Can't resolve windows domains in local network

Question

I've installed ubuntu on my computer at work because I think it is a perfect system for work which I do but I got some issues. I can't resolve domains from windows DNS server. Basically, we have two servers, one is Windows server (DNS sever) and another one is ubuntu 12.04 (LAMP). So every time when I create new project I have to create new alias on DNS server for example project1.localdomain.local which points to ubuntu server. On ubuntu server I have to create the project in directory /var/www/project1/htdocs. Everything works for computers in local network with windows or for macs. So basically when I am trying open a link http://project1.localdomain.local in a browser it works. But when I do it on my computer with fresh ubuntu installation it doesn't. It looks like ubuntu can't resolve local domain where DNS server is.

So my network looks like that: 10.10.16.1 - DNS server - windows server domain - test

I've already tried resolved the problem adding lines to /etc/resolve.conf file

domain test
nameserver 10.10.16.2

/etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf file I commented out line

#dns=dnsmasq

/etc/dhcp/dhclient.conf I added lines

supersede domain-name "test";
prepend domain-name-servers 10.10.16.1, 10.10.16.2;

But it doesn't work.

On windows or mac I don't have to do any additional configuration to make it work.

This is the contents of /etc/nsswitch.conf:

passwd:         compat
group:          compat
shadow:         compat

hosts:          files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns mdns4
networks:       files

protocols:      db files
services:       db files
ethers:         db files
rpc:            db files

netgroup:       nis

Solution

Change hosts line:

hosts:          files dns mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] mdns4

.local is used by mDNS (Avahi), dns should comes first.

See http://www.lowlevelmanager.com/2011/09/fix-linux-dns-issues-with-local.html

Comments

[Rafal B]

Hi Sneetsher, this is the contents: inline code in backticks