WSL not resolving site addresses

Question

WLS is not resolving internet addresses

pauloh@stanley:~$ wget www.google.com
--2022-10-22 22:27:19--  http://www.google.com/
Resolving www.google.com (www.google.com)... failed: Temporary failure in name resolution.

The resolve.conf file is being created automatically:

pauloh@stanley:~$ cat /etc/resolv.conf
# This file was automatically generated by WSL. To stop automatic generation of this file, add the following entry to /etc/wsl.conf:
# [network]
# generateResolvConf = false
nameserver 172.26.178.1

The windows ipconfig:

  PS C:\Users\pauloh> ipconfig /all

  ...

  Ethernet Adapter vEthernet (WSL):

     Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
     Description. . . . . . . . . . . : Hyper-V Virtual Ethernet Adapter
     Physical Address . . . . . . . . : 00-25-5A-7A-7B-65
     DHCP Enabled . . . . . . . . . . : No
     Autoconfiguration Enabled. . . . : Sim
     Link-local IPv6 Address. . . . . : fe80::875c:cda4:b862:9187%107(Preferred)
     IPv4 Address. . . . . . . .  . . : 172.26.178.1(Preferred)
     Subnet Mask. . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.240.0
     Default Gateway. . . . . . . . . :
     DHCPv6 IAID. . . . . . . . . . . : 1795167581
     DHCPv6 Client DUID . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-25-CD-39-BF-C4-9D-ED-24-F8-F4
     NetBIOS over Tcpip . . . . . . . : Enabled

If I edit /etc/ressolve.conf and alter nameserver to 8.8.8.8 or 1.1.1.1 I can reach to sites addresses. I can edit /etc./wsl.conf and add generateResolvConf = false to keep this behaviour. My problem happens when I access VPN that resolv.conf is much more complicated

I would like to undertand what's the relation with wsl's resolve.conf and the host's Ethernet adapter to fix wsl automatically configuration.

Answer 1

Microsoft Docs shows in this screenshot (1), that by adding generateResolvConf = false WSL2 uses the stub dns resolver of your host, that is inbuilt with Windows. That's why it then shows the primary ipv4 address of your host system in the /etc/resolv.conf.

To better understand your problem it would be great if you modify the question by extending info about your VPN configuration.