[SOLVED] overriding the DNS server?

[jfabernathy]

I like to have all my PCs and Servers in the house identified by a host name so I don't have to remember IP addresses. Since I have a Raspberry Pi configured as a Pi Hole anyway and it has a DNS server built in I want to use that.

I have the ad blocker working on all systems but the DNS does work, but only on non-Ubuntu based systems. I'm posting this on the 24.04 topic because 2 of my PC are on 24.04 based distros.

However on my Arch or Debian 12 based clients the DNS is working and I can reference the other PCs by host name per the DNS record in the name server. For these distros, nothing had to be done. They default to using the router's DNS settings. So all I did was edit the router DHCP server dns to use the RPI pi.hole.

I've read the netplan and systemd-resolved doc and examples and nothing has worked yet. IMHO nothing should have to be done. At minimum using the settings gui for networking to change the Ethernet or wifi ports dns should be all that is required, but no.

What is the magic button to fix this? I can't be the only person who wants to do this.

[jfabernathy]

I did get an answer over on the Ubuntu forum. They say Ubuntu requires a hostname with a dot domain, like iotstack.home. When I changed the hostnames to have the .home on the end I can get to them via hostname.home using the browser and on the CLI.

[oshunluvr]

Well, can't speak to your setup, but here I used fixed IPs on my local network and then define the members in my hosts file:

27.0.0.1 localhost
127.0.1.1 office
192.168.1.250 server
192.168.1.3 rtac5300
192.168.1.2 rtac68u
192.168.1.73 yoga730
192.168.1.198 asus
192.168.1.200 pi
192.168.1.201 strix

[jfabernathy]

Well that works but you have to put those same host names and IPs on computer system and when your new router forces you to change from 192.168.0.0/24 to 192.1.68.68.0/22, you get to do it all over again.

Supposedly the way to avoid the extra work is to update one DNS server and the whole network can just use the host names. This is true if you don't use Ubuntu based systems. I'm not in a position to switch everything to either Debian 12 or Archlinux.

Maybe someone has an answer?

[jfabernathy]

I did get an answer over on the Ubuntu forum. They say Ubuntu requires a hostname with a dot domain, like iotstack.home. When I changed the hostnames to have the .home on the end I can get to them via hostname.home using the browser and on the CLI.