Opened 17 years ago
Closed 15 years ago
#546 closed enhancement (duplicate)
Mac OS X Host: Request Supplemental DNS Resolution Support
| Reported by: | sipples | Owned by: | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Component: | network/NAT | Version: | VirtualBox 1.4.0 |
| Keywords: | DNS nameserver | Cc: | |
| Guest type: | other | Host type: | Mac OS X |
Description
Mac OS X resolves host names differently than many other operating systems. The DNS resolver is described here:
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man5/resolver.5.html
See especially the section "SEARCH STRATEGY."
Many Mac OS X VPN clients take advantage of this resolver behavior, inserting supplemental DNS servers ahead of the entries in /etc/resolv.conf for specific domains, as described in Apple's reference. However, at present VirtualBox does not provide the ability to guest OSes to resolve these addresses to the correct DNS servers.
Although this is an enhancement request, it is also at least borderline "defect" given the way Mac OS X hosts resolve addresses. One solution appears to be to implement a lightweight DNS forwarder as part of VirtualBox, such as dnsmasq. MaraDNS might also provide a useful codebase.
Change History (5)
comment:1 by , 17 years ago
comment:2 by , 16 years ago
| Host type: | other → Mac OS X |
|---|
comment:3 by , 16 years ago
| Component: | other → network |
|---|
comment:4 by , 16 years ago
| Component: | network → network/NAT |
|---|
The fact that VirtualBox relies on /etc/resolv.conf for dns resolution means that it does not work properly. As this file is really used only by the "host" tool on OS X, and other programs use other means of obtaining the nameserver addresses the file often does not contain correct information. The incorrect information in the file is probably the result of using some vpn software.