DNS Switcher

A noctalia v5 bar plugin: switch the system DNS between popular providers, your own servers, or the ISP default — from a panel on the bar, no reconnect. Based on Ronin-CK's v4 DNS Switcher, rebuilt on the v5 Luau plugin API.

Plugin

Field	Value
ID	nightwatch75/dns-switcher
Entries	Bar widget: dns-switcher; panel: panel; service: service

Features

• Instant, no-drop switching — one nmcli con mod + nmcli device reapply on the active connection profile; the network never disconnects
• Pre-configured providers (Google, Cloudflare, OpenDNS, AdGuard, Quad9) plus up to 5 custom servers (Name = address, e.g. Pi-hole = 192.168.1.5)
• Detection, not guessing — reads the connection's own ipv4.dns / ipv4.ignore-auto-dns, so a manually configured resolver (LAN ones included) shows as its provider, DHCP-assigned DNS shows as Default (ISP)
• DNS lookup tester at the bottom of the panel: resolve any name against the currently active provider's own address with dig/nslookup, to confirm a switch took effect or check whether a provider blocks a domain
• Fully rebindable gestures — left click, right click and scroll are declared in the manifest ([widget.actions]), so any of them can be remapped from the bar's own gesture settings; scroll cycles providers
• Singleton service — one engine regardless of how many bars/monitors show the widget; widget and panel are pure renderers over its shared state
• Live footer (connection name + active resolver IPs, with a copy button), glyph-only mode for compact bars

Usage

Add the dns-switcher widget from Noctalia's widget picker. Default gestures:

Action	Effect
Left click	Open/close the provider panel
Right click	Reset to the connection default (ISP)
Scroll	Cycle to the next/previous configured provider

All three are bar-level defaults and can be remapped from Settings → Bar. The panel itself, and the plugin's settings page, also open from the CLI:

noctalia msg panel-toggle nightwatch75/dns-switcher:panel
noctalia msg settings-open-plugin nightwatch75/dns-switcher

Settings

Setting	Type	Default	Description
providers	string	google,cloudflare,opendns,adguard,quad9	Comma-separated built-in provider ids shown in the panel. Empty = none.
custom_1 … custom_5	string	(empty)	One custom resolver each: Name = address, one or two IPv4 addresses.
poll_seconds	int	10	How often the active DNS is re-read with nmcli (2–120).
privilege_command	string	(empty)	Prefix to run nmcli changes as root (pkexec, sudo -n) — see Privileges.
show_label (widget)	bool	true	Show the provider name next to the glyph.

IPC

noctalia msg plugin nightwatch75/dns-switcher:service all apply cloudflare
noctalia msg plugin nightwatch75/dns-switcher:service all poll
noctalia msg plugin nightwatch75/dns-switcher:service all cycle next

apply takes a built-in id, default (ISP), or custom:<name>; poll forces an immediate re-check; cycle next/cycle prev step to the neighbouring provider (what scroll sends).

Requirements

• noctalia v5.0.0-beta.7 or newer (plugin_api = 17, for the onExit lifecycle cleanup in service.luau)
• NetworkManager (networkmanager, provides nmcli) with an active connection
• Permission to modify system connections (see Privileges below)
• dig (bind-tools/dnsutils) or nslookup, optional — only the lookup tester needs one of them; the rest of the plugin works without either

Privileges

Privilege command is empty by default: NetworkManager's polkit policy usually lets active local sessions modify system connections without a password. If you get a "not authorized" error, set it to pkexec (shows noctalia's own polkit prompt) or sudo -n with a matching sudoers rule. The privilege command is applied to the nmcli con mod and nmcli device reapply calls individually — never to a wrapping shell — so the sudoers rule only ever needs to name nmcli itself:

# /etc/sudoers.d/nmcli-dns
youruser ALL=(root) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/nmcli

With pkexec, this means an apply may show its polkit prompt twice (once per elevated nmcli call) instead of once.

Or grant it via a polkit rule and keep the setting empty:

// /etc/polkit-1/rules.d/50-nmcli-dns.rules
polkit.addRule(function(action, subject) {
    if ((action.id == "org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.settings.modify.system" ||
         action.id == "org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.network-control") &&
        subject.isInGroup("wheel")) {
        return polkit.Result.YES;
    }
});

Both widen what the account can do to NetworkManager system-wide — apply your usual judgement on shared machines.

Notes

• IPv4 DNS only, like the v4 plugin.
• Targets the first active wifi/ethernet connection (falling back to the first active non-loopback one); a VPN's own DNS is not touched.
• Custom servers are five separate string settings rather than one list, because Noctalia's list editor has no in-place row edit — a string field does. A server name may not contain =.

License

MIT.