# pihole-FTL failed to create listening socket for port 53

**URL:** <https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/pihole-ftl-failed-to-create-listening-socket-for-port-53/17207>\
**Category:** Help\
**Created:** [February 12, 2019, 3:49pm UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/pihole-ftl-failed-to-create-listening-socket-for-port-53/17207 "2019-02-12T15:49:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ddhub](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/user_avatar/discourse.pi-hole.net/ddhub/32/6701_2.png) [@ddhub](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/ddhub)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2019, 3:49pm UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/pihole-ftl-failed-to-create-listening-socket-for-port-53/17207/1 "2019-02-12T15:49:40Z")

</div>

Hi,

as pihole does not provide dns privacy using DNS-over-TLS (DoT), I used older versions of pi-hole together with the dns proxy stubby (DoT). After switching to pihole-FTL, this doesnt seem to work anymore. I checked two different pihole installations, and both complain "failed to create listening socket for port 53 : Address already in use". After stopping and disabling stubby using systemctl, pihole-FTL works again as expected.

Is there anything I can do about this?

best regards, and thank you for this nice peace of software 🙂

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jfb](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/user_avatar/discourse.pi-hole.net/jfb/32/4332_2.png) [@jfb](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/jfb)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2019, 4:12pm UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/pihole-ftl-failed-to-create-listening-socket-for-port-53/17207/2 "2019-02-12T16:12:19Z")

</div>

In Pi-Hole V4.0 and later, dnsmasq is embedded in pihole-FTL, and dnsmasq no longer runs as a separate process. The debug log will show dnsmasq as either failed or inactive. Process pihole-FTL should be shown running on port 53.

> **[DNS resolver - Pi-hole documentation](https://docs.pi-hole.net/ftldns/dns-resolver/)**

Since dnsmasq is now embedded in pihole-FTL, existing dnsmasq configuration files will work as before, assuming they are compatible with dnsmasq V2.80. You should look on the stubby site for a guide which is more recent and works with Pi-Hole V4 and later.

You also have other options for encrypted DNS. There is a guide on the Pi-Hole documentation site for installing DNS over HTTPS with Cloudflared.

> **[Redirecting...](https://docs.pi-hole.net/guides/dns-over-https/)**

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ddhub](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/user_avatar/discourse.pi-hole.net/ddhub/32/6701_2.png) [@ddhub](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/ddhub)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2019, 5:10pm UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/pihole-ftl-failed-to-create-listening-socket-for-port-53/17207/3 "2019-02-12T17:10:38Z")

</div>

Thank you for your fast answer 🙂

I did not change any configs of dnsmasq, nor did I change configs of pihole-FTL. And stubby has got his own loopback address and port (127.0.0.11), so in theory it should not interfere with dnsmasq/FTL, as FTL should only listen on 127.0.0.1. Still pihole-FTL complains, as long as stubby.service is enabled.

I just cross checked with cloudflared. Same problem:

`sudo systemctl enable cloudflared`

`sudo reboot`

`sudo systemctl status pihole-FTL`  
[...]  
`failed to create listening socket for port 53 : Address already in use`

If I do this:

`sudo systemctl disable cloudflared`  
`sudo systemctl stop pihole-FTL`  
`sudo systemctl start pihole-FTL`

pihole-FTL works as expected.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jfb](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/user_avatar/discourse.pi-hole.net/jfb/32/4332_2.png) [@jfb](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/jfb)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2019, 5:16pm UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/pihole-ftl-failed-to-create-listening-socket-for-port-53/17207/4 "2019-02-12T17:16:28Z")

</div>

What is the output of this command - something is on port 53 and preventing Pi-Hole from being on that port:

`sudo netstat -nltup | grep 'Proto\|:53 \|:67 \|:80 \|:471'`

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ddhub](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/user_avatar/discourse.pi-hole.net/ddhub/32/6701_2.png) [@ddhub](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/ddhub)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2019, 1:33pm UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/pihole-ftl-failed-to-create-listening-socket-for-port-53/17207/5 "2019-02-13T13:33:51Z")

