Intermittent DNS Resolution Failure Linux Mint 13

[Rick Gutknecht]

Linux Mint 13 MATE 32-Bit

Systems affected:

Compaq Presario
Acer Aspire One Netbook

Issue: Intermittent DNS Resolution Failure

Both Systems are connected via wireless. While browsing the web, randomly, I will be unable to access webpages. I have investigated further and it appears to be a failure to resolve DNS as I am able to ping by IP address. If I disconnect or disable wireless and reconnect DNS is restored... until next time....

[Rick Gutknecht (gutknechtr)]

Update:

I received some input from an associated Ubuntu 12.04 bug report (that states this isn't a bug?)

For some reason my systems are not generating the resolv.conf file...

On the Compaq Presario:

Purged reslolvconf and network-manager (I'm a Linux novice.... This will brick your system!)
I booted from a live CD
Mounted the bricked partition
Used chroot to reinstall resolvconf and network-manager

I now have a resolvconf file and so far I have not had any DNS failures.

Acer Aspire One Netbook

I have reinstalled Linux Mint MATE 32-bit (I wanted to change my partiion structure anyway)

Still have DNS resolution issues and no resolvconf is generated.

I will boot from live CD when I get a chance and chroot and purge and resinstall resolvconf and network-manager.

I have another desktop system that is using a wired connection, it also has no resolv.conf file, but I have not noticed any dns issues with it, although I do not use the system much it mostly is used to seed some torrents.

Bug or not a bug, this is the question....

[Paul Mathieu (pmathieu)]

I also experienced the same bug.

Linux Mint 13 Cinnamon 64-Bit (clean install)

System affected:
Lenovo ThinkPad T400s

I should add that /etc/resolv.conf is in fact not needed to have DNS resolution. It seems to work well without it.
One of the other mechanisms (mdns4_minimal, mdns) listed in the /etc/nsswitch.conf might be the culprit.

I never had the problem with Mint 12, neither do I have this problem on other systems.

[Paul Mathieu (pmathieu)]

After some investigation, it seems to be linked with dnsmasq crashing for unknown reason.
It can be disabled following the tips on the following post: http://lincgeek.org/blog/?p=1529

[Rick Gutknecht (gutknechtr)]

Yes this fix works for me also.