Arch Linux

ngollon

Member

Registered: 2013-12-11

Posts: 3

systemd 213 changed network device names

After running my weekly dose of updates this morning, I noticed that my network interface, formerly known as ens3, was now (again) called eth0. (Related: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=182422)

This, of course, broke a lot of things, since I use a simple static IP configuration with netctl, and this is a web server.

After identifying the problem, it was not hard to fix, but I'd rather not have to do this again.

Is the interface name change a bug?
Will it likely be changed back in the (near) future?
What could I do to prepare for these changes, so that my server does not break again for this cause?

Thanks!
Jens

MoonSwan

Member

From: Great White North

Registered: 2008-01-23

Posts: 881

Re: systemd 213 changed network device names

I followed this helpful wiki entry about changing the device names permanently through a udev rule:  https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ne … evice_name

ukhippo

Member

From: Non-paged pool

Registered: 2014-02-21

Posts: 366

Re: systemd 213 changed network device names

An alternative to creating a udev .rules file is to create .link files in /etc/systemd/network. You'll need 1 .link file per interface.

I have 2 Ethernet interfaces which I renamed to wired0 and wired1. The .link files can be called anything, but I used “50-newinterfacename.link”

E.g. For MAC address “aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff” and to use name “wired0”
Create the file “/etc/systemd/network/50-wired0.link” containing:

[Match]
MACAddress=aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff

[Link]
MACAddressPolicy=persistent
Name=wired0

(See the man page for systemd.link for other keys you can use if the above isn't sufficient.)

I prefer this to udev rules, but the choice is yours.

aiBo

Member

Registered: 2010-11-10

Posts: 50

Re: systemd 213 changed network device names

The issue is, that with the latest systemd upgrade the network interface name changed back to the old format.

I experienced the same issue as the op. The server's network interface was named ens3 by the predictable interface naming scheme provided by systemd. No udev rules or symlinks set!

And after the last update it is back to eth0.

Question is: Was this rollback intended, an upstream bug or a packaging mistake?

Last edited by aiBo (2014-06-05 21:32:41)

pgoetz

Member

From: Austin, Texas

Registered: 2014-02-21

Posts: 355

Re: systemd 213 changed network device names

I'm just checking in to point out that I have not seen this on either of the Arch systems I'm currently working with:

[administrator@toad system]$ pacman -Q | grep systemd
libsystemd 213-5                                                                   
systemd 213-5                                                                      
systemd-sysvcompat 213-5
[administrator@toad system]$ ip link
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default 
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
2: enp101s0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 90:2b:34:5e:14:e0 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

WonderWoofy

Member

From: Los Gatos, CA

Registered: 2012-05-19

Posts: 8,414

Re: systemd 213 changed network device names

I have not seen this either.  But I would like to note that from time to time, interface renaming will fail on my wireless card.  So instead of wlp3s0, I will end up with wlan0.  This does not seem to be intentional by any means, and has been happening since persistent naming was implemented.  But it is very very very infrequent.

aiBo

Member

Registered: 2010-11-10

Posts: 50

Re: systemd 213 changed network device names

I only noticed it on a system which had the interface name "ens3".

On all other Arch systems the predictable interface naming still works as expected whitout any issues.