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Consistent Network Device Naming

Óscar Alfonso Díaz edited this page Feb 1, 2024 · 35 revisions

For some Linux distributions like Ubuntu or Debian, and Parrot OS, the default naming for network devices is using the new nomenclature which is causing errors while using airgeddon. This can be for different reasons. One of them is that some of the third party tools that airgeddon uses are not compatible with this device names nomenclature. Another reason could be the presence of a bug in airmon-ng which is already solved in modern versions. But if you are still using an old airmon-ng version and or you are experiencing problems, you can just change your interface names to "old" style. Just keep reading.

How to know if I am affected?

If you see your wireless card named as wlx00c0ca9208dc or any similar name, yeah you are affected and probably you'll face some issues using airgeddon while changing the mode of your card (it can happen depending on your airmon-ng version) or using some airgeddon features. It's better to have them using the classic naming style (wlan0, wlan1, etc.). From airgeddon>=11.20 there is an integrated check showing a warning and the recommendation for the change upon interface selection.

How to change them to the classic names style?

To do that you must modify the grub configuration. You should modify your /etc/default/grub file in order to add this net.ifnames=0 biosdevname=0 to your GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX line.

I don't have that /etc/default/grub file, now what?

On some Linux, the path could be different like in modern Parrot Linux where you can locate the right file to modify here: /etc/default/grub.d/parrot.cfg or /etc/default/grub.d/grub.cfg.

On other Linux like installed on Raspberries, the file /etc/default/grub is not existing. In this case you can edit the file /boot/cmdline.txt to add there the needed net.ifnames=0 biosdevname=0 options.

Examples

  • GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="net.ifnames=0 biosdevname=0"
  • GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="find_preseed=/preseed.cfg auto noprompt priority=critical locale=en_US net.ifnames=0 biosdevname=0".

Just add net.ifnames=0 biosdevname=0 to your existing options keeping what you already have there.

Now just need to apply changes following the last point of this section.

After modification, to apply changes (IT WILL NOT BE EFFECTIVE WITHOUT THIS LAST STEP!!)

After modifying the /etc/default/grub file, execute update-grub and then reboot or directly reboot if you modified /boot/cmdline.txt as explained above (used usually for Raspberries). After that, your wireless interface cards will be named again as always (wlan0, wlan1, etc.) and you'll be able to make them work correctly in airgeddon.

If using Parrot OS or other Linux distro and the above options do not work, try this

Run this in a terminal sudo ln -s /dev/null /etc/udev/rules.d/80-net-setup-link.rules then reboot and your wireless interface should show as wlan0, wlan1 or similar.

Temporary fix

If you don't want to modify your grub or your system permanently for any reason, you can do a temporarily interface renaming which will work until next reboot or until the card is unplugged and re-plugged, but we recommend the persistent solution explained above modifying grub. Anyway, here are the commands to do it: ip link set wlx00c0ca9208dc down && ip link set wlx00c0ca9208dc name wlan0 && ip link set wlan0 up <- of course you need to replace wlx00c0ca9208dc by your interface name.

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