</div>

I added port 5053 (cloudflared)

`netstat -nltup | grep 'Proto\|:53 \|:67 \|:80 \|:471 \|5053'`

This is the output:

```
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address Foreign Address State PID/Program name    
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:80 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 719/lighttpd        
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:53 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 640/pihole-FTL      
tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:5053 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 683/cloudflared     
tcp6 0 0 :::80 :::* LISTEN 719/lighttpd        
tcp6 0 0 :::53 :::* LISTEN 640/pihole-FTL      
udp 0 0 127.0.0.1:5053 0.0.0.0:* 683/cloudflared     
udp 0 0 127.0.0.2:53 0.0.0.0:* 685/stubby          
udp 0 0 0.0.0.0:53 0.0.0.0:* 640/pihole-FTL      
udp 0 0 0.0.0.0:67 0.0.0.0:* 640/pihole-FTL      
udp6 0 0 :::53 :::* 640/pihole-FTL

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ddhub](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/user_avatar/discourse.pi-hole.net/ddhub/32/6701_2.png) [@ddhub](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/ddhub)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2019, 1:40pm UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/pihole-ftl-failed-to-create-listening-socket-for-port-53/17207/6 "2019-02-13T13:40:30Z")

</div>

Meanwhile I found a workaround for my setup:  
I slow down the start of stubby.service and cloudflared.service  
by adding "Type=idle" to the corresponding unit files.

After doing so, and rebooting, pihole-FTL does not complain.  
I then add stubby as the only upstream dns server to pihole,  
and dns service works again as expected.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ddhub](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/user_avatar/discourse.pi-hole.net/ddhub/32/6701_2.png) [@ddhub](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/ddhub)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2019, 4:15pm UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/pihole-ftl-failed-to-create-listening-socket-for-port-53/17207/7 "2019-02-13T16:15:16Z")

</div>

Do you consider addressing the underlying problem?

The workaround seems to work for my setup so far,  
but to me, something seems wrong under the hoods.  
How can a dns proxy stop pihole-FTL from working,  
if they both use different loopback adresses for listening?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jfb](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/user_avatar/discourse.pi-hole.net/jfb/32/4332_2.png) [@jfb](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/jfb)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2019, 4:22pm UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/pihole-ftl-failed-to-create-listening-socket-for-port-53/17207/8 "2019-02-13T16:22:48Z")

</div>

You started with an older version of Pi-Hole and likely an old version of Stubby. Without knowing all the details of your configuration, it is difficult to determine why the conflict exists.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ddhub](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/user_avatar/discourse.pi-hole.net/ddhub/32/6701_2.png) [@ddhub](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/ddhub)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2019, 4:51pm UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/pihole-ftl-failed-to-create-listening-socket-for-port-53/17207/9 "2019-02-13T16:51:44Z")

</div>

I compiled stubby 0.25 from source. I installed cloudflares own binary.  
Both proxys work seamlessly, if queried directly like this:  
`dig @127.0.0.1 -p 5053 pi-hole.net`)

I could start from scratch, if that would be of help.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jfb](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/user_avatar/discourse.pi-hole.net/jfb/32/4332_2.png) [@jfb](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/jfb)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2019, 5:17pm UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/pihole-ftl-failed-to-create-listening-socket-for-port-53/17207/10 "2019-02-13T17:17:33Z")

</div>

I don't think that's required. Sounds like your problem is resolved.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ddhub](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/user_avatar/discourse.pi-hole.net/ddhub/32/6701_2.png) [@ddhub](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/ddhub)\
**Post date:** [February 14, 2019, 1:16pm UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/pihole-ftl-failed-to-create-listening-socket-for-port-53/17207/11 "2019-02-14T13:16:04Z")

</div>

Hi again,

I was curious and have rechecked the steps on a spare sd-card using current raspbian (stretch):

- installed current pi-hole 4.2.1: pi-hole dns service works
- installed current stubby from source, listening address 127.0.02: stubby works, pi-hole dns service works
- configured 127.0.0.2#53 as upstream dns server in pi-hole web ui: pi-hole dns service works
- restarted raspberry pi: pi-hole dns service does not work 😑 |
- added "Type=idle" to stubby.service: pi-hole dns does not work (although this helped on two other systems as metioned above)

`home/pi# service pihole-FTL status -l`  
` **●** pihole-FTL.service - LSB: pihole-FTL daemon`  
`Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/pihole-FTL; generated; vendor preset: enabled)`  
`Active: **active (exited)** since Thu 2019-02-14 14:05:16 CET; 42s ago`  
`Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)`  
`Process: 355 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/pihole-FTL start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)`  
`Feb 14 14:05:03 cube systemd[1]: Starting LSB: pihole-FTL daemon...`  
`Feb 14 14:05:03 cube pihole-FTL[355]: Not running`  
