David Dyess .com

Did you know openSUSE Tumbleweed has a DNS cache server installed out of the box? Well, it does! It's named dnsmasq and it's really easy to set up. This configuration example uses Cloudflare DNS (free). If you want to use your ISP's DNS or another, just replace the addresses. Update this file /etc/dnsmasq.conf :

no-resolv
server=1.1.1.1
server=1.0.0.1
server=2606:4700:4700::1111
server=2606:4700:4700::1001
cache-size=1000

• Set Internet connection to use DNS servers 127.0.0.1 and ::1 , for IPv4 and IPv6 respectively, then set Method to Only Addresses for both. You can generally do this by choosing your Wifi or Ethernet connection in the system tray and clicking Configure.

• Then run the command sudo systemctl enable dnsmasq to enable it at startup. Followed by sudo systemctl start dnsmasq

To see how well it works, use dig to check a web site you haven't visited in a while:

➜  ~ dig google.com @127.0.0.1

; <<>> DiG 9.20.22 <<>> google.com @127.0.0.1
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 5437
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 1232
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;google.com.                    IN      A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
google.com.             254     IN      A       142.251.46.142

;; Query time: 23 msec
;; SERVER: 127.0.0.1#53(127.0.0.1) (UDP)
;; WHEN: Sun May 03 10:14:00 MDT 2026
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 55

If you run that same command again, you should see this line change:

;; Query time: 0 msec

That means it used the cache. I know it's only saved 23 ms, but if you think about how many times web sites connect in the background, while you are using it, it does add up.

That's the end of the how-to, the rest is just a rant :P

Like a lot of Americans, my ISP sucks. It used to be OK, not great, but at least consistently OK. About a year ago, a new ISP started moving into my area, offering fiber. Really inexpensive and fast fiber. I signed up right away, but they still haven't made it into my neighborhood. Once my ISP realized they finally had competition, they started boosting everyone's bandwidth. My download speeds doubled and my upload speeds went up about 7x what it used to be. This should be a good thing. Unfortunately, I don't think their network can handle it.

The ironic thing is to try to convince customers not to change ISPs, they made theirs worse. In the meantime, I've been tinkering and trying to squeeze as much performance out of my crappy ISP as I can. The first attempt was to replace their DNS servers with Cloudflare. That worked ok, but it's not configurable in their crappy modem, so I have to do it at every computer. Adding the DNS caching has actually helped, especially in games. I've also tweaked my driver's config, which I will post about sometime as well. Try the DNS caching, if you are using openSUSE Tumbleweed, it's already installed...may as well use it.

In order to enable codecs with openSUSE Tumbleweed, we need to use a 3rd party repository for potentially patent encumbered packages. The primary option for VLC with codecs is often Packman, these instructions are for installing VLC using the official VLC repository instead.

Open YaST2 Software Repositories

Click Add

Choose, HTTP, click Next

Choose Edit Parts of the URL

Repository Name: VLC

Server Name: download.videolan.org

Directory on Server: /SuSE/Tumbleweed

Go to this URL to verify the GPG Key: https://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-suse.html

Click Trust

You'll return to the YaST2 Software Repositories screen. For me, it named the repository Tumbleweed. If you want to rename it, select the repository and click Edit. I preferred VLC for the name.

With the repository still highlighted, use the Priority input and change it to 89 or a lesser value than other repositories. This will put it at a higher priority.

Once you are finished, click OK

I then just performed sudo zypper ref && sudo zypper dup. I also had some conflicts already, so if it doesn't pick up the VLC repository for those file, you can probably run sudo zypper dup --allow-vendor-change.

Note: If you aren't using Tumbleweed, the videolan.org link above provides information for other versions. I used it on Tumbleweed, so I can't vouch for it on other versions.

Back in November my SSD began failing and I had to re-install openSUSE Tumbleweed on a new drive. The downside to not having to fix my computer often is I don't have to do it often enough to remember how I did it. One of the things I hadn't fixed yet was being able to use KWallet with programs like Git GUI using on Wayland. It's actually the only reason, I know of, that I couldn't use Wayland. Well, I finally did some searching and found the fix:

• Open the .config/plasma-workspace/env folder in your Home folder

• Create a file, named something like startup.sh

• Insert this into that file:

#!/bin/sh 
SSH_ASKPASS=/usr/libexec/ssh/ksshaskpass 
export SSH_ASKPASS 
[ -n "$SSH_AGENT_PID" ] || eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"

• Save and close

• Open the .config/plasma-workspace/shutdown folder in your Home folder

• Create a file, named something like shutdown.sh

• Insert this into that file:

[ -z "$SSH_AGENT_PID" ] || eval "$(ssh-agent -k)"

• Save and close

• Logout

• Log in with Wayland

I hope this helps someone else. :)