Renaming Network Interfaces on Debian

Last updated: Nov 3, 2024

On most GNU/Linux distributions, network interfaces often have names that are difficult to remember or associate. In this tutorial, we'll look at how to rename network interfaces to whatever name we want on on Debian systems.

Identifying the network interface

Suppose we have two network interfaces, one of which is used on a 192.168.1.0/24 network, and this is the one we want to rename.

List all interfaces and note the mac address associated with the interface whose name you want to change:

root@host:~# ip addr sh

1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: enp3s0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc noop state DOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 18:1f:64:24:0b:ba brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
3: enp2s0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether a7:15:ca:4c:1a:13 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 192.168.1.10/24 brd 192.168.1.255 scope global dynamic enp2s0
       valid_lft 28998sec preferred_lft 28998sec
    inet6 fe80::6a05:caff:fe39:c153/64 scope link 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

We've identified our network interface. Its current name is enp2s0 and we're going to rename it to: lan.

Rename the network interface

Now that we have the mac address of the network interface we want to rename, we can create our configuration file.

Create a file /etc/systemd/network/10-persistent-net_lan.link:

[Match]
MACAddress=a7:15:ca:4c:1a:13

[Link]
Name=lan

Restart the Debian system:

root@host:~# reboot

Once rebooted, check that the interface name has been taken into account:

root@host:~# ip addr sh

1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: enp3s0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc noop state DOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 18:1f:64:24:0b:ba brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
3: lan: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether a7:15:ca:4c:1a:13 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    altname enp2s0
    inet 192.168.1.10/24 brd 192.168.1.255 scope global dynamic enp2s0
       valid_lft 28998sec preferred_lft 28998sec
    inet6 fe80::6a05:caff:fe39:c153/64 scope link 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

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Renaming Network Interfaces on Debian

Identifying the network interface

Rename the network interface