Ubuntu keeps changing my DNS to 127.0.0.53

I installed expressvpn with Chrome extension. And even when I disable the VPN my system keeps changing my DNS to 127.0.0.53 and I have to manually change it back to 192.168.1.1 for internet to work. And I have to do this every hour or so.

Ubuntu changes /etc/resolv.conf to this

# Generated by NetworkManager
nameserver 127.0.0.53

What I have tried:I tried to set DNS globally but it didn't help

/etc/systemd/resolved.conf
# This file is part of systemd.
[Resolve]
DNS=192.160.1.1

I am running Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS

UPDATE: Here is ls -al /etc/resolv.con

$ ls -al /etc/resolv.con
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 53 Jun 15 16:20 /etc/resolv.conf

UPDATE 2I had also installed dnsmasq a while ago

3 Answers

The file /etc/resolv.conf is intended to be a symbolic link for networking, dnsmasq, etc. to work properly. Yours is faulty so let’s fix it:

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

I suspect that the improvement will be immediate; please check:

ping -c3 

If you get ping returns, you’re all set.

Generated by NetworkManager

Means that DNS is not taken care of by Systemd but by NetworkManager, so modifying systemd-resolved config will not do anything, here is a way to set that up

The annoying thing here is that you basically have to "hack" either Network Manager or systemd-resolved to configure a custom DNS.

Here is a way to do it using a package called resolvconf. This package ensures that /etc/resolv.conf is updated with your custom DNS info.

Install:

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install resolvconf

Check service is running: (if not enable and start)

$ sudo systemctl enable resolvconf.service
$ sudo systemctl start resolvconf.service
$ sudo systemctl status resolvconf.service

Edit config file:

$ sudo nano /etc/resolvconf/resolv.conf.d/head

Add the following lines: (your custom and Google for fallback)

nameserver 192.168.1.1
nameserver 8.8.8.8
nameserver 8.8.4.4

Save the file and restart the service:

$ sudo systemctl restart resolvconf.service

Check that your custom DNS have been added to /etc/resolv.conf:

$ cat /etc/resolv.conf

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