DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_BAD_CONFIG error in Ubuntu 14.04

Question

I am running Ubuntu 14.04 LTS on my Dell M3800.

I am having problems connecting to the Internet.

I getDNS_PROBE_FINISHED_BAD_CONFIG in my browser when trying to navigate to any site, but I am able to navigate to any site by using its IP.

So, for example, I am able to navigate to google.com by using http://173.194.121.16. So I think somewhere my DNS settings got messed up.

Any pointer on resolving this issue is appreciated. Please, let me know if you need any more information.

@the_Seppi nslookup for any server was not working. I tried that. — Amrish, May 11 '15 at 22:22

score 69 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 14 '22 at 16:06

69

So I figured out what the problem was. When I ran the following command sudo resolvconf -u I got this error:

/etc/resolvconf/update.d/libc: Warning: /etc/resolv.conf is not a symbolic link to /run/resolvconf/resolv.conf`

I solved this error by deleting /etc/resolv.conf and recreating the symbolic link. You can do that using the following commands:

sudo rm /etc/resolv.conf
sudo ln -s /run/resolvconf/resolv.conf /etc/resolv.conf
sudo resolvconf -u

This resolved the DNS error I was getting.

for Ubuntu 20.04 and above, just

sudo ln -s /run/systemd/resolve/resolv.conf /etc/resolv.conf

edited Mar 14 '22 at 16:06

M.A.K. Ripon

3,139

answered May 11 '15 at 21:02

Amrish

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2

This worked, thanks! Can you provide a description of what this symbolic link is needed for? – jerome Oct 06 '15 at 01:13
1

Wow! this was so simple! I used to boot into recovery environment and enable networking for so long! – udiboy1209 Feb 23 '16 at 17:13
Hi, I tried the command as above. Then I type "ping cnn.com". the return is "ping: unknown host cnn.com". I type "ping google.com", the return is sth as " 64 bytes from dfw06s48-in-f14.1e100.net (216.58.194.110): icmp_seq=10 ttl=53 time=31.7ms – user785099 Jun 05 '16 at 22:20
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From what directory I should execute this command? – Permana Dec 15 '16 at 00:16
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@Permana you can execute this command from /etc directory – Amrish Dec 15 '16 at 04:37
@Amrish: If you remove the two dots before /run, it can be run from everywhere. :) – user unknown Apr 11 '18 at 18:51
+1, Worked also for Ubuntu 17.10 on a Dell Precision 5520 – Trisoloriansunscreen Jul 09 '18 at 16:52
Worked in Ubuntu 14.04 Dell Precision M4800 – Camilo Rada Jan 30 '19 at 03:36
+1 This approach worked for Ubuntu 16.04 also. My problem was the following.
- I used to get "DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_BAD_CONFIG" error in chrome and equivalent in Firefox.
- Tor browser was working okay.
- 'ping 8.8.8.8' was working okay.
This solution fixed it. Thanks a lot.
– vineeshvs Mar 18 '20 at 12:31
It seems I need to run it once in a while for my internet to work. Any solution to that? – vineeshvs Mar 21 '20 at 09:01
sudo resolvconf -u doesn't show me anything – Philip Rego May 12 '20 at 02:49
Thanks, I used to edit /etc/resolv.conf every time. I started getting this error after installing protonVPN on my machine. – sailor Jul 16 '21 at 22:40

score 21 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 10 '15 at 12:59

21

sudo dpkg-reconfigure resolvconf

Say yes to "prepare /etc/resolve.conf for dynamic updates?"

sudo reboot

answered Nov 10 '15 at 12:59

Gayan Weerakutti

3,770
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It worked. What a stupid bug :-) – Angelos Pikoulas Sep 19 '18 at 18:53
I answered no to the mentioned question and did not rebooted, but my problem still got solved immediately by this command. (Ubuntu 19.10, Chromium 80.0.) – manatwork Mar 24 '20 at 19:55
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resolvconf is not installed – Philip Rego May 12 '20 at 02:51

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 17 '18 at 09:55

I had this problem when using NordVPN and using openvpn via terminal. I resolved this problem by importing VPN configuration file to Ubuntu Network UI. You can go to Settings -> Network. There will be VPN section, press add and then import file. Choose one of the downloaded .ovpn files from NordVPN. Then when you try to connect it seems to automatically fix DNS issue for some reason. :)

Actually that's what I expected because sometimes UI solutions are more stable than running Terminal commands.

DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_BAD_CONFIG error in Ubuntu 14.04

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