Persistently rename a Linux network interface without Udev / Reboot

Solution 1:

Thanks to netplan (default in ubuntu 18.04) this is now particularly easy. You can set the interface name based on macaddress or driver:

Edit an existing .yaml configuration file in /etc/netplan/ or create a new one:

sudo nano /etc/netplan/config.yaml

Here is an example with MAC address matching. Names are set with 'set-name' and matched by the MAC address of the interface:

network:
  ethernets:
    wan:
      match:
        macaddress: 00:ab:cd:ef:12:34
      addresses: 
        - 10.5.1.2/16
      dhcp4: true
      optional: true
      set-name: wan0
    lan:
      match:
        macaddress: 00:ab:cd:ef:12:45
      addresses: 
        - 10.6.1.1/16
      optional: true
      set-name: eth0
  version: 2

Save the .yaml file and apply the configuration with:

sudo netplan apply

A reboot may be required to apply the name change.

Solution 2:

Knowing the ip command is nice, but there are persistent ways to configure using existing scripts, and yes, udev.

One thing you can dois map a NIC of a specific MAC address to a name. Append something like this to /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules

SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", ATTR{address}=="xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx", NAME="eth0"

• Changing Network Interfaces name Ubuntu 16.04
• Linux Rename Eth0 Network Interface Card Name [ Udev ]