`Feb 14 14:05:15 cube su[1174]: Successful su for pihole by root`  
`Feb 14 14:05:15 cube su[1174]: + ??? root:pihole`  
`Feb 14 14:05:15 cube su[1174]: pam_unix(su:session): session opened for user pihole by (uid=0)`  
`Feb 14 14:05:16 cube pihole-FTL[355]: dnsmasq: failed to create listening socket for port 53: Address already in use`  
`Feb 14 14:05:16 cube systemd[1]: Started LSB: pihole-FTL daemon.`

To me, there seems to be a bug in dnsmasq/pihole-FTL, when it comes to opening the listening port.

I'd love to help more. Drop me a line, if I can help with more data.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mcat12](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/user_avatar/discourse.pi-hole.net/mcat12/32/20_2.png) [@Mcat12](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/Mcat12)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2019, 3:42am UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/pihole-ftl-failed-to-create-listening-socket-for-port-53/17207/12 "2019-02-15T03:42:20Z")

</div>

Have you tried putting Stubby on a different port? This behavior is in dnsmasq, so if it is a bug, it is not a Pi-hole bug.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ddhub](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/user_avatar/discourse.pi-hole.net/ddhub/32/6701_2.png) [@ddhub](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/ddhub)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2019, 6:10pm UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/pihole-ftl-failed-to-create-listening-socket-for-port-53/17207/13 "2019-02-15T18:10:32Z")

</div>

I tried that now too, and gave stubby 127.0.0.2:10053.

After a reboot, pihole dns service does not work, the service just dies while starting:

`service pihole-FTL status -l`  
`● pihole-FTL.service - LSB: pihole-FTL daemon`  
`Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/pihole-FTL; static; vendor preset: enabled)`  
`Active: inactive (dead)`  
`Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)`

Then i run  
`pihole -r`  
And pihole dns service works as expected.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jfb](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/user_avatar/discourse.pi-hole.net/jfb/32/4332_2.png) [@jfb](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/jfb)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2019, 6:40pm UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/pihole-ftl-failed-to-create-listening-socket-for-port-53/17207/14 "2019-02-15T18:40:52Z")

</div>

Are you using Stubby or Cloudflared for your encrypted DNS (or both)? You noted that both were installed, but are you using both?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ddhub](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/user_avatar/discourse.pi-hole.net/ddhub/32/6701_2.png) [@ddhub](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/ddhub)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2019, 8:06pm UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/pihole-ftl-failed-to-create-listening-socket-for-port-53/17207/15 "2019-02-15T20:06:51Z")

</div>

On one of the systems, cloudflared is installed (127.0.0.1:5053), but disabled using systemctl.  
The third system I am talking about in my last posts does not contain cloudflared.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mcat12](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/user_avatar/discourse.pi-hole.net/mcat12/32/20_2.png) [@Mcat12](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/Mcat12)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2019, 1:38am UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/pihole-ftl-failed-to-create-listening-socket-for-port-53/17207/16 "2019-02-16T01:38:54Z")

</div>

What is the output of this command? `journalctl -u pihole-FTL`  
There must be some reason it does not start.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ddhub](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/user_avatar/discourse.pi-hole.net/ddhub/32/6701_2.png) [@ddhub](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/ddhub)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2019, 3:22pm UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/pihole-ftl-failed-to-create-listening-socket-for-port-53/17207/17 "2019-02-19T15:22:36Z")

</div>

There is no error message at all:

`service pihole-FTL status -l`  
`● pihole-FTL.service - LSB: pihole-FTL daemon`  
Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/pihole-FTL; static; vendor preset: enabled)  
Active: inactive (dead)  
Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)  
root@cube:/home/pi# journalctl -u pihole-FTL  
-- Logs begin at Tue 2019-02-19 16:14:10 CET, end at Tue 2019-02-19 16:20:01 CET  
-- No entries --

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mcat12](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/user_avatar/discourse.pi-hole.net/mcat12/32/20_2.png) [@Mcat12](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/Mcat12)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2019, 4:14am UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/pihole-ftl-failed-to-create-listening-socket-for-port-53/17207/18 "2019-02-20T04:14:53Z")

</div>

The logs were rotated 6 minutes before you ran that command. Please run `sudo service pihole-FTL restart` and then the `journalctl` command again.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ddhub](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/user_avatar/discourse.pi-hole.net/ddhub/32/6701_2.png) [@ddhub](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/ddhub)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2019, 4:04pm UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/pihole-ftl-failed-to-create-listening-socket-for-port-53/17207/19 "2019-02-20T16:04:23Z")

</div>

After a reboot, pihole-FTL does not work, and journal is empty. I have reproduced this several times now:

```
service pihole-FTL status -l
● pihole-FTL.service - LSB: pihole-FTL daemon
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/pihole-FTL; static; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: inactive (dead)
     Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)
root@cube:/home/pi# journalctl -u pihole-FTL
-- Logs begin at Wed 2019-02-20 16:35:47 CET, end at Wed 2019-02-20 16:52:18 CET. 
-- No entries --

```

After restarting the service, pihole works as expected. No pihole-FTL errors in journal:

```
service pihole-FTL restart
root@cube:/home/pi# service pihole-FTL status -l
● pihole-FTL.service - LSB: pihole-FTL daemon
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/pihole-FTL; static; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (exited) since Wed 2019-02-20 16:54:17 CET; 4s ago
     Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)
  Process: 827 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/pihole-FTL start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCE

journalctl -u pihole-FTL
Feb 20 16:54:06 cube systemd[1]: Starting LSB: pihole-FTL daemon...
Feb 20 16:54:06 cube pihole-FTL[827]: Not running
Feb 20 16:54:17 cube su[880]: (to pihole) root on none
Feb 20 16:54:17 cube su[880]: pam_unix(su:session): session opened for user pih
Feb 20 16:54:17 cube pihole-FTL[827]: FTL started!
Feb 20 16:54:17 cube su[880]: pam_unix(su:session): session closed for user pih
Feb 20 16:54:17 cube systemd[1]: Started LSB: pihole-FTL daemon.

```

This seems to me in line with delaying the stubby.service for 30 seconds like mentioned here:

> [@DNS service not running](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/dns-service-not-running/17366/5):
>
> Thanks for your time and your answer! While checking the forum I just noticed that somebody else has a similar problem which also occurs with stubby. [https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/pihole-ftl-failed-to-create-listening-socket-for-port-53/17207](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/pihole-ftl-failed-to-create-listening-socket-for-port-53/17207) Following that thread I delayed the stubby startup by 30 seconds so it starts after pihole-FTL now. However, that's only a workaround, as it doesn't solve the problem. If everything is running (pihole-FTL first, stubby afterwards) this is the result …

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ddhub](https://discourse-cdn.pi-hole.net/user_avatar/discourse.pi-hole.net/ddhub/32/6701_2.png) [@ddhub](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/u/ddhub)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2019, 5:06pm UTC](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/pihole-ftl-failed-to-create-listening-socket-for-port-53/17207/20 "2019-02-20T17:06:41Z")

</div>

btw: where does dnsmasq write its logs to?

[Next page](https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/pihole-ftl-failed-to-create-listening-socket-for-port-53/17207.md?page=2)