Can anyone help me with this lil itch?
I have DNS up n running in some sort of fashion - I can ping my Windows box using aliases etc...
But... when i do nslookup xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx (IP or name)
then i get the error message :-
Cannot find nameserver for xxxx.xxxx.xxxx.xxxx
Cannot start defualt server

Does anyone have any idea (given this limited information) what the problem could be? Or could you suggest more debug info that i could supply to give a better understanding of the problem...?

The next post contains all the configuration files and an exact copy of the error i recieve when i try nslookup.

somebody throw me a bone here!!

Urmmm, here is even more information incase anyone wants to have a crack at it

***********************
RESULTS OF NSLOOKUP

[root@mcloud /etc]# nslookup
*** Can't find server name for address 192.168.1.1: Server failed
*** Default servers are not available
[root@mcloud /etc]#

[root@mcloud /etc]# nslookup 192.168.1.1
*** Can't find server name for address 192.168.1.1: Server failed
*** Default servers are not available
[root@mcloud /etc]#


***********************
CONTENTS OF var/run/messages

Aug 29 11:26:15 mcloud named[1077]: starting. named 8.2.2-P5 Sat Aug 5 13:21:24 EDT 2000 ^Iprospector@porky.devel.redhat.com:/usr/src/bs/BUILD/bind-8.2.2_P5/src/bin/named
Aug 29 11:26:15 mcloud named[1077]: hint zone "" (IN) loaded (serial 0)
Aug 29 11:26:15 mcloud named[1077]: master zone "0.0.127.in-addr.arpa" (IN) loaded (serial 2001082801)
Aug 29 11:26:15 mcloud named[1077]: Zone "turfwar.net" (file named.turfwar.net): No default TTL set using SOA minimum instead
Aug 29 11:26:15 mcloud named[1077]: master zone "turfwar.net" (IN) loaded (serial 2001082901)
Aug 29 11:26:15 mcloud named[1077]: Zone "1.168.192.in-addre.arpa" (file named.192.168.1): No default TTL set using SOA minimum instead
Aug 29 11:26:15 mcloud named[1077]: master zone "1.168.192.in-addre.arpa" (IN) loaded (serial 2001082901)
Aug 29 11:26:15 mcloud named[1077]: listening on [127.0.0.1].53 (lo)
Aug 29 11:26:15 mcloud named[1077]: listening on [192.168.1.1].53 (eth0)
Aug 29 11:26:15 mcloud named[1077]: Forwarding source address is [0.0.0.0].1026
Aug 29 11:26:15 mcloud named: named startup succeeded
Aug 29 11:26:15 mcloud named[1078]: group = 25
Aug 29 11:26:15 mcloud named[1078]: user = named
Aug 29 11:26:15 mcloud named[1078]: Ready to answer queries.
Aug 29 11:26:15 mcloud named[1078]: sysquery: sendto([192.36.148.17].53): Network is unreachable
Aug 29 11:30:00 mcloud CROND[1111]: (root) CMD ( /sbin/rmmod -as)
Aug 29 11:39:13 mcloud named[1078]: named shutting down
Aug 29 11:39:13 mcloud named[1078]: USAGE 999081553 999080775 CPU=0.02u/0s CHILDCPU=0u/0s
Aug 29 11:39:13 mcloud named[1078]: NSTATS 999081553 999080775 PTR=3
Aug 29 11:39:13 mcloud named[1078]: XSTATS 999081553 999080775 RR=0 RNXD=0 RFwdR=0 RDupR=0 RFail=0 RFErr=0 RErr=0 RAXFR=0 RLame=0 ROpts=0 SSysQ=1 SAns=0 SFwdQ=3 SDupQ=232 SErr=4 RQ=3 RIQ=0 RFwdQ=0 RDupQ=0 RTCP=0 SFwdR=0 SFail=0 SFErr=0 SNaAns=0 SNXD=0
Aug 29 11:39:13 mcloud named: named shutdown succeeded
Aug 29 11:39:13 mcloud named[1147]: starting. named 8.2.2-P5 Sat Aug 5 13:21:24 EDT 2000 ^Iprospector@porky.devel.redhat.com:/usr/src/bs/BUILD/bind-8.2.2_P5/src/bin/named
Aug 29 11:39:13 mcloud named[1147]: hint zone "" (IN) loaded (serial 0)
Aug 29 11:39:13 mcloud named[1147]: master zone "0.0.127.in-addr.arpa" (IN) loaded (serial 2001082801)
Aug 29 11:39:13 mcloud named[1147]: Zone "turfwar.net" (file named.turfwar.net): No default TTL set using SOA minimum instead
Aug 29 11:39:13 mcloud named[1147]: master zone "turfwar.net" (IN) loaded (serial 2001082901)
Aug 29 11:39:13 mcloud named[1147]: Zone "1.168.192.in-addre.arpa" (file named.192.168.1): No default TTL set using SOA minimum instead
Aug 29 11:39:13 mcloud named[1147]: master zone "1.168.192.in-addre.arpa" (IN) loaded (serial 2001082901)
Aug 29 11:39:13 mcloud named[1147]: listening on [127.0.0.1].53 (lo)
Aug 29 11:39:13 mcloud named[1147]: listening on [192.168.1.1].53 (eth0)
Aug 29 11:39:13 mcloud named[1147]: Forwarding source address is [0.0.0.0].1027
Aug 29 11:39:13 mcloud named[1148]: group = 25
Aug 29 11:39:13 mcloud named[1148]: user = named
Aug 29 11:39:13 mcloud named[1148]: Ready to answer queries.
Aug 29 11:39:13 mcloud named[1148]: sysquery: sendto([192.203.230.10].53): Network is unreachable
Aug 29 11:39:13 mcloud named: named startup succeeded
Aug 29 11:40:00 mcloud CROND[1152]: (root) CMD ( /sbin/rmmod -as)

***********************
CONTENTS OF resolv.conf

search turfwar.net
nameserver 192.168.1.1

***********************
CONTENTS OF named.turfwar.net

@ IN SOA mcloud.turfwar.net. root.mcloud.turfwar.net. (
2001082901 ; Serial
28800 ; Refresh
14400 ; Retry
3600000 ; Expire
86400 ; Minimum
)
@ IN NS mcloud.turfwar.net.
@ IN MX 10 mcloud.turfwar.net.
localhost IN A 127.0.0.1
mcloud IN A 192.168.1.1
www IN CNAME mcloud
mcdonald IN A 192.168.1.2
mcdonald IN MX 10 mcloud.turfwar.net.

***********************
CONTENTS OF named.local

$TTL 86400
@ IN SOA mcloud.turfwar.net. root.mcloud.turfwar.net. (
2001082801 ; Serial
28800 ; Refresh
14400 ; Retry
3600000 ; Expire
86400 ; Minimum
)
@ IN NS mcloud.turfwar.net.
1 IN PTR localhost.


***********************
CONTENTS OF named.conf

// generated by named-bootconf.pl

options {
directory "/var/named";
// query-source address * port 53;
};

//
// a caching only nameserver config
//
zone "." IN {
type hint;
file "named.ca";
};

zone "0.0.127.in-addr.arpa" IN {
type master;
file "named.local";
allow-update { none; };
};

zone "turfwar.net" { #DNS for all hosts on this domain
type master; #file on this host
file "named.turfwar.net"; #DNS file for turfwar.net
};

zone "1.168.192.in-addre.arpa" { #DNS for all IP's in subnet
type master; #file on this host
file "named.192.168.1"; #DNS file for this subnet
};

****************************
CONTENTS OF named.boot

;
; gimme some local lookup!!!
;
directory /var/named
cache . named.ca
primary turfwar.net named.turfwar.net
primary 1.168.192.in-addr.arpa named.192.168.1
primary 0.0.127.in-addr.arpa named.local

****************************
CONTENTS OF named.192.168.1

@ IN SOA mcloud.turfwar.net. root.mcloud.turfwar.net. (
2001082901 ; Serial
28800 ; Refresh
14400 ; Retry
3600000 ; Expire
86400 ; Minimum
)
@ IN NS mcloud.turfwar.net.
1 IN PTR mcloud.turfwar.net.
2 IN PTR mcdonald.turfwar.net.

****************************
CONTENTS OF hosts

127.0.0.1 localhost localhost
192.168.1.1 mcloud.turfwar.net mcloud //linux box
192.168.1.2 mcdonald.turfwar.net mcdonald //windows box

I noticed a spelling error in my named.conf file (while desparetly checking back here every 3 mins to see if anyone had replied) and have consequentially (is that a word?) fixed it and now it all seems to be jiggin along just fine.

Lesson learned: The best solutions always come from within.

See ya's

zone "1.168.192.in-addre.arpa" { #DNS for all IP's in subnet

Was the problem there? I am just curious... i mean the spelling of addre.arpa?

You're forgetting the TTL setting which is required for Bind 9.x

$TTL 86400

as in your named.local file

yeah i think that was the problem, at least it was the only param i changed which actually got it to start resolvin.

I'm not using BIND 9.x, im using BIND 8.x as you can see from the system messages where it states
" No default TTL set using SOA minimum instead "

aahh.. ok.. I didn't read any of it..
Not even the "error" message. Then I'd probably would have seen it was just info and not an error message..
Just quickly saw something that looked very familiar as I had that problem going from 8.x to 9.x, which is included in RH 7.1