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My internal onboard PCI intel 7265 gets a human name wlp2s0

However I have a USB ALFA AWUS036NHA (Atheros 9271L) card that is named as wlx00c0ca97323e, instead of (e.g wlp0s20u1).

sudo udevadm test /sys/class/net/wlx00c0ca97323e 2>/dev/null |grep ID_NET_NAME_
ID_NET_NAME_MAC=wlx00c0ca97323e
ID_NET_NAME_PATH=wlp0s20u1

This is pretty inconvenient for memorization, and I have to always copy-paste. Any ideas why this happens? Is this normal?

$ uname -a
Linux red 4.15.0-2-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.15.11-1 (2018-03-20) x86_64 GNU/Linux

$ ifconfig -a
wlp2s0: flags=4099<UP,BROADCAST,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        ether 18:5e:0f:9f:2c:61  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 420  bytes 154184 (150.5 KiB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 242  bytes 46251 (45.1 KiB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

wlx00c0ca97323e: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        inet 192.168.1.68  netmask 255.255.255.0  broadcast 192.168.1.255
        ether 00:c0:ca:97:32:3e  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 46034  bytes 21218629 (20.2 MiB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 47246  bytes 5743934 (5.4 MiB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

I have other connectivity/driver problems with that card but I suppose that they are irrelevant with this question...

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  • 1
    Maybe because the USB port can have many identical hardware plugged into it and to differentiate between a serial number is used?
    – jc__
    Apr 11, 2018 at 13:10
  • 2
    "Normal"? Yes, it's normal. Debian community decided that they will be named USB NIC-s and created corresponding udev rules. If you don't like so long names, you can change udev rules for your needs.
    – Yurij Goncharuk
    Apr 11, 2018 at 13:19
  • Thank you all for your answers. Ok, so it is normal then. Creating udev or systemd rule to rename the interface, requires, as far as I know, to have a persistent mac address to be used as an identifier. However gnome's network-manager (if I am not mistaken) continuously changes the mac addresses. Anyway it helps to know that this is the normal behavior.
    – chefarov
    Apr 11, 2018 at 13:30

1 Answer 1

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Issue at Hand

Debian has moved to a newer method of outlining interface names. Your USB Wifi Adapter is being assigned its interface name based on its MAC address. Here is a link to a mail list outlining the change. I will try to help you by outlining the old method of forcing an adapter name and what could work as a new method.

1. Old Method

YOu can assign interface names using udev. Look for a file named /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules and append the portion listing your adapter device name. It should look something like this:

SUBSYSTEM=="net", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="[MAC ADDRESS]", NAME="[Adapter Name]"

You can change all of your devices names here, verify first by the MAC address. Bring the interface down then run udevadm trigger --sysname [Old Interface Name] and bring the interface back up. This should change the name as outlined in this post. However this may no longer be a valid way of managing your interfaces as of stretch.

2. Newer Method

I am including a link to the Freedesktop Wiki on predictable network interface names. I am also referencing this post concerning a similar issue. It involves Ubuntu but could still apply.

The user there suggests creating a symbolic link between /etc/udev/rules.d/80-net-setup-link.rules and /dev/null. First start by copying rule 80 from /lib/udev/rules.d to /etc/udev/rules.d. Its contents should match what is listed in the post. Then run:

sudo ln -s /dev/null /etc/udev/rules.d/80-net-setup-link.rules

and reboot. This should allow your USB wireless interface to have a predictable network interface name.

Conclusion

Please read through all the links I have provided first and verify that your system has udev and the relevant files. These fixes should work, however I would always test these changes before permanently disabling certain features. If there are any misconceptions or issues with my post please do not hesitate to ask. I always appreciate corrections. Best of Luck!

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  • 2
    Thank you for your detailed answer. About (1): can't be done in Debian with Gnome-shell because it needs persistent mac addresses (check my comment in the question). About (2): I don't think there is any point to copy a file to /etc/udev/rules.d/80-net-setup-link.rules and then replace it with a link to /dev/null. Appart of that, making the link, seems to disable predictable names and going back to old style wlan0, wlan1, etc.
    – chefarov
    Apr 11, 2018 at 17:57

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