Connman dnsproxy and dnsmasq - how not to break it during next upgrades?

Help and Support
1

Hi Everyone, yesterday I took an osmc upgrade on Rpi4. After this, my dnsmasq install failed to start.
I edited /etc/connman.prefs from dnsproxy=yes to dnsproxy=no, rebooted and everything was then fine. (Inspiration came from this post Connman(d) DNS and port 53 - #9 by HarryL).

What shall I do to make sure this will not break during next upgrades?

Thank you!

2

That change is persistent across updates.

Sam

3

Hi Sam, you’re right: the /etc/connman.prefs config is still there after Dec update.
However, for some reason that I am trying to discover, dnsmasq won’t start any longer. Any idea?
Thank you.

~$ cat /etc/connman.prefs
#’ If set to yes, connman enables a dns proxy running on localhost port 53 and sets /etc/resolv.conf nameservers to point at 127.0.0.1
#’ If set to no, the dns proxy is disabled and connman will update nameservers directly in /etc/resolv.conf.

dnsproxy=no

~$ sudo systemctl status dnsmasq
● dnsmasq.service - dnsmasq - A lightweight DHCP and caching DNS server
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/dnsmasq.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Fri 2023-12-15 06:48:39 CET; 28min ago
Process: 330 ExecStartPre=/etc/init.d/dnsmasq checkconfig (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Process: 412 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/dnsmasq systemd-exec (code=exited, status=2)
CPU: 192ms

Dec 15 06:48:39 osmc systemd[1]: Starting dnsmasq - A lightweight DHCP and caching DNS server…
Dec 15 06:48:39 osmc dnsmasq[412]: dnsmasq: failed to create listening socket for port 53: Address already in use
Dec 15 06:48:39 osmc dnsmasq[412]: failed to create listening socket for port 53: Address already in use
Dec 15 06:48:39 osmc systemd[1]: dnsmasq.service: Control process exited, code=exited, status=2/INVALIDARGUMENT
Dec 15 06:48:39 osmc dnsmasq[412]: FAILED to start up
Dec 15 06:48:39 osmc systemd[1]: dnsmasq.service: Failed with result ‘exit-code’.
Dec 15 06:48:39 osmc systemd[1]: Failed to start dnsmasq - A lightweight DHCP and caching DNS server.

~$ grep VERSION_ID /etc/os-release
VERSION_ID=“2023.12-1”

4

It is connmand listening on port 53 despite the connman.prefs config:

~$ sudo netstat -tulpn | grep LISTEN | grep 53
tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:53 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 277/connmand
tcp6 0 0 ::1:53 :::* LISTEN 277/connmand

5

OK. So, after looking at connman.service file I realized the Dec update had moved connman prefs to a new location. Changed the setting in the new location. The prefs file is now here: /etc/osmc/prefs.d/connman

$ cat /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/connman.service
[Unit]
Description=Connman connection service
After=dbus.service network-pre.target wpa_supplicant.service
Wants=network.target remote-fs-pre.target
Before=remote-fs-pre.target network.target

[Service]
Type=dbus
BusName=net.connman
EnvironmentFile=-/etc/osmc/prefs.d/connman
Restart=always
RestartSec=5
ExecStart = /usr/bin/start-network
ExecStopPost = /bin/sleep 2
StandardOutput=null

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

6

Success. What shall I do to make sure this will not break during next upgrades?

~$ sudo systemctl status dnsmasq
● dnsmasq.service - dnsmasq - A lightweight DHCP and caching DNS server
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/dnsmasq.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Fri 2023-12-15 07:37:10 CET; 1min 0s ago
Process: 367 ExecStartPre=/etc/init.d/dnsmasq checkconfig (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Process: 485 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/dnsmasq systemd-exec (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Process: 507 ExecStartPost=/etc/init.d/dnsmasq systemd-start-resolvconf (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Main PID: 505 (dnsmasq)
Tasks: 1 (limit: 3931)
CPU: 243ms
CGroup: /system.slice/dnsmasq.service
└─505 /usr/sbin/dnsmasq -x /run/dnsmasq/dnsmasq.pid -u dnsmasq -7 /etc/dnsmasq.d,.dpkg-dist,.dpkg-old,.dpkg-new --local->

Dec 15 07:37:10 osmc systemd[1]: Starting dnsmasq - A lightweight DHCP and caching DNS server…
Dec 15 07:37:10 osmc systemd[1]: Started dnsmasq - A lightweight DHCP and caching DNS server.

7

You don’t need to change anything - it’s a fixed path now.

8

Great. Thanks Sam. Out of pure curiosity, why did we need to move the connman prefs to an osmc custom location?

9

For consistency. It’s an OSMC package so should be kept under an OSMC directory .