Static IP on BBB won't change with network/interfaces file

Question

I'm using multiple BBB's (Rev C), communicating with them from my Mac (OSX 10.9.3) over USB using the HoRNDIS drivers. The BBB's are running Debian, and so I want to manually assign them all different static IP's. However, I can't get the IP to be anything but 192.168.7.2. Changing the /etc/network/interfaces file to have an ip of 192.168.7.10 does nothing:

# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# The primary network interface
#auto eth0
#iface eth0 inet dhcp
# Example to keep MAC address between reboots
#hwaddress ether DE:AD:BE:EF:CA:FE

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.2.2
netmask 255.255.255.0
network 192.168.2.0
broadcast 192.168.2.255
gateway 192.168.2.1

# WiFi Example
#auto wlan0
#iface wlan0 inet dhcp
#    wpa-ssid "essid"
#    wpa-psk  "password"

# Ethernet/RNDIS gadget (g_ether)
# ... or on host side, usbnet and random hwaddr
# Note on some boards, usb0 is automaticly setup with an init script
# in that case, to completely disable remove file [run_boot-scripts] from the boot partition
iface usb0 inet static
    address 192.168.7.10
    netmask 255.255.255.0
    network 192.168.7.0
    gateway 192.168.7.1

Indeed, there was a file in the boot partition that I also changed, with no result:

#!/bin/bash

# Update /etc/network/interfaces to add virtual Ethernet port
cat >>/etc/network/interfaces <<EOF

iface usb0 inet static
  address 192.168.7.10
  netmask 255.255.255.0
  network 192.168.7.0
  gateway 192.168.7.1
EOF

# Add terminal to virtual serial port
cat >/etc/init/gadget-serial.conf <<EOF
start on stopped rc RUNLEVEL=[2345]
stop on runlevel [!2345]

respawn
exec /sbin/getty 115200 ttyGS0
EOF

# Write script to start gadget driver
cat >/usr/sbin/g-multi-load.sh <<'EOF'
#!/bin/bash
if [ "`lsmod | grep g_multi`" != "" ]; then exit 0; fi
mac_addr=/proc/device-tree/ocp/ethernet@4a100000/slave@4a100300/mac-address
eeprom=/sys/bus/i2c/devices/0-0050/eeprom

DEV_ADDR=$(perl -e 'print join(":",unpack("(H2)*",<>))' ${mac_addr})
VERSION=$(perl -e '@x=unpack("A12A4",<>); print $x[1]' ${eeprom})
SERIAL_NUMBER=$(perl -e '@x=unpack("A16A12",<>); print $x[1]' ${eeprom})
ISBLACK=$(perl -e '@x=unpack("A20A4",<>); print $x[1]' ${eeprom})

BLACK=""
if [ "${ISBLACK}" = "BBBK" ] ; then
    BLACK="Black"
fi
if [ "${ISBLACK}" = "BNLT" ] ; then
    BLACK="Black"
fi

modprobe g_multi file=/dev/mmcblk0p1 cdrom=0 stall=0 removable=1 nofua=1 iSerialNumber=${SERIAL_NUMBER} iManufacturer=Circuitco iProduct=BeagleBone${BLACK} host_addr=${DEV_ADDR}

# Enable the network interface
sleep 1
ifup usb0
EOF
chmod +x /usr/sbin/g-multi-load.sh

# Add script to rc.local
perl -i -pe 's!^exit 0!/usr/sbin/g-multi-load.sh\nexit 0!' /etc/rc.local

# Install DHCP server
sudo apt-get -y update
sudo apt-get -y install isc-dhcp-server

# Configure DHCP server
cat >/etc/ltsp/dhcp.conf <<EOF
ddns-update-style none;
subnet 192.168.7.0 netmask 255.255.255.252 {
  range 192.168.7.1 192.168.7.1;
}
EOF
perl -i -pe 's/INTERFACES=".*"/INTERFACES="usb0"/' /etc/default/isc-dhcp-server

# Start up services
/usr/sbin/g-multi-load.sh
service isc-dhcp-server start

Answer 1

There is a 3rd file you need to change for BeagleBone Black: /opt/scripts/boot/am335x_evm.sh

I found it here: http://ewong.me/changing-usb0-ip-address-on-the-beaglebone-black

Answer 2

I tried this on my BBB and it didn't work. It turned out that the network configuration on my Beaglebone was being controlled by connman. Editing /etc/network/interfaces and other script files had no effect after a reboot. (I suppose if I had used the GUI interface, this may have been more obvious. As it was, I spun my wheels for hours trying to figure out what was going on...) I finally got it to permanently change to a static ip configuration by entering the following commands:

First, you need to find the "service name" for your (in my case, wired) connection. Enter:

connmanctl services

In my case, my wired connection was called "ethernet_b0d5cc8194db_cable". You need this to set the configuration for the connection. The following set my eth0 (wired) connection to the static ip address "192.168.1.219":

connmanctl config ethernet_b0d5cc8194db_cable ipv4 manual 192.168.1.219 255.255.255.0 192.168.1.1

To add a nameserver:

connmanctl config ethernet_b0d5cc8194db_cable --nameservers 8.8.8.8

I also was able to disable ipv6 (just my preference):

connmanctl config ethernet_b0d5cc8194db_cable ipv6 off

It's a shame that we are coming up with so many different ways to configure the network on linux!

-John