Issues Disabling DHCP on ZTE Router and Setting Up Pi-hole on Raspberry Pi

Help Community Help
1

Hello everyone,

I am encountering an issue with setting up my Raspberry Pi 4B with Pi-hole on my home network and am hoping for some guidance.

Problem Description:

I have a ZTE H3600P router, and I'm attempting to disable the router's DHCP server and use Pi-hole as the DHCP server instead. However, after disabling DHCP on the router and setting up Pi-hole, I lose both internet connection and connectivity to my Raspberry Pi.

Steps Taken:

I configured a static IP for the Raspberry Pi both in the dhcpcd.conf file on the Pi and in the router settings.I disabled the DHCP server on the ZTE H3600P router.I enabled Pi-hole on the Raspberry Pi to take over DHCP functions.

Encountered Issue:

Following these steps, I lose internet access and also connectivity to the Raspberry Pi. The only workaround I’ve found so far is to re-enter the router settings and reactivate DHCP.

I would greatly appreciate any suggestions or guidance on what might be causing this issue and how to resolve it.
Are there additional steps I should consider to maintain connectivity while using Pi-hole as my DHCP server?
Thank you in advance for your help.

2

What does below show when replacing <NETWORK_INTERFACE_NAME> with the actual name?

sudo journalctl --full --no-pager --boot --grep <NETWORK_INTERFACE_NAME>

EDIT: Maybe you have to redact MAC and/or IPv6 GUA addresses from the output!

Can figure out <NETWORK_INTERFACE_NAME> with below:

ip -br l

Also make sure no firewall (localy running on the Pi or in network) is blocking below ports:

4

I apologize, I am a beginner and not very expert.

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo journalctl --full --no-pager --boot --grep raspberrypi
Nov 07 03:17:01 raspberrypi kernel: raspberrypi-firmware soc:firmware: Attached to firmware from 2023-10-17T15:39:16, variant start
Nov 07 03:17:01 raspberrypi kernel: raspberrypi-firmware soc:firmware: Firmware hash is 30f0c5e4d076da3ab4f341d88e7d505760b93ad7
Nov 07 03:17:01 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Hostname set to <raspberrypi>.
Nov 07 03:51:23 raspberrypi avahi-daemon[539]: Server startup complete. Host name is raspberrypi.local. Local service cookie is 2305787829.
Nov 07 03:51:23 raspberrypi rpi-eeprom-update[560]:    RELEASE: default (/lib/firmware/raspberrypi/bootloader-2711/default)
Nov 07 03:51:23 raspberrypi NetworkManager[624]: <info>  [1699325483.6538] hostname: static hostname changed from (none) to "raspberrypi"
Nov 07 03:52:23 raspberrypi pihole-FTL[1427]: [2023-11-07 03:52:23.958 1427M] ########## FTL started on raspberrypi! ##########
Nov 13 21:00:54 raspberrypi sudo[10844]:       pi : TTY=pts/0 ; PWD=/home/pi ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/journalctl --full --no-pager --boot --grep raspberrypi
Nov 13 21:17:42 raspberrypi sudo[10998]:       pi : TTY=pts/0 ; PWD=/home/pi ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/journalctl --full --no-pager --boot --grep raspberrypi
5

Above "raspberrypi" is surely not the name of your network interface :wink:

But above output gave me enough info to tell you that you're trying to set a static IP on the Pi in the wrong place.
Trying to set a static IP in the file dhcpcd.conf wont do as above tells me that NetworkManager is in charge of network settings instead of dhcpcd.
Try run below one and configure a static manual IP:

sudo nmtui

And try to switch DHCP from router to Pi-hole again.

1 Like
6

Thank you so much for your insightful response. Indeed, you've highlighted a key difference that I overlooked – the 64-bit version of Raspberry Pi OS doesn't function quite the same as the 32-bit version, which I never had issues with before. This experience has led me to seriously consider reformatting and installing the 32-bit version of Raspberry Pi OS. As a novice, my goal is to install Pi-hole in Docker and set up a Calibre book server, eventually experimenting with more containers. The 64-bit journey has been quite stumbling and time-consuming for me. Your advice might just have been the turning point. Do you think reverting to 32-bit is a wise move for someone who wants to avoid the constant learning curve associated with troubleshooting? Time is of the essence, and I prefer to get things up and running smoothly. Thank you once again for steering me in a new direction.

:+1:

1 Like
7

It is not a difference between 32 bit and 64 bit, it is a difference between Raspberry Pi OS pre-Bookworm and Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm.

image
image739×864 147 KB

The documentation of it all is pretty bad but it's there:

1 Like
8

With so much focus on a desktop, I would expect the lite version now to not have any "network manager/controller" but just simply iproute2 + ifupdown only.
I dont need a fancy desktop or bloated network manager for my Raspi projects :wink:

1 Like
9

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