How to rename an Network / Ethernet Interface in Ubuntu 18.04

In this post I will show you how to rename a Network Interface in Ubuntu 18.04.

Note your MAC Address.

ip addr

Create 70-persistent-net.rules.

nano /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules

Add the following rule to 70-persistent-net.rules and replace the red text with your MAC Address and Interface name.

SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="xx:yy:xx:yy:xx:yy", NAME="INTERFACENAME"

Rename your network interface name in /etc/netplan/filename.yaml

  ethernets:
    INTERFACENAME:

Open the GRUB configuration file.

nano /etc/default/grub

From:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

To:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="net.ifnames=1 biosdevname=0"

Update the bootloader

update-grub

(Optional) update-initram:

update-initramfs -u

Reboot and done!

4 thoughts on “How to rename a network interface in Ubuntu 18.04”

Leroy Tennison January 9, 2019 at 5:24 pm

Thank you, this worked. However, as a consequence, netplan appears to have to be re-written since the original NIC names disappear.

Reply ↓

Tom van Brienen Post authorJanuary 27, 2019 at 5:17 pm

Hello Leroy,

Thanks for your reply.

‘Rename your network interface name in /etc/netplan/filename.yaml’ is indeed important.

Tom

Reply ↓

simon May 31, 2019 at 9:38 am

Great article. very informative and useful post.

Reply ↓

Jan Florkowski April 23, 2020 at 11:39 am

You can also do this in netplan only:

network:
ethernets:
myNewIfName:
match:
macaddress: 00:ab:cd:ef:12:34
set-name: myNewIfName

After a reboot ifconfig shows this.

Reply ↓

TomvanBrienen.nl