Dynamicdns using GNUdip - failed

[diot-heri]

Hi all! I’m having some trouble with the dynamic DNS update using gnudip.
Problem Description
freedombox does not update the external IP.

Steps to Reproduce

1. get a gnuDIP access.
2. set this to “site is offline” (0.0.0.0).
3. Updating the site to an external IP stops working in freedombox.

Expected Results
I expect the gnuDIP server to be updated, so my DNS entry points to my freedombox.

Actual results
(I get an error with the following message:)
23:10:06 ## /usr/bin/plinth[5436]: Unable to lookup DNS for host #freedomboxname here# Command ‘[‘host’, ‘-t’, ‘A’, ‘#freedomboxname here#’]’ returned non-zero exit status 1.
Nov 06 23:10:06 ### /usr/bin/plinth[5436]: Updating dynamic domain ###, DNS address None, looked up external address (proper external ipV4 here)

Information

• FreedomBox version: 25.14
• Hardware: Olimex OlinuXino Lime2
• How did you install FreedomBox?:‘apt install freedombox’ back in 2015, updated ever since.

[Sunil]

@diot-heri

23:10:06 ## /usr/bin/plinth[5436]: Unable to lookup DNS for host #freedomboxname here# Command ‘[‘host’, ‘-t’, ‘A’, ‘#freedomboxname here#’]’ returned non-zero exit status 1.

This is message is normal as expected. It is only a warning and not an error.

@diot-heri

Nov 06 23:10:06 ### /usr/bin/plinth[5436]: Updating dynamic domain ###, DNS address None, looked up external address (proper external ipV4 here)

Do you see any error message after this log message like this “Failed to be update Dynamic DNS”?

What does the UI show in the “Result” column?

[Sunil]

Also, I have tried the reproduction steps and in my test case, the IP got updated as expected.

[joseph]

Are you using your fully qualified domain name in the domain name field in https://xxx/plinth/sys/dynamicdns/domain/xxx/edit/ ?

It says “domain name” for the field but it only started working when I used the fqdn “myfbox.freedombox.rocks”

[diot-heri]

Hi Sunil, thanks for looking into this issue.
Regarding your question, there is no further log entry after the one i already mentioned.
The UI shows a yellow “failed” in the column “Result”.

[diot-heri]

Hi Joseph!
Yes, the name is there since, well, the service was started by freedombox.

Interessting thing though, the problems started sometime this year. I can not really pinpoint it any better though.

[joseph]

Good to hear. Which GNUdip service do you use? I’m using ddns.freedombox.org today, but I migrated after the old one I used stopped working. If this is the issue I did make a post on migrating GNUdip service - happily this was not difficult. You can try this if you are not using ddns.freedombox.org.

[SOLVED] How to diagnose failure at the GnuDIP Server? Datasystems24.net / SDS-IP.de

The old datasystems24.net GnuDIP server stopped updating DNS records and I was unable to connect to FreedomBox using my hostname. I confirmed this by switching GnuDIP servers to ddns.freedombox.org which is working. It’s an easy switch: Create an account on https://ddns.freedombox.org/ – select your hostname – choose the domain you want to use either fbx.one or freedombox.rocks Update your domain name in plinth/sys/config to your new fully qualified domain name such as myfreedombox.freedom…

[Tobi]

I’ve got exactly the same problem. The GnuDIP script fails to update to the current IP on ddns.freedombox.org, although it looks up the right one. The UI says “failed”, too. Can’t figure out why, it stopped working about two months ago. Maybe it’s due to the debian trixie upgrade?
(Another setup which I run on bullseye is doing well on the other hand.)

The Alternative No-IP service (hopto.org) is also up and running.

[Sunil]

I believe this could be due to some very small number of FreedomBox machines trying to connecting to ddns.freedombox.org using IPv6. When doing so, the server will know only the IPv6 address of the FreedomBox machine. However, there is no support updating the AAAA record in GnuDIP and hence the failure. I will try to fix this

• In FreedomBox, I will force IPv4 connection for now and later.
• On the server and FreedomBox, I will implement full and proper support for IPv6.

@Tobi @diot-heri could you please try the following work around: add the following line in /etc/hosts file?

139.162.191.93 ddns.freedombox.org

Please remove this line when FreedomBox has a fix for the problem.

[Sunil]

I posted a patch to force IPv4 until proper IPv6 is implemented on the server and the client. This patch will be available in about 2 weeks. Until then, the posted workaround is recommended.

[Tobi]

This is it!
Thank you very much!