Ubuntu 12.04's use of networkmanager+dnsmasq breaks DNS for virtualbox VMs

I found https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=50368 which gives some background.

See also

   https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=49519

and

    http://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch09.html#nat_host_resolver_proxy

which says

=== BEGIN QUOTATION ===
For resolving network names, the DHCP server of the NAT engine offers a list of registered DNS servers of the host. If for some reason you need to hide this DNS server list and use the host's resolver settings, thereby forcing the VirtualBox NAT engine to intercept DNS requests and forward them to host's resolver, use the following command:

    VBoxManage modifyvm "VM name" --natdnshostresolver1 on

Note that this setting is similar to the DNS proxy mode, however whereas the proxy mode just forwards DNS requests to the appropriate servers, the resolver mode will interpret the DNS requests and use the host's DNS API to query the information and return it to the guest.
=== END QUOTATION ===

Reassigning to virtualbox which should probably default to "natdnshostresolver1 on" on Ubuntu.

Upstream says

    https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=50387

that this can be done as follows.

=== BEGIN QUOTATION ===
If you want to set this globally use the following in a host terminal.

    VBoxManage setextradata global natdnshostresolver1 on
=== END QUOTATION ===

Also affects vagrant due to it's use of virtualbox, Seems to be accounted for upstream https://github.com/mitchellh/vagrant/pull/909

Haven't tried to see if VMWare is affected by this too.

Note that I have the same problem on 12.10 beta 2 amd64 (both host and VM).

And I can also confirm that the workaround in comment #2 (namely VBoxManage modifyvm "VM name" --natdnshostresolver1 on) works perfectly well therefore it looks like that option should be enabled by default.

The workaround almost works for me. The only thing is that no matter what I ask, I get the A record for the item as a reply.
For example, doing a 'dig zonetransfer.me ns' on Ubuntu 12.10 outside the virtual machine, I get the expected:

-------[snip]-------
; <<>> DiG 9.8.1-P1 <<>> zonetransfer.me ns
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 42598
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 2, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 2

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;zonetransfer.me. IN NS

;; ANSWER SECTION:
zonetransfer.me. 5689 IN NS ns16.zoneedit.com.
zonetransfer.me. 5689 IN NS ns12.zoneedit.com.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
ns16.zoneedit.com. 5689 IN A 69.64.68.41
ns12.zoneedit.com. 5635 IN A 209.62.64.46

;; Query time: 2 msec
;; SERVER: 127.0.1.1#53(127.0.1.1)
;; WHEN: Fri Oct 19 14:38:40 2012
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 115
-------[/snip]--------

Inside a virtual machine with natdnshostresolver1 on, the same command yields the utterly unexpected:
-------[snip]-------
; <<>> DiG 9.7.0-P1 <<>> zonetransfer.me ns
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 58758
;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;zonetransfer.me. IN NS

;; ANSWER SECTION:
zonetransfer.me. 3600 IN A 217.147.180.162

;; Query time: 3 msec
;; SERVER: 10.0.2.3#53(10.0.2.3)
;; WHEN: Fri Oct 19 14:38:54 2012
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 49
-------[/snip]-------

A tcpdump on the Ubuntu host says:
-------[snip]-------
14:50:24.700197 IP 127.0.0.1.33430 > 127.0.1.1.53: 53611+ A? zonetransfer.me. (33)
14:50:24.701638 IP 127.0.1.1.53 > 127.0.0.1.33430: 53611 1/2/2 A 217.147.180.162 (131)
-------[/snip]-------

So this seems to be a problem with the NAT engine asking the wrong question.

Does anybody have a workaround for this one?

Turns out that disabling dnsmasq (as described in http://www.stgraber.org/2012/02/24/dns-in-ubuntu-12-04/ - just disable it in /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf) and turning off natdnshostresolver1 in my VM got me the desired behavior back.

This bug was fixed in the package virtualbox - 4.1.22-dfsg-0ubuntu2

---------------
virtualbox (4.1.22-dfsg-0ubuntu2) raring; urgency=low

  * Fix broken DNS in guests when the NetworkManager dnsmasq resolver
    is used on the host. (LP: #1031217)
  * Add an init script to virtuabox-guest-x11 which loads the vboxvideo
    kernel module. The X Server 1.13 doesn't load it anymore. (LP: #1049067)
 -- Felix Geyer <email address hidden> Tue, 27 Nov 2012 14:08:10 +0100

Hello! This bug is missing the required information as specified in the Ubuntu Stable Release Updates policy:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates

Please add the required information. The queued upload to quantal-proposed cannot be accepted until this is completed.

