Posted: Wed Dec 25, 2019 23:27 Post subject: Missing 'Use DNSMasq for DHCP' breaks Pi-hole [SOLVED]
Hi,
I'm kinda new to dd-wrt, but have had success with setting up my Linksys 1200ac v1 initially with r35681 and OpenVPN (connected to NordVPN). I also am running Pi-Hole on an Ubuntu server, and set a Static DSN 1 IP on the DD-WRT Basic Setup page to forward my DSN queries through the Pi-Hole DSN server to block most online ads on all devices on my home network.
The problem I'm having is if I upgrade to a newer build than somewhere around r39296, on the basic setup page the 'Use DNSMasq for DHCP' checkbox is missing, and it seems that any version I use that is missing that checkbox the DNS traffic does not get passed through to Pi-Hole, so ad blocking does not work on my network. Pi-Hole works fine with r39296 (the DNSMasq for DHCP checkbox exists and is checked), but if I upgrade to r40009, the DNSMasq checkbox is gone and Pi-Hole stops working. I don't think the DNS requests are getting sent to Pi-Hole?
Does anyone know if there's new settings I need to use on newer builds that would do whatever the DNSMasq for DHCP checkbox did, so that Pi-Hole works with newer versions of DD-WRT? Everything else works fine on the new builds (wifi, OpenVPN, etc) but Pi-Hole adblocking stops working. I'd like to upgrade to the newest version, but right now I can't move past r39296 until I can solve why Pi-Hole stops working on newer builds.
Last edited by gurgle_69 on Thu Dec 26, 2019 18:48; edited 2 times in total
Joined: 08 May 2018 Posts: 14249 Location: Texas, USA
Posted: Thu Dec 26, 2019 0:39 Post subject:
That setting went away when udhcpd in busybox was removed from the configuration altogether for dhcp server. It is automatically dnsmasq for dhcp (when enabled on services page and the basic network setup is dhcp server, etc.). Nothing should've "changed" for your pi-hole to function as it did before that I am aware of, but you may have some additional configuration to add to make it functional again. I don't see why if it was working fine before. _________________ "Life is but a fleeting moment, a vapor that vanishes quickly; All is vanity"
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That setting went away when udhcpd in busybox was removed from the configuration altogether for dhcp server. It is automatically dnsmasq for dhcp (when enabled on services page and the basic network setup is dhcp server, etc.). Nothing should've "changed" for your pi-hole to function as it did before that I am aware of, but you may have some additional configuration to add to make it functional again. I don't see why if it was working fine before.
Yeah, I'm not sure what's happening either, but I guess I'll try upgrading to one of the newer versions and do some more tinkering and see if I can get it to work.
Pi-Hole has a browser based control panel that shows a DNS queries counter, and when it's working properly the counter will count upwards some times 5-10 queries every ten seconds or so. With my family using their devices on the network the incremental query count is very active, constantly counting upwards. As soon as I upgrade DD-WRT to a recent version (without making any changes to the configuration), the Pi-hole query counter stops climbing - it would appear that the DNS queries aren't getting sent to the Static DNS 1 IP address that I've specified for the Pi-hole server. Don't know why, but if I figure it out I'll post back here.
Joined: 08 May 2018 Posts: 14249 Location: Texas, USA
Posted: Thu Dec 26, 2019 1:07 Post subject:
I am sure someone on this forum has a working pi-hole with a newer build since the removal of udhcpd. You may have to ask in the advanced networking forum, perhaps. Or google dd-wrt pi-hole and see if you can find destructions on how to do it with a newer build or using a different configuration than your present one that works with a newer build. _________________ "Life is but a fleeting moment, a vapor that vanishes quickly; All is vanity"
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Linux User #377467 counter.li.org / linuxcounter.net
I am sure someone on this forum has a working pi-hole with a newer build since the removal of udhcpd. You may have to ask in the advanced networking forum, perhaps. Or google dd-wrt pi-hole and see if you can find destructions on how to do it with a newer build or using a different configuration than your present one that works with a newer build.
Thanks - I have some time to tinker tomorrow, so I'll see if I can find a solution.
Good news, I was able to find a solution to the Pi-hole failure with recent dd-wrt builds. I was on Reddit, and thought I'd do a quick search in the dd-wrt subreddit for Pi-hole, and found a thread where someone was having the same issue. That led me to the link below to the pi-hole forum, where graysky2 had posted a better method to setting up pi-hole on dd-wrt. Below is a link to the page, along with the actual solution pasted from that page. I removed the Static DNS 1 IP value from the dd-wrt Basic Setup page as well, so the only config change for Pi-hole for the router is from the instructions below. I'm currently running build r41791 and everything is working well so far!
I think the most general and “best” method on DD-WRT is to:
Services>services>Additional DNSMasq Options:
dhcp-option=6,192.168.1.250
Substitute the IP of your pi-hole for the 192.168.1.250 above. No other changes on DD-WRT are needed. Why do it this way? 3 reasons:
Per-host tracking on Pi-hole (i.e. logging of DNS requests tied to individual machines by their respective hostnames).
The ability to resolve hostnames on the LAN.
Ad blocking/network monitoring provided by Pi-hole.
I was actually going to post that link, but didn't. Glad you found a solution. Please change OP subject to include [SOLVED].
Subject updated! This forum has been a big help with getting me up and running with dd-wrt. Overwriting your router firmware is a pretty intimidating thing at first, but this forum gave info I needed to get it working. When I first installed dd-wrt, I couldn't get a WAN IP, but after a fair amount of searching and reading I figured out my WAN mac address was wrong in my config. Now I've gotten past the Pi-hole issue, and everything is working how I want it to on the newest release. What a great community!
Joined: 08 May 2018 Posts: 14249 Location: Texas, USA
Posted: Thu Dec 26, 2019 19:10 Post subject:
Just wait until you have to de-brick. Then the real fun begins If you don't have the serial cable and pitch adapter, I would suggest ordering it now when you don't need it. Unfortunately, I don't have the links handy at the moment. _________________ "Life is but a fleeting moment, a vapor that vanishes quickly; All is vanity"
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Just wait until you have to de-brick. Then the real fun begins If you don't have the serial cable and pitch adapter, I would suggest ordering it now when you don't need it. Unfortunately, I don't have the links handy at the moment.
I've had this router for probably close to 5 yrs now, so that's why decided to try dd-wrt on it because if I bricked it wasn't a big loss and I'd just go grab a new model. I keep a stable version on the 2nd firmware partition, so if I bork an update, hopefully the other partition will save me.
Are dual partitions for firmware common with routers, or is that specific to Linksys? It seems pretty hard to brick a router if you have a working firmware on the other partition. I did have to do the triple reboot to bounce over to the stock firmware one time after I borked a configuration and it wouldn't reboot into dd-wrt. That's about as close to a brick as I came so far.
Joined: 08 May 2018 Posts: 14249 Location: Texas, USA
Posted: Thu Dec 26, 2019 21:00 Post subject:
Linksys WRT series (Marvell hardware) are dual partition. I believe the EA8500 is as well, and there are probably others in the modern EA smartwifi family of Linksys devices. I don't have a magic list or database of all that kind of information. _________________ "Life is but a fleeting moment, a vapor that vanishes quickly; All is vanity"
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EA8500 is a great router, very similar hardware to R7800 and well supported on DD-WRT. If the factory firmware version is too new you will need to serial flash initially.
If you don't have the serial cable and pitch adapter, I would suggest ordering it now when you don't need it. Unfortunately, I don't have the links handy at the moment.