#Nextdns

A while back, I wrote about installing NetworkManager if NextDNS activate fails to work.

Only... I realised that for some reason on Raspberry Pi (4), WiFi stopped working with the following errors:

Feb 17 11:55:02 tyr NetworkManager[449]: <info>  [1676631302.2204] device (wlan0): state change: config -> failed (reason 'ssid-not-found', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
Feb 17 11:55:02 tyr NetworkManager[449]: <info>  [1676631302.7525] device (wlan0): set-hw-addr: set MAC address to 92:F3:ED:C2:8F:9B (scanning)
Feb 17 11:55:02 tyr NetworkManager[449]: <warn>  [1676631302.7559] device (wlan0): Activation: failed for connection 'superuser.one'
Feb 17 11:55:02 tyr NetworkManager[449]: <info>  [1676631302.7562] device (wlan0): supplicant interface state: scanning -> disconnected
Feb 17 11:55:02 tyr NetworkManager[449]: <info>  [1676631302.7562] device (p2p-dev-wlan0): supplicant management interface state: scanning -> disconnected
Feb 17 11:55:02 tyr NetworkManager[449]: <info>  [1676631302.7577] device (wlan0): supplicant interface state: disconnected -> interface_disabled
Feb 17 11:55:02 tyr NetworkManager[449]: <info>  [1676631302.7578] device (p2p-dev-wlan0): supplicant management interface state: disconnected -> interface_disabled
Feb 17 11:55:02 tyr NetworkManager[449]: <info>  [1676631302.7579] device (wlan0): supplicant interface state: interface_disabled -> disconnected
Feb 17 11:55:02 tyr NetworkManager[449]: <info>  [1676631302.7579] device (p2p-dev-wlan0): supplicant management interface state: interface_disabled -> disconnected
Feb 17 11:55:02 tyr NetworkManager[449]: <info>  [1676631302.7585] device (wlan0): state change: failed -> disconnected (reason 'none', sys-iface-state: 'managed')

The WiFi SSID and password (wpa_supplicant) never changed, so I wasn't sure what it was. However, as most Pi's are wired I didn't pay much attention, until today.

Recently reinstalled NextDNS on a RPi4 64bit and came across this error:

# nextdns activate
Error: NetworkManager resolver management: exit status 1

It seems like NextDNS was actually running, but just throwing an error when running nextdns activate. Restarting did seem to work without throwing any error.

The logs showed the same error:

Dec 20 14:06:20 tyr nextdns[5753]: Starting NextDNS 1.38.0/linux on :53
Dec 20 14:06:20 tyr nextdns[5753]: Listening on TCP/:53
Dec 20 14:06:20 tyr nextdns[5753]: Starting mDNS discovery
Dec 20 14:06:20 tyr nextdns[5753]: Listening on UDP/:53
Dec 20 14:06:21 tyr nextdns[5753]: Connected 45.90.28.0:443 (con=13ms tls=58ms, TCP, TLS13)
Dec 20 14:06:21 tyr nextdns[5753]: Connected 185.18.148.91:443 (con=12ms tls=28ms, TCP, TLS13)
Dec 20 14:06:21 tyr nextdns[5753]: Switching endpoint: https://dns.nextdns.io#185.18.148.91,2a04:b80:1:30::2
Dec 20 14:06:25 tyr nextdns[5753]: Setting up router
Dec 20 14:06:25 tyr nextdns[5753]: Activating
Dec 20 14:06:25 tyr nextdns[5753]: Activate: NetworkManager resolver management: exit status 1

The solution was (as root):

Noticed that NextDNS was reporting old hostnames in the logs. For example old device names (devices that changed hostnames), devices that were definitely no longer on the network, or IPs that were matched to the wrong hostnames.

The culprit is how EdgeOS deals with its hosts file. Basically it just keeps all the old hosts added and just adds a new line at the end of the file.

Realised I haven't updated this in a long while (life happened).

Couple of weeks ago I started to play with NextDNS -- and I really recommend anyone that's something privacy minded and cares about the stuff happening on their network.

I've set up several configs (home, parents, FlatTurtle TurtleBox (the NUCs controlling the screens)) and Servers. Once it's out of beta and better supported on Unifi and Ubiquiti hardware I might deploy it to our public WiFi (well, most access points don't look like that -- but you get the point) networks too.