Changing DNS Servers in Ubuntu 12.04 and Later

2013-04-30

The Problem

You want to change your DNS servers, but you can’t simply edit /etc/resolv.conf anymore.

The Solution

First, if you’re runnung Ubuntu Desktop or one of the derivatives, you need to disable dnsmasq. Edit the file /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf and comment out the line dns=dnsmasq.

# dns=dnsmasq

Then edit /etc/dhcp/dhclient.conf and find the line that starts with prepend domain-name-servers. It’s probably commented out; Fix that. Assuming you want to always use Google DNS servers, make it look like this:

prepend domain-name-servers 8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4;

Reboot, and you problem should be solved.