Single static IP address for eth0

[DarrenHill]

Hi,

I'm trying to set my Pi (under Raspbian) up with a single static IP address for eth0. I've found many on-line tutorials for this, but the /etc/network/interfaces file that my Pi (model B) has seems slightly different to the ones listed there, and if I try to follow them my Pi ends up with two IP addresses, one by DHCP from the router and the other the fixed address I'm trying to give it.

In all the tutorials it says to change the line

Code: Select all

iface eth0 inet dhcp

to

Code: Select all

iface eth0 inet static

and then add all the other entries (address, netmask, gateway, network and broadcast) below it. But on my Pi (with a fresh Raspbian install) the interfaces file has

Code: Select all

iface eth0 inet manual

rather than dhcp, and if I change the manual to static and add the other entries I get the dual IP address. There are other lines about auto eth0 as well which don't feature in the tutorials at all, although commenting those out don't seem to make a difference.

Could someone advise what is the current best set-up for the interfaces file so that I just get the one single static IP address set on the Pi and not assigned by DHCP from the router at all?

[knute]

Somewhere along the way an upgrade modified my /etc/network/interfaces file with the 'manual' word instead of dhcp or static and I ended up with two IP addresses, my static one and a dhcp address. I finally had time to play with it and found out that dhcpcd5 works differently than whatever was in it before. To get just your static address, do not modify /etc/network/interfaces. Put back the 'manual' word if you changed it and instead modify /etc/dhcpcd.conf as shown in the example from the docs:

Code: Select all

     static value
             Configures a static value.  If you set ip_address then dhcpcd
             will not attempt to obtain a lease and just use the value for the
             address with an infinite lease time.

             Here is an example which configures a static address, routes and
             dns.
                   interface eth0
                   static ip_address=192.168.0.10/24
                   static routers=192.168.0.1
                   static domain_name_servers=192.168.0.1

See more at: http://www.daemon-systems.org/man/dhcpcd.conf.5.html

[KLL]

thank you @knute, works great even for eth0 AND wlan0 static IP now!
( only my wlan0 hot plug after boot still not ok )

[DarrenHill]

Thanks for the tips.

I had a play with it the other night, and kinda went the opposite direction, based on a few other things I found by trawling the net. I actually removed dhcpcd5 completely by apt-get, and then set everything up static in the interfaces file (the Pi only has fixed static ethernet, no wifi as it's a media player) and that worked fine too.

I'm about to set up an OpenVPN server with another Pi though, so I will look at your way of doing things there as I guess perhaps removing dhcpcd5 in that case may cause other issues as it will be acting as a dhcp server there for the new subnet for the incoming VPN client connections.

Still good to know new stuff and learn other ways of doing this kind of thing

Editted to add - This was the other thread I found on this topic, in the beginners section where I got the removal tip. Looks like we have multiple ways to do this (as normal).

[KLL]

@knute, this settings are also possible for noobs, prior to installation,
( like wifi only, silent install... ) by incl in /os/Raspbian/partition_setup.sh

Code: Select all

# for a short ethernet connection PC RPI
#sed /tmp/1/cmdline.txt -i -e "s|rootwait|rootwait ip=192.168.10.101::192.168.10.10|"
#sed /tmp/2/etc/network/interfaces -i -e "/iface eth0/a