Problem with openvpn and dns

["Eric S. Johansson" <esj harvee org>]

this isn't really a problem with network manager but that is where first
manifested.  The problem is that when open VPN is started, the far side DNS
entry is added to resolv.conf and there in lies the problem.  When the far side
DNS server returns a NXDOMAIN which keeps the resolver from looking at the next
name server.  What the user experiences is that the only names to resolve are
those coming from the far-side-of-the-VPN name server.

I've encountered this problem on Mac and Linux systems and while it would be
nice to find a solution with a resolver change, I'm looking at an alternative
using dnsmasq because of having been burned by VMWare's "less than ideal" DHCP
and DNS handling.

Here's the path to madness.

Install dnsmasq
Set /etc/resolv.conf to the local dnsmasq (nameserver 127.0.0.1)
*Tell network manager to store its information to /etc/resolv.conf.vpn
Tell dnsmasq to read the server list from /etc/resolv.conf.vpn

is it possible to tell network manager to store its information elsewhere?