Renaming a Network Interface Card with SystemD UDEV Rules

Assuming the following for this example:

Physical Device Path = /sys/class/net/eth1
Device Name = enx7cc2c6494cfb
Serial = 007CC2C6494CFB
MAC Address = 7c:c2:c6:49:4c:fb

First check what attributes you wish to match from your UDEV Device. In this case we’ll use ID_USB_SERIAL_SHORT as it’s an ASIX USB NIC.

udevadm info /sys/class/net/eth1 | grep ID_USB_SERIAL_SHORT

E: ID_USB_SERIAL_SHORT=007CC2C6494CFB

If you wish to view all attributes for the device or the device doesn’t have “ID_USB_SERIAL_SHORT” you may check what attributes are available by executing the command without GREP

udevadm info /sys/class/net/eth1

Then create your systemd link device.

nano /etc/systemd/network/10-enx7cc2c6494cfb.link

[Match]
Property=ID_USB_SERIAL_SHORT=007CC2C6494CFB

[Link]
Name=enx7cc2c6494cfb
MACAddress=7c:c2:c6:49:4c:fb

Finally restart the systemd related service for udev triggers: systemctl restart systemd-udev-trigger

Manual Reference:

Systemd Link File Man Page: https://manpages.debian.org/bookworm/udev/systemd.link.5.en.html

Last modified at Jun 1, 2024