As of a bout a week ago I installed on 3 machines "virtualbox-4.2_4.2.4--82684-Ubuntu-quantal_i386.deb"

both 32 bit and 64 bit. All installations worked correctly using NAT.

I have had no further problems. Comment #9 stated that the problem was fixed, and as far as I am concerned it is.

This bug should be changed to "solved"

Correction: Version of VBox should read: "virtualbox-4.2._4.2.6-82870-Ubuntu-quantal_i386.deb".

I happen to have both versions in my Download directory.

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

Per comment #10 from Clint, this bug is missing information needed in order to accept this SRU. Rather than leaving this package in the precise/quantal upload queues, I'm rejecting it.

Also, the changelog uses incorrect syntax for a bug closure (bug #1071344), resulting in a missing reference; this needs to be fixed and the package reuploaded.

Hello Stephanie, or anyone else affected,

Accepted virtualbox into precise-proposed. The package will build now and be available at http://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/virtualbox/4.1.12-dfsg-2ubuntu0.3 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, and change the tag from verification-needed to verification-done. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed. In either case, details of your testing will help us make a better decision.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance!

Hello Stephanie, or anyone else affected,

Accepted virtualbox into quantal-proposed. The package will build now and be available at http://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/virtualbox/4.1.18-dfsg-1ubuntu1.2 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, and change the tag from verification-needed to verification-done. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed. In either case, details of your testing will help us make a better decision.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance!

Just tested the new package virtualbox_4.1.18-dfsg-1ubuntu1.2 on Quantal with Windows as guest system.
No dns problems any more.

No longer using Ubuntu anywhere except my already-virtualized AWS instance, so I'm unable to verify for this, but I appreciate the effort to fix this. Hopefully someone else who's affected can verify.

Can anybody using 12.04 please confirm that this bug is fixed there?

I can confirm that virtualbox 4.1.18-dfsg-1ubuntu1.2 fixed VM network access for my 12.10 install.

I can't reproduce the original problem described in this bug on precise.
However I have tested that DNS still works with these changes.

@SRU team:
If this is not enough, please let me know and I'll upload a new SRU that contains only the fix for bug #1081307

The verification of this Stable Release Update has completed successfully and the package has now been released to -updates. Subsequently, the Ubuntu Stable Release Updates Team is being unsubscribed and will not receive messages about this bug report. In the event that you encounter a regression using the package from -updates please report a new bug using ubuntu-bug and tag the bug report regression-update so we can easily find any regresssions.

This bug was fixed in the package virtualbox - 4.1.18-dfsg-1ubuntu1.2

---------------
virtualbox (4.1.18-dfsg-1ubuntu1.2) quantal-proposed; urgency=low

  * Fix broken DNS in guests when the NetworkManager dnsmasq resolver
    is used on the host. (LP: #1031217)
  * Add an init script to virtuabox-guest-x11 which loads the vboxvideo
    kernel module. The X Server 1.13 doesn't load it anymore. (LP: #1049067)
 -- Felix Geyer <email address hidden> Sun, 31 Mar 2013 15:49:35 +0200

This bug was fixed in the package virtualbox - 4.1.12-dfsg-2ubuntu0.3

---------------
virtualbox (4.1.12-dfsg-2ubuntu0.3) precise-proposed; urgency=low

  [ Felix Geyer ]
  * Fix build errors with kernel 3.5. (LP: #1081307)
    - Add 39-kernel-35.patch
  * Fix crash when running 64-bit guests on a 32-bit host system.
    (LP: #1071344)
    - Add 40-fix-crash-64bit-guests.patch
  * Fix broken DNS in guests when the NetworkManager dnsmasq resolver
    is used on the host. (LP: #1031217)
    - Add 38-fix-nat-local-dns-resolver.patch

  [ Dmitry Shachnev ]
  * Fix the changelog, refresh patches and re-upload to precise-proposed.
 -- Felix Geyer <email address hidden> Sun, 31 Mar 2013 19:01:17 +0200