Arch Linux User Repository

ArchLinux Pi-hole is not officially supported by Pi-hole project. In case of bugs and malfunctions please DO NOT file a report upstream.

First of all check if the wiki (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pi-hole) can help then ask here for assistance and tips.
When it will be excluded that the problem does not depend on ArchLinux we will file a bug upstream.

to update to pi-hole 6, please use pi-hole-core pi-hole-ftl and pi-hole-web packages.

@max.bra ...and as I said, this /etc/pihole/dnsmasq.conf DID NOT EXIST ... for HOURS after installing pi-hole-ftl, pi-hole-web and pi-hole-core. For hours after changing the pihole.toml file countless times and restarting the pihole-FTL after every change. Can't read something that doesn't exist. And later when it finally appeared first time and stuff started working somewhat, then reading it, which gives me "clue" what should have happened...:

#            IF YOU WISH TO CHANGE ANY OF THESE VALUES, CHANGE THEM IN           #
#                             /etc/pihole/pihole.toml                            #
#                             and restart pihole-FTL                             #

...but the problem with this is, that restarting pihole-FTL DOES NOT update the /etc/pihole/dnsmasq.conf. At least not most of the times. Maybe there is something else I need to do to force it to update it, but I have no clue, what.

@deemon my ftl is completely stopped or restarted via systemctl...

... and as i said, read /etc/pihole/dnsmasq.conf

@deemon, your last question: the file is generated on a web ui save button click too

figured something else out! FINALLY. The main configuration file is supposed to be /etc/pihole/pihole.toml except it isn't. What really is, is /etc/pihole/dnsmasq.conf, which is supposed to be generated or updated by pihole-FTL upon (changing pihole.toml file and) restarting the pihole-FTL.service, BUT IT ISN'T!!!!! I can change the pihole.toml file and restart the service ad nauseaum and it will not update the dnsmasq.conf.

How to trigger this dnsmasq.conf file generation/update, is still a mystery to me. It just happens sometimes somehow. Until this moment pihole-FTL runs with NO CONFIGURATION at all (with mostly default settings). Which forces it to run with it's upstream DNS from /etc/resolv.conf instead of whatever I configured pihole.toml ... which I assumed was the configuration file, but IS NOT. and still had no dnsmasq.conf at this time at all.

So basically all my previous problems were caused by this /etc/pihole/dnsmasq.conf file not existing for hours, which wasn't automatically generated, like it should have been. And then finally when it was generated, then it wasn't updated anymore after every toml change and service restart, which caused a lot of extra confusion.

@max.bra is there a reliable way to trigger this /etc/pihole/dnsmasq.conf generation in arch?

Ups. Figured something extra out. Somehow sudo systemctl restart pihole-FTL.service didn't really restart it at all. nor did sudo systemctl stop pihole-FTL.service stop it ... the processes had remained active. And whatever changes I made to configuration files were partially accepted and partially ignored. Now after really killing it pkill -9 pihole and confirming it's actually gone pgrep -a pihole and then restarting it with sudo systemctl start pihole-FTL.service it started working finally correctly. And was able to change localhost dns to pihole (in /etc/resolv.conf nameserver 127.0.0.1)... without pihole-FTL freaking out anymore. (now also systemctl stop and restart and everything seems to work like they should. I have no bloody idea, what put it into such zombie state previously... changing pihole.toml via vim? the previous issue with DoH upstream?)

I might have figured something out... from here ( https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/case-mismatch-in-dns-reply/75628/35 )

1. basically pihole refused to work with my upstream DNS (cloudflare DNS over HTTPS proxied by my router) -- Case mismatch in DNS reply - check bit 0x20 encoding. => by changing the upstream DNS to 1.1.1.2 directly made pihole also to work (dig www.google.com @127.0.0.1 started giving results again). (in network-manager, not in pihole.toml)

2. dnsmasq_lines = [ "no-0x20-encode" ] ### CHANGED, default = [] in pihole.toml didn't fix it. maybe fixes in the future.

3. pihole now seems to ignore whatever upstream DNS you configure in pihole own configuration file pihole.toml dns.upstreams and forcefully uses whatever you have configured in network-manager as DNS (/etc/resolv.conf). :-( <= MAIN ISSUE!!!

4. which brings me to the main problem... I can't set anywhere my local machine to actually use pihole as DNS server. Because the place where I previously used it (network-manager config) is now used also for pi-hole upstream... and if I put there pihole itself, it refuses to work, because it goes to loop.

veebr 22 16:31:25 Zen dnsmasq[28767]: no servers found in /etc/resolv.conf, will retry
veebr 22 16:31:27 Zen dnsmasq[28767]: reading /etc/resolv.conf
veebr 22 16:31:27 Zen dnsmasq[28767]: ignoring nameserver 127.0.0.1 - local interface

after changing the DNS in network manager back to 1.1.1.2 it works as this:

$ nslookup doubleclick.net
Server:         1.1.1.2
Address:        1.1.1.2#53

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:   doubleclick.net
Address: 216.58.210.142         <= did not get filtered by pihole.
Name:   doubleclick.net
Address: 2a00:1450:4026:808::200e

$ nslookup doubleclick.net 127.0.0.1
Server:         127.0.0.1
Address:        127.0.0.1#53

Name:   doubleclick.net
Address: 0.0.0.0           <= does get filtered, like it should.
Name:   doubleclick.net
Address: ::

So basically, pihole is now working. EXCEPT I can use my machine only as pihole DNS server for external machines, but not for myself in localhost... which is the place I want to use it in the first place! And can't.

did I miss something?

read /etc/pihole/dnsmasq.conf

that file is not managed by any arch pi-hole package and does not need to be backed up

meanwhile i've removed from core the no more needed /etc/dnsmasq.conf base conf file.

it almost feels like the new pi-hole-ftl or core or something is completely ignoring configuration in:

$ cat /etc/dnsmasq.conf
conf-dir=/etc/dnsmasq.d/,*.conf
$ cat /etc/dnsmasq.d/deemon.conf
server=192.168.1.1
interface=huginn
cache-size=10000
min-cache-ttl=3600

also trying to understand arch wiki to set upstream dns, then this...: pihole -a setdns ipaddress#port ...does not work anymore. Just shows help page.

Anyway, discovered /etc/pihole/pihole.toml ... but changing stuff there (like upstream DNS server) doesn't make the pihole-FTL to resolve any DNS queries either :-(

This "update" (removal of pi-hole-server and installing pi-hole-core pi-hole-ftl pi-hole-web) fried pihole DNS service here. pihole-FTL seems to be listening to port 53, but isn't working at all. can't resolve any requests.

$ sudo ss -tunapl | grep pihole
udp   UNCONN 0      0            0.0.0.0:53         0.0.0.0:*    users:(("pihole-FTL",pid=1422,fd=20))
udp   UNCONN 0      0               [::]:53            [::]:*    users:(("pihole-FTL",pid=1422,fd=22))
tcp   LISTEN 0      32           0.0.0.0:53         0.0.0.0:*    users:(("pihole-FTL",pid=1422,fd=21))
tcp   LISTEN 0      200          0.0.0.0:80         0.0.0.0:*    users:(("pihole-FTL",pid=1422,fd=35))
tcp   LISTEN 0      200          0.0.0.0:443        0.0.0.0:*    users:(("pihole-FTL",pid=1422,fd=36))
tcp   LISTEN 0      32              [::]:53            [::]:*    users:(("pihole-FTL",pid=1422,fd=23))
tcp   LISTEN 0      200             [::]:80            [::]:*    users:(("pihole-FTL",pid=1422,fd=37))
tcp   LISTEN 0      200             [::]:443           [::]:*    users:(("pihole-FTL",pid=1422,fd=38))

$ dig www.google.com @127.0.0.1
;; communications error to 127.0.0.1#53: timed out
;; communications error to 127.0.0.1#53: timed out
;; communications error to 127.0.0.1#53: timed out

; <<>> DiG 9.20.5 <<>> www.google.com @127.0.0.1
;; global options: +cmd
;; no servers could be reached

Don't know what you mean by "stub" ... pihole-FTL.service is running and listening to 53. I would call it "dud" right now, not "stub" :-D. No, i don't do dns over https in this box (have offloaded it to router, which I use as upstream DNS for pihole... at least used before upgrade.) anyway to be even here, I had to change the network DNS back to router 192.168.1.1 from the previous pihole 127.0.0.1, which refuses to work now.

Also it seems that after restart pihole isn't listening anymore to 4711 like freshly after install and is now listening to 80, which now opens. (4711 kind of timed out and didn't return anything useful.)

● pihole-FTL.service - Pi-hole FTL
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/pihole-FTL.service; disabled; preset: disabled)
     Active: active (running) since Sat 2025-02-22 13:30:40 EET; 19min ago
 Invocation: a5d6859deb6f4ae495eababb1af571ea
   Main PID: 1422 (pihole-FTL)
      Tasks: 17 (limit: 38286)
     Memory: 210.3M (peak: 212.6M)
        CPU: 1.692s
     CGroup: /system.slice/pihole-FTL.service
             └─1422 /usr/bin/pihole-FTL -f

veebr 22 13:30:42 Zen dnsmasq[1422]: started, version pi-hole-v2.91rc5 cachesize 150
veebr 22 13:30:42 Zen dnsmasq[1422]: compile time options: IPv6 GNU-getopt no-DBus no-UBus no-i18n IDN2 DHCP DHCPv6 Lua TFTP no-conntrack ipset no-nftset auth DNSSEC loop-detect inotify dumpf>
veebr 22 13:30:42 Zen dnsmasq[1422]: reading /etc/resolv.conf
veebr 22 13:30:42 Zen dnsmasq[1422]: ignoring nameserver 127.0.0.1 - local interface
veebr 22 13:30:42 Zen dnsmasq[1422]: read /etc/hosts - 9 names
veebr 22 13:30:45 Zen systemd[1]: /usr/lib/systemd/system/pihole-FTL.service:25: Ignoring unknown escape sequences: "/usr/bin/find /etc/pihole -type d -exec chmod 0755 {} \;"
veebr 22 13:35:19 Zen dnsmasq[1422]: no servers found in /etc/resolv.conf, will retry
veebr 22 13:35:21 Zen dnsmasq[1422]: reading /etc/resolv.conf
veebr 22 13:35:21 Zen dnsmasq[1422]: using nameserver 192.168.1.1#53   <=== after changing it in KDE network configuration and re-connecting network, finally DNS started working. But  therefore it's not using pihole at all.
veebr 22 13:38:13 Zen dnsmasq[1422]: Case mismatch in DNS reply - check bit 0x20 encoding.

My friend, I don't know. That is your box... Do you have any stub on port 53? Any DNS over https service?