Using Pi-hole with Unbound: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 10:49, 3 November 2025

This page documents the steps to use Pi-hole with unbound as an All-Around DNS Solution along with ad-blocker functionality by using a publicly available blacklist.

Prerequisites

You should have a dnsmasq (or another DHCP server) and unbound both working on your network.

Installation

Currently the pihole is available in the testing repository. It can be safely installed by following the guidelines for enabling the testing repo and for installing such packages with the use of the @testing tag.

The command below installs the Alpine Linux pihole package:

$ doas apk add pihole@testing

Configuration

Add your local user to the 'pihole' group as follows:

$ doas addgroup $USER pihole

Note: This section uses 192.168.1.3 as IP address of Pi-hole server, while the Internet gateway router/DHCP server is at 192.168.1.1

Unbound configuration

Create a file /etc/unbound/unbound.conf.d/pi-hole.conf based on the content given in unbound page of Pi-hole website.

Download root hints for the Unbound server.

Ensure that the /etc/unbound/unbound.conf file has only the following line uncommented:

Contents of /etc/unbound/unbound.conf

# All lines are to be commented out like this, except the below ...
include-toplevel: "/etc/unbound/unbound.conf.d/*.conf"

Once the above changes are made, check the unbound config and restart the unbound service.

Start the pihole service as per command given in Service management section. Once the pihole service is started, connect to pihole admin interface: https://192.168.1.3/admin/

Enable recursive DNS

Add unbound to the Custom DNS servers section on the admin page: https://192.168.1.3/admin/settings/dns as follows:127.0.0.1#5335

Remember to Save&Apply to make the changes to Pi-hole permanent.

Add blocklist file

On the Subscribed lists group management page at https://192.168.1.3/admin/groups/lists, add stevenblack list by adding an entry https://sbc.io/hosts/hosts and Click Add blocklist button.

To load the blocklist, Update Gravity (list of blocked domains) by clicking Update on the page https://192.168.1.3/admin/gravity or running the command:

$ pihole -g

Ensure that your clients point their DNS to Pi-hole ip address:192.168.1.3

Enjoy Ad-Free browsing!

Service management

Add the pihole service to auto-start using OpenRC:

$ doas rc-update add pihole default

pihole service can be managed using standard start|stop|restart OpenRC commands. To start the service immediately:

$ doas rc-service pihole start

@@ Line 9: / Line 9: @@
 Currently the {{pkg|pihole}} is available in the [[Repositories#Testing|testing]] repository. It can be safely installed by following the [[Repositories#Using_testing_repository|guidelines]] for enabling the testing repo and for installing such packages with the use of the ''@testing'' tag.
-The command below installs the Alpine Linux pihole package:{{cmd|# apk add pihole@testing}}
+The command below installs the Alpine Linux pihole package:{{cmd|$ doas apk add pihole@testing}}
 == Configuration ==
-{{Note| This page uses 192.168.1.3 as IP address of Pi-hole server.}}
+Add your local user to the 'pihole' group as follows: {{cmd|$ doas addgroup $USER pihole}}
-Add your local user to the 'pihole' group as follows: {{cmd|$ doas addgroup pihole $USER}}
+{{Note|This section uses 192.168.1.3 as IP address of Pi-hole server, while the Internet gateway router/DHCP server is at 192.168.1.1}}
+=== Unbound configuration ===
 Create a file {{Path|/etc/unbound/unbound.conf.d/pi-hole.conf}} based on the content given in [https://docs.pi-hole.net/guides/dns/unbound unbound page of Pi-hole website].
@@ Line 21: / Line 23: @@
 [[Setting_up_unbound_DNS_server#Download root hints|Download root hints]] for the Unbound server.
-Ensure that the the {{Path|/etc/unbound/unbound.conf}} files has only the following line uncommented as follows:{{Cat|/etc/unbound/unbound.conf|# All lines are to be commented out like this, except the below ...
+Ensure that the {{Path|/etc/unbound/unbound.conf}} file has only the following line uncommented:{{Cat|/etc/unbound/unbound.conf|# All lines are to be commented out like this, except the below ...
 include-toplevel: "/etc/unbound/unbound.conf.d/*.conf"}}
 Once the above changes are made, [[Setting_up_unbound_DNS_server#Service_management|check the unbound config and restart the unbound service]].
-Start the {{ic|pihole}} service as per command given in [[#Service management|Service management]] section.
+Start the {{ic|pihole}} service as per command given in [[#Service management|Service management]] section. Once the {{ic|pihole}} service is started, connect to pihole admin interface: https://192.168.1.3/admin/
-Once the {{ic|pihole}} service is started, connect to pihole admin interface: https://192.168.1.3/admin/
+=== Enable recursive DNS ===
-Add unbound to the Custom DNS servers section on the admin page: https://192.168.1.3/admin/settings/dns as follows:''' 127.0.0.1#5335'''
+Add unbound to the Custom DNS servers section on the admin page: https://192.168.1.3/admin/settings/dns as follows:'''127.0.0.1#5335'''
 Remember to '''Save&Apply''' to make the changes to Pi-hole permanent.
@@ Line 36: / Line 38: @@
 === Add blocklist file ===
-On the Subscribed lists group management page at https://192.168.1.3/admin/groups/lists, add stevenblack list by adding an entry '''http://sbc.io/hosts/hosts''' and Click '''Add blocklist''' button.
+On the Subscribed lists group management page at https://192.168.1.3/admin/groups/lists, add stevenblack list by adding an entry '''https://sbc.io/hosts/hosts''' and Click '''Add blocklist''' button.
 To load the blocklist, Update Gravity (list of blocked domains) by clicking '''Update''' on the page https://192.168.1.3/admin/gravity or running the command: {{Cmd|$ pihole -g}}
@@ Line 42: / Line 44: @@
 Ensure that your clients point their DNS to Pi-hole ip address:192.168.1.3
 Enjoy Ad-Free browsing!
 == Service management ==