Install: migration from dnsmasq

**URL:** <https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/install-migration-from-dnsmasq/87713>\
**Category:** Help\
**Created:** [September 23, 2026, 4:16pm UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/install-migration-from-dnsmasq/87713 "2026-09-23T16:16:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 11\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![rwb196884](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/user_avatar/discourse.pi-hole.net/rwb196884/32/56360_2.png) [@rwb196884](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/rwb196884)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2026, 4:16pm UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/install-migration-from-dnsmasq/87713/1 "2026-09-23T16:16:44Z")

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My RaspberryPi is the router on my network; it has a main uplink to the internet and a failover.

It runs a wifi acccess point, originally with `hostapd` but now with `NetworkManager`, and `dndmasq`.

How do I switch to `pihole`?

Initial guess:

(1) install `pihole`

(2) `sudo apt remove dnsmasq`

(3) something in `pihole` to do with `dnsmasq` config for mapping MAC addresses to static IPs.

How does that sound?

How likely am I to lose DNS?

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**Author:** ![nero355](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/user_avatar/discourse.pi-hole.net/nero355/32/54774_2.png) [@nero355](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/nero355)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2026, 7:37pm UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/install-migration-from-dnsmasq/87713/2 "2026-09-23T19:37:05Z")

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If you do it right I don't see the issue to be honest :

- Your WAN is always your WAN with it's own DNS Servers configured.
- Your WLAN/LAN side will always have it's own IP Address.
- You can use Public DNS Servers for DNS Resolving if needed...
- The PC/Laptop you are working with can have a Static IP Address configured so it won't need DHCP at all.  
Or you can configure a very long DHCP Lease time! Whatever works! 😬

In the end Pi-Hole's FTLDNS Engine will replace DNSmasqd and everything will keep working just fine! 👍👍

Good luck! 😉

P.S. : Make sure Pi-Hole's webGUI ports 80 and 443 are not reachable via WAN !!  
Either Firewall them or configure the Interface to which Pi-Hole binds correctly or just apply both ofcourse!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rwb196884](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/user_avatar/discourse.pi-hole.net/rwb196884/32/56360_2.png) [@rwb196884](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/rwb196884)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2026, 8:30pm UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/install-migration-from-dnsmasq/87713/3 "2026-09-23T20:30:59Z")

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Ta 🙂

Here goes...

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rwb196884](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/user_avatar/discourse.pi-hole.net/rwb196884/32/56360_2.png) [@rwb196884](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/rwb196884)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2026, 8:48pm UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/install-migration-from-dnsmasq/87713/4 "2026-09-23T20:48:34Z")

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Installed. Lost DNS.

Had a look around the web interface. Not possible to assign IP addresses by MAC.

Just: WTF? 🤷‍♂️

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**Author:** ![rwb196884](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/user_avatar/discourse.pi-hole.net/rwb196884/32/56360_2.png) [@rwb196884](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/rwb196884)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2026, 9:23pm UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/install-migration-from-dnsmasq/87713/5 "2026-09-23T21:23:50Z")

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I seem to recall selecting the first one in the install script.

Why are there four checkboxes on each row?

Is that none of these are checked is why there is no DNS?

 ![image](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/uploads/default/original/3X/7/8/787c35d3b064c38a973504a2c072d3be46ebc4b2.png)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rwb196884](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/user_avatar/discourse.pi-hole.net/rwb196884/32/56360_2.png) [@rwb196884](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/rwb196884)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2026, 9:26pm UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/install-migration-from-dnsmasq/87713/6 "2026-09-23T21:26:38Z")

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This seems to be completely broken.

The table at the top seems to be trying to show the data entered at the bottom but doesn't understand it.

 ![image](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/uploads/default/original/3X/8/2/82777e47798905f97755c517a6005fbcf1633ed9.png)

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**Author:** ![Bucking\_Horn](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/user_avatar/discourse.pi-hole.net/bucking_horn/32/18719_2.png) [@Bucking\_Horn](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/Bucking_Horn)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2026, 10:51pm UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/install-migration-from-dnsmasq/87713/7 "2026-09-23T22:51:42Z")

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Your lines are not matching the format as illustrated by the example - they are missing a comma after the MAC.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rdwebdesign](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/user_avatar/discourse.pi-hole.net/rdwebdesign/32/51363_2.png) [@rdwebdesign](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/rdwebdesign)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2026, 2:37am UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/install-migration-from-dnsmasq/87713/8 "2026-09-24T02:37:09Z")

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Your lines are missing all the commas between each field.

This is wrong:  
~~00:11:22:33:44:55 192.168.0.1 hostname infinite~~

Use commas:  
00:11:22:33:44:55,192.168.0.1,hostname,infinite

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rdwebdesign](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/user_avatar/discourse.pi-hole.net/rdwebdesign/32/51363_2.png) [@rdwebdesign](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/rdwebdesign)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2026, 2:40am UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/install-migration-from-dnsmasq/87713/9 "2026-09-24T02:40:19Z")

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> [@rwb196884](#):
>
> Is that none of these are checked is why there is no DNS?

Probably. We can't be sure what the issue is without seeing your configuration.

Please generate a debug log (`sudo pihole -d`), answer "Y" when asked to upload the file. This will generate and show you a Token. Copy and paste here only the token.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nero355](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/user_avatar/discourse.pi-hole.net/nero355/32/54774_2.png) [@nero355](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/nero355)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2026, 1:40pm UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/install-migration-from-dnsmasq/87713/10 "2026-09-24T13:40:16Z")

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I would skip those anyway and go for [unbound - Pi-hole documentation](https://docs.pi-hole.net/guides/dns/unbound/) immediately 😎😬👍👍

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/uploads/default/original/3X/7/c/7c8792f649eeb921c5d2b4c41564ffa873d9a2b8.png) [@system](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/system)\
**Post date:** [October 15, 2026, 1:40pm UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/install-migration-from-dnsmasq/87713/11 "2026-10-15T13:40:35Z")

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