How to Install Unbound on Arch Linux

Unbound is a free and open-source Domain Name System (DNS) server software that is designed to be fast and secure. In this tutorial, we will guide you through the process of installing Unbound on Arch Linux.

Prerequisites

Before you get started, you need to have a few things in place:

• A user account with sudo privileges.
• An active internet connection.

Step 1: Update System Packages

First, update the system packages on your Arch Linux system to ensure that you have the latest updates and security fixes.

sudo pacman -Syu

Step 2: Install Unbound

Unbound can be easily installed from the official Arch Linux repository using the pacman package manager. To install Unbound, run the following command:

sudo pacman -S unbound

Step 3: Configure Unbound

After installing Unbound, you need to configure it to start at boot time and listen on the network interfaces.

Open the /etc/unbound/unbound.conf configuration file in your preferred text editor.

sudo nano /etc/unbound/unbound.conf

Add the following lines to the configuration file to enable listening on all network interfaces:

interface: 0.0.0.0
interface: ::0

Next, add the following line to the configuration file to enable the Unbound service at boot time:

systemd-service: true

Finally, save and close the configuration file.

Step 4: Reload Unbound Configuration

After making changes to the Unbound configuration file, you need to reload the configuration using the following command:

sudo systemctl restart unbound.service

Step 5: Verify Unbound Installation

To verify that Unbound is running and listening on all network interfaces, run the following command:

sudo netstat -tulpn | grep unbound

You should see output similar to the following:

tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:53              0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      2287/unbound
tcp        0      0 127.0.0.1:8953          0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      2287/unbound
udp        0      0 0.0.0.0:53              0.0.0.0:*                           2287/unbound
udp        0      0 :::53                   :::*                                2287/unbound

This confirms that Unbound is running and listening on port 53 for both TCP and UDP traffic.

Conclusion

Congratulations, you have successfully installed and configured Unbound on your Arch Linux system. Unbound DNS server is now ready to be used for your internet DNS queries.

If you want to self-host in an easy, hands free way, need an external IP address, or simply want your data in your own hands, give IPv6.rs a try!

Alternatively, for the best virtual desktop, try Shells!