stunned!

[Bulkley]

Ever since it appeared, even when it was in Testing, I have had trouble with Buster. Oh, I could do all sorts of stuff in a VM but that doesn't count when installing on real hardware. Like many users I have my personal requirements. My preferred method for install is to start with a headless system that has basic utilities and ends at a black screen with a cursor. Then I add what I want. I've done this through at least 4 versions of Debian. I never had a problem until I met Buster head on. A couple of dozen times I have tried to install Buster on a spare hard drive and slammed into a Wifi wall. I could install MX, Antix, Devuan and a mess of non-Debian OS but not Buster. Well I can be a stubborn old git and I dug in. This machine only needs one Net connection. I do not use Network-Manager, Wicd or the like; I just write a short script in /network/interfaces. I've used the same script for a very long time without problems.

I'm absolutely stunned! Some twit has changed wlan0 to something that looks like a comic book swear word and believe me, I've used many. Does Debian employ a sadist to dream up changes like this? Aaaaauuuuggghhhhhhh!

[sunrat]

That changed happened enough years ago i had almost forgotten there ever was wlan0 or eth0. There is a way to change it back to the old way, don't remember it of the top of my head.
There is some sanity to the new naming scheme and it's predictable from MAC address.
Here's my wifi one; you can see it is basically the MAC address with wlx in front.

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IF: wlxf8d1111403eb state: up mac: f8:d1:11:14:03:eb

[stevepusser]

Yeah---MX renames them back to the old interfaces, but I forget exactly how we did that.

[golinux]

Some discussion and workarounds in this dev1galaxy thread. I have yet to see a "predictable" name on devuan which makes me very happy.

[Bulkley]

All this time I thought it was a Systemd problem and I was looking there. I could install full fledged systems with tons of stuff I never use and don't want. I'd then try removing the surplus and inevitably made messes. This afternoon I ran ifconfig and my Wifi hardware has a new name and . . . Good Grief!

So, I have a bare bones system loaded with Xorg and Openbox which is showing every sign of working properly. We'll see.

[CwF]

Can't speak to a fresh install, but I prep the image to be 'flashed' here.
/etc/systemd/network/

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# udev 226 introduced predictable interface names for virtio;
# disable this for upgrades. You can remove this file if you update your
# network configuration to move to the ens* names instead.
# See /usr/share/doc/udev/README.Debian.gz for details about predictable
# network interface names.

This maintains old naming if the image is in a vm using the virt nic. The user gui to be used in a vm is configured to use eth0, etc.

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#[Match]
#Driver=virtio_net

#[Link]
#NamePolicy=onboard kernel

When I know where the image is going, while in a vm I will add the specific rules so the bare metal user is configured for the friendly names I use. Multiple names can be called out if prior kernel renaming is going on, or the driver if known, or get out the magnifyer and read the mac sticker....Don't use driver names for the link name, that has(had) goofed detection...under [Link] leave 'NamePolicy=' with no value when specifying 'Name='

/10-something.link

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[Match]
#Name=wlx000...
#Name=wlan0
#Driver=
MACAddress=

[Link]
Name=
NamePolicy=

[Bulkley]

A long time ago I bookmarked WiFiHowToUse, last updated 2020-04-06. For WPA-PSK and WPA2-PSK they still use allow-hotplug wlan0. It is only under Command Line that we see allow-hotplug wlp2s0. When I saw that wlp2s0 there was a "what the hell is that moment?". My version of wlp2s0 works just fine.

There is some sanity to the new naming scheme . . .

Probably but if it's not broken don't fix it.

To demonstrate how long I have been using Debian this: I use Thunderbird for email. Of course, Thunderbird places hidden configuration files. In my system there is .thunderbird which links to .icedove. Do you remember Icedove? Yes, I know I should put them together but that's like reorganizing a closet; it can always be put off for another day.

[Head_on_a_Stick]

The simplest way to revert to the old naming scheme is to mask udev's .link file:

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# ln -s /dev/null /etc/systemd/network/99-default.link

For the other methods see the list at the end of this page: https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Softwa ... faceNames/

[CwF]

I assume '/etc/systemd/network/99-default.link' is included in a fresh install since the change?

[Head_on_a_Stick]

No, the udev .link file is under /lib/systemd/network/ but creating a symlink to /dev/null from a file of the same name under /etc/systemd/network/ masks it (ie, prevents it from being activated).

[Deb-fan]

Im stunned somebody didnt do one search engine search and have multiple solutions within minutes. I even misspelled rename, search engine autocorrected the search term for me and I'd bet a million bucks there's more than one working fix in the first page of the SERP's.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=renane+interf ... =h_&ia=web

Am mostly just being a dork but it is funny how many threads in help/support, if someone googled the thread title, solution(s) right there. Lol ... well not in this case, im stunned is pretty broad.

[Bulkley]

Deb-fan, my problem was that I did not know I had a naming problem. I didn't even know I had a Wifi configuration problem. The configuration I have on my Debian Stretch had and still has a configuration I've been using for many years without a problem. It has been far and away the most reliable Internet connection I've used. Rock solid. Since this has been so reliable I was looking in other directions such as missing software, firmware, Systemd and whatever came to mind on whichever day. It simply never occurred to me that someone would "fix" something that worked so well.

[cuckooflew]

This: https://wiki.debian.org/NetworkInterfaceNames
Mentions the excuse they use, kind of ironic:

Anything that changes the names of your network interfaces may result in the machine suddenly not being reachable over SSH, so if you're editing settings on a remote server, plan your changes carefully and doublecheck your safety nets.

But, even though this was some time back,and I remember seeing a lot of posts where the unexpected name changing done left users confused, etc. Apparently, it still is affecting users...

It simply never occurred to me that someone would "fix" something that worked so well.

It seems ironic to me, now they are writing warnings that you should be carefull before you go and start trying to fix the broken network interfaces that somebody else broke, when they decided to start changing names , fixing something that was not broken , etc.

[sunrat]

Many years ago it was law to have a person with a red flag walking in front of an automobile for safety. I think we should bring that back to reduce the number of fatalities on roads. Or maybe not, the planet needs more ways to reduce its population before we all die!

[Deb-fan]

It's not a big deal. Yeah there's a lot of changes but technology is bound to do that. Would have to read that Debian wiki page myself for a clue as to why this was changed. Am sure it wasnt done for the heck of it.