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How do I Configure a Network Card with Linux®?

S.A. Keel
S.A. Keel

Setting up a network card with Linux® is often done automatically through the hardware detection software that comes with most modern Linux® distributions. There may be occasions, however, when the network card isn't automatically configured properly, or when you want to configure a second network card with Linux®. In any case, there are a couple primary means to work with the network card's configuration, either by way of a graphical user interface (GUI) or the command line interface (CLI).

Using your Linux® distribution's GUI will provide the most user-friendly and straightforward means for configuring your network card with Linux®. This may vary, however, depending on the Linux® desktop environment for your distribution. In most cases, Linux® distributions will use either the Gnome® or K Desktop Environment (KDE®) desktop environments, each of which has a software GUI for configuring your network. The KNetworkManager software does this work for the KDE® desktop, while in Gnome® it is called NetworkManager. Both offer the ability to configure an already detected network card with network parameters, IP address information, as well as add a new network card.

Man holding computer
Man holding computer

Working from the CLI to setup your network card with Linux®, however, you'll first want to discover whether your network card is already up and running by issuing the ifconfig command in the terminal application. If the command is entered without any arguments, it will output all of the current interfaces and their settings. The two most common are eth0, which is the first Ethernet network card on the system, and lo, the loopback interface, which is a virtual software interface. The ifconfig command can then be used to enable or disable an interface as well as change the IP address or other network information. For example, to set the eth0 interface IP address, you would issue the following ifconfig command.

ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.10 netmask 255.255.255.0 up

In order from left to right, the first parameter is the interface to modify, eth0, then the IP address to assign to it, and then the subnetwork that the computer belongs to. The final parameter given to ifconfig is either "up" or "down," which tells the computer to enable or disable the network card. Be sure to check the appropriate settings for your network, such as the type of network, the subnetwork, any gateway routers to compose the proper command.

Of course, this command will only configure your network card with Linux® for the current session and would need to be entered after every time you log in on the computer. To work around this, Linux® distributions implement various scripts and files that will do this for you automatically every time the computer starts up. The locations and names of these scripts and configuration files will vary according to your Linux® distribution, so be sure to check it for which files to modify. By editing these configuration files in a text editor, the operating system will then load the appropriate network configuration automatically.

Discussion Comments

Logicfest

@Markerrag -- Even those proprietary drivers are easy to install nowadays. The great thing about each version of Linux is that it has a large user base full of helpful people who are glad to give advice on how to get things to work.

If you decide to get a Linux distro, make sure to locate the support forums for it. If you are new to Linux, you will use those often.

Markerrag

Detecting a network card automatically seems like pretty basic stuff, doesn't it? But this kind of thing is a pretty recent development. It wasn't that long ago when configuring Linux to work with hardware was a real chore for anyone who didn't have some serious knowledge of the operating system.

But those days have changed and it is common for a Linux distribution to install the necessary hardware drivers to get things like network cards working right out of the box. Setting up Linux these days is a breeze compared to what it was even at the turn of the century.

Still, there are some pieces of hardware that have proprietary drivers that are not installed automatically. Getting those to work can be a challenge.

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