Pihole no longer works with Fedora devices

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1

Hi all,

For context, I use nordvpn with meshnet enabled on all the devices on my local network.
I'm aware this could be more a nordvpn question than a pihole question, but I'm trying to explore all the options.

All the devices on the network have their DNS set to the one attributed by meshnet to the raspberry pi on which the pihole is installed.

When I use my windows computers or mobile devices, traffic goes through the pi, shows in the log, everything's normal.

On my Fedora computers, using the same network settings (as far as I can tell), traffic is blocked. Here's what the typical query looks like in the pihole logs:

2025-02-27 22:41:45.424 query[A] www.reddit.com from 100.120.192.126
2025-02-27 22:41:45.428 forwarded www.reddit.com to 1.1.1.1
2025-02-27 22:41:45.435 reply www.reddit.com is <CNAME>
2025-02-27 22:41:45.435 reply reddit.map.fastly.net is 151.101.1.140
2025-02-27 22:41:45.435 reply reddit.map.fastly.net is 151.101.193.140
2025-02-27 22:41:45.435 reply reddit.map.fastly.net is 151.101.129.140
2025-02-27 22:41:45.436 reply reddit.map.fastly.net is 151.101.65.140
2025-02-27 22:41:45.436 query[DS] reddit.com from 100.120.192.126
2025-02-27 22:41:45.437 forwarded reddit.com to 1.1.1.1
2025-02-27 22:41:45.442 reply reddit.com is NODATA
2025-02-27 22:41:45.443 query[DS] com from 100.120.192.126
2025-02-27 22:41:45.444 config com is NXDOMAIN

When I set the DNS to something else, for instance nordvpn set dns 1.1.1.1, traffic is back, but no activity shows up in the pihole log.

Could there be any reason why my pihole blocks my fedora computers specifically, but every other device on my local network behaves normally?
Any troubleshooting steps I should look into?

Pihole debug log here: https://tricorder.pi-hole.net/NcNRpre0/

Thanks!

2

I do not see a single blocked query in the log you shared?

3

Thanks, so most likely nordvpn acting up. I'll keep digging.

4

What makes you suspect that Fedora's DNS traffic would be blocked?

5

When I follow Nordvpn's instructions (How to set up your network protection with Pi-hole | Meshnet docs) to set up pihole using meshnet, fedora has no internet, and I see some activity in the pihole logs, see sample in my first message.

I thought the NODATA and NXDOMAIN lines in the logs indicated a DNS problem, but you don't seem to think so, so I'm most likely wrong.

I hope that makes more sense.

6

Something I forgot to mention - this happened right after upgrading to pihole to 6.0. No idea if that's related or not.

7

If Pi-hole blocks requests, it says so, and the reply would default to 0.0.0.0 , e.g.:

query[A] flurry.com from 127.0.0.1
gravity blocked flurry.com is 0.0.0.0

NODATA and NXDOMAIN are common, valid DNS replies.

What is peculiar in your log is the config is NXDOMAIN reply.

If in doubt, you could always check what your uptream would return when queried for the same record directly, e.g.

can be recreated by a lookup like:

dig +short @1.1.1.1 -t DS reddit.com

To send the same query to your Pi-hole, use:

dig +short @192.168.2.175 -t DS reddit.com

To verify whether clients would be treated differently, run an identical dig from different clients and compare the results.

8

I can only test this from fedora and pihole right now, hopefully this helps:

From fedora:

dig +short @192.168.2.175 -t DS reddit.com

2025-02-28 14:20:25.776 query[DS] reddit.com from 192.168.2.100
2025-02-28 14:20:25.776 cached-stale reddit.com is NODATA
2025-02-28 14:20:25.777 forwarded reddit.com to 1.0.0.1
2025-02-28 14:20:25.783 reply reddit.com is NODATA

From pihole

dig +short @192.168.2.175 -t DS reddit.com

2025-02-28 14:19:53.344 query[DS] reddit.com from 192.168.2.175
2025-02-28 14:19:53.355 cached reddit.com is NODATA

running dig +short @1.1.1.1 -t DS reddit.com from either fedora or raspberry shows nothing in the pi logs.

9

Of course not . :wink:
Those digs go to 1.1.1.1, the DNS server that - according to your log - Pi-hole has been forwarding its queries to.
If they return nothing, than that would match your Pi-hole logs NODATA.

10

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