GitHub - annervisser/gnome-dns-switcher: Gnome appindicator (toolbar icon) tool to switch between different DNS servers

2 min read Original article ↗

Gnome appindicator dns switcher

Gnome appindicator (toolbar icon) tool to quickly switch between different DNS servers

  • Easily available in your toolbox
  • Config file to specify DNS servers Supports multiple connections and switching them separately
  • Utility button to restart NetworkManager

gds

💻 Screenshots

Easily available in your toolbar

Shows you what it's done, no surprises

Supports multiple connections and switching them separately

Setup

Install dependencies

# Install pipx:
sudo apt install pipx

# Add pipx path to your .bashrc
pipx ensurepath

# Install dependencies to run this application
sudo apt install python3-dev libcairo2-dev libgirepository1.0-dev python3-gi python3-gi-cairo gir1.2-gtk-3.0 gir1.2-appindicator3-0.1

Install gnome-dns-switcher

pipx install gnome-dns-switcher

# Generate a default configuration
gnome-dns-switcher generate-config

# Modify the config to your needs. See config documentation below
edit ~/.config/gnome-dns-switcher.yml

Usage

Start the app in the background

Simply add & after your command

Specify a different configuration file (default is ~/.config/gnome-dns-switcher.yml)

gnome-dns-switcher --config /path/to/config.yml

Add to startup applications

# Sleep 10 seconds before starting to prevent starting up 
# before network connections have been made
bash -c 'sleep 10 && gnome-dns-switcher --config ~/.config/gnome-dns-switcher.yml'

Config

The config file allows you to specify which DNS servers to show and what devices are visible. By default, gnome-dns-switcher looks for a config file at ~/.config/gnome-dns-switcher.yml

To generate and example configuration, you can run gnome-dns-switcher generate-config

The generated configuration will look like this:

servers: # DNS Server options to show
  # DHCP is always shown as the first option
  Quad9: 9.9.9.9
  CloudFlare: [1.1.1.1, 1.0.0.1]
  Google DNS:
    - 8.8.8.8
    - 8.8.4.4
devices: [] # Specify device names here if you want to hide certain devices (ip link show)

servers A list of servers that can be switched between

  • The name is only used for displaying
  • You can define one or more ips, as a yaml array or as a comma-seperated string

devices Which devices to show (optional)

  • optional, will display all non-bridge connections if not present or empty
  • one or more devices to show in the switcher
    • List all your devices by running ip link show in a terminal

Development

Setup

Set up virtualenv:

virtualenv venv
source venv/bin/activate

Install dependencies:

python setup.py install
pip install vext vext.gi

Running

python -m gnome_dns_switcher

Useful links