Fedora 33 To Stick With systemd-resolved Following Last Minute Concerns

One of the fundamental changes with Fedora 33 is making use of systemd-resolved by default for network name resolution. A number of users testing out Fedora 33 on desktops and servers have run into various issues with systemd-resolved and sought to revert and delay this default behavioral change until a later release.

Following a lengthy mailing list discussion that ticked back up in recent days over systemd-resolved by default in Fedora 33, feedback was sought from the Fedora Engineering and Steering Committee (FESCo) on delaying this change until a later release.

The ticket requesting action argued, "Multiple reports of issues have surfaced, on desktop and even more importantly in servers. The switch to systemd-resolved breaks important uses cases for servers by not returning standard compliant answer to clients using the DNS protocol. Compliance with standards is a very basic requirement for any default system-wide resolver to have, systemd-resolved does not meet this requirement yet, so it should not be forced as the default resolver on Fedora until this basic requirement is met."

Ultimately though the developers in favor of using systemd-resolved argue that the issues aren't particularly new but largely rely on needing better documentation and explanations. But some use-cases are indeed not covered by systemd-resolved for a reportedly tiny subset of users. Meanwhile multiple Linux distributions like Ubuntu have already been using systemd-resolved for years.

FESCo decided during their meeting Wednesday to not delay the systemd-resolved default but to permit a freeze exception for one of the pressing issues. Over the caching DNS resolver not being DNSSEC-aware, FESCo approves landing the appropriate fix as a Fedora 33 freeze exception ahead of the late October release.

That's been decided and Fedora 33 at the moment is on track for releasing later this month.