Synology: 0 domains blocked. Several files missing (SetupVars.conf, multiple .list files)

I own a Synology Diskstation DS114 that runs on DSM 6.0.2-8451 Update 7. I have followed instructions to install Pi-Hole from this FAQ page.

All seemed to went well. I can access the pi-hole web interface on http://server-ip:port/admin/. At first it wouldn't stop loading, but after a logfile flush (pihole -f) that problem was solved.

Strange thing is: there are 0 domains blocked. When I try to update the list with pihole -g I get this error message:

WARNING: /etc/pihole/setupVars.conf missing. Possible installation failure.
::: Please run 'pihole -r', and choose the 'reconfigure' option to reconfigure.

I've tried pihole -r multiple times. Everything seems to go smoothly, but afterwards the same problem remains. A clean install also didn't change a thing: this problem still remains.

When I run pihole -d it seems that not only SetupVars.conf is missing, but also whitelist.list, blacklist.list, adlists.list and gravity.list. For the full debug log, here is my token:

Your debug token is : onjoa96cqe

pihole -v returns this:

::: Pi-hole version is v2.10.2 (Latest version is v2.10.2)
::: Web-Admin version is v2.2 (Latest version is v2.2)

I hope someone can be of help!

Can you tell us what is contained in your /etc/pihole folder?

It seems like there has been a major problem with your installation - maybe it got interrupted half way through? If that could be the case please run a complete fresh install from the beginning and pay particular attention to all output.

Yeah, the install can't complete properly without setupVars.conf.

Can you try a

pihole uninstall

and then re-install from scratch.

Thanks for responding telekrmor and DL6ER!
I'm not at home now, but from memory: the /etc/pihole/ folder is empty, i believe. Or maybe only 1 file? Anyway, I've tried to add the default gravitiy list by hand, but that didn't work out.

I've did an uninstall and reinstall already without result. I'll try to remove the chroot package aswel and start all over again from the beginning...

i uninstalled pihole, removed chroot, restarted and updated the NAS (from DSM 6.0.2-8451 Update 6 to update 7), installed both chroot and pihole again.

Still, 0 domains being blocked. Same warning as before when pihole -g:

::: WARNING: /etc/pihole/setupVars.conf missing. Possible installation failure.
::: Please run 'pihole -r', and choose the 'reconfigure' option to reconfigure.

Tried pihole -r, no succes after that. Only good thing is: my phone still has connection to the internet now when dns is changed to pihole in the settings. The queries are shown in the web admin. (but none of them are blocked, too bad!)

Pihole -d gives me this token:

::: Your debug token is : 3o339uhi49

Since the same problem existed after clean install of both chroot and pihole, ive checked all the output from installing. Seems there is an error at the end of the installation!
Everything goes smooth untill here:

::: Installing pihole custom index page... done!
:::
::: Installing latest Cron script... done!
::: Configuring iptables for httpd and dnsmasq..
modprobe: ERROR: ../libkmod/libkmod.c:557 kmod_search_moddep() could not open moddep file '/lib/modules/3.2.40/modules.dep.bin'
iptables v1.4.21: can't initialize iptables table `filter': Table does not exist (do you need to insmod?)
Perhaps iptables or your kernel needs to be upgraded.
grep: /etc/pihole/setupVars.conf: No such file or directory

Another report of possibly the same issue occurring on Raspbian. Can you try the two following commands: iptables -L and sudo iptables -L and report back what you are seeing as responses?

iptables -L returns this message (both with or without sudo as a prefix)

modprobe: ERROR: ../libkmod/libkmod.c:557 kmod_search_moddep() could not open moddep file '/lib/modules/3.2.40/modules.dep.bin'
iptables v1.4.21: can't initialize iptables table `filter': Table does not exist (do you need to insmod?)
Perhaps iptables or your kernel needs to be upgraded

@DanSchaper has a possible fix that we are reviewing.

Yeah, it seems that (in Raspbian at least) a kernel update wipes out the modules for the running kernel. If you could run uname -r and see if that matches 3.2.40, and then ls /lib/modules to see what kernels are loaded on the system we can check if that fix will work for you.

Thank you RPF. :smirk:

uname -r matches 3.2.40,
ls /lib/modules returns:

ls: cannot access /lib/modules: No such file or directory

Thanks again for helping, all of you!

Okay, this appears to be a rather common occurrence with the Synology method of installation. I've drafted up a response there, but paraphrased here, it's going to take a bit to implement this one. I'm flying blind without a device to test on, so I'm going to have to just cover all the bases and hope we catch the issue with one of the steps. A missing /lib/modules folder is definitely an issue, and may be related to the chroot method, I'm not 100% positive on that aspect. But there needs to be a few iptables modules in order for that to work. Also opened an issue on GitHub to track this one...

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Is the firewall enabled on the syno ? if not, enable it and reinstall.

..it was that simple! thanks a lot :slight_smile: Everything works now...

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