The current message when bootstapping pkg fails for any reason implies that pkg
is not available.
$ pkg bootstrap The package management tool is not yet installed on your system. Do you want to fetch and install it now? [y/N]: y Bootstrapping pkg from pkg+http://pkg.FreeBSD.org/FreeBSD:12:amd64/quarterly, please wait... pkg: Error fetching http://pkg.FreeBSD.org/FreeBSD:12:amd64/quarterly/Latest/pkg.txz: No address record A pre-built version of pkg could not be found for your system. Consider changing PACKAGESITE or installing it from ports: 'ports-mgmt/pkg'.
When bootstrap fails because DNS is either not configured or working this is
pretty scary. Offer a friendlier message when bootstrap fails due to name
resolution failing.