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Chapter 15. Configuring NetworkManager to ignore certain devices
By default, NetworkManager manages all devices except the loopback (lo
) device. However, you can configure NetworkManager as unmanaged
to ignore certain devices. With this setting, you can manually manage these devices, for example, using a script.
15.1. Permanently configuring a device as unmanaged in NetworkManager
You can permanently configure devices as unmanaged
based on several criteria, such as the interface name, MAC address, or device type.
To temporarily configure network devices as unmanaged
, see Temporarily configuring a device as unmanaged in NetworkManager.
Procedure
Optional: Display the list of devices to identify the device or MAC address you want to set as
unmanaged
:# ip link show ... 2: enp1s0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000 link/ether 52:54:00:74:79:56 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff ...
Create the
/etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/99-unmanaged-devices.conf
file with the following content:To configure a specific interface as unmanaged, add:
[keyfile] unmanaged-devices=interface-name:enp1s0
To configure a device with a specific MAC address as unmanaged, add:
[keyfile] unmanaged-devices=mac:52:54:00:74:79:56
To configure all devices of a specific type as unmanaged, add:
[keyfile] unmanaged-devices=type:ethernet
To set multiple devices as unmanaged, separate the entries in the
unmanaged-devices
parameter with a semicolon, for example:[keyfile] unmanaged-devices=interface-name:enp1s0;interface-name:enp7s0
Reload the
NetworkManager
service:# systemctl reload NetworkManager
Verification
Display the list of devices:
# nmcli device status DEVICE TYPE STATE CONNECTION enp1s0 ethernet unmanaged -- ...
The
unmanaged
state next to theenp1s0
device indicates that NetworkManager does not manage this device.
Troubleshooting
If the device is not shown as
unmanaged
, display the NetworkManager configuration:# NetworkManager --print-config ... [keyfile] unmanaged-devices=interface-name:enp1s0 ...
If the output does not match the settings that you configured, ensure that no configuration file with a higher priority overrides your settings. For details about how NetworkManager merges multiple configuration files, see the
NetworkManager.conf(5)
man page.
15.2. Temporarily configuring a device as unmanaged in NetworkManager
You can temporarily configure devices as unmanaged
.
Use this method, for example, for testing purposes. To permanently configure network devices as unmanaged
, see Permanently configuring a device as unmanaged in NetworkManager.
Procedure
Optional: Display the list of devices to identify the device you want to set as
unmanaged
:# nmcli device status DEVICE TYPE STATE CONNECTION enp1s0 ethernet disconnected -- ...
Set the
enp1s0
device to theunmanaged
state:# nmcli device set enp1s0 managed no
Verification
Display the list of devices:
# nmcli device status DEVICE TYPE STATE CONNECTION enp1s0 ethernet unmanaged -- ...
The
unmanaged
state next to theenp1s0
device indicates that NetworkManager does not manage this device.
Additional resources
-
NetworkManager.conf(5)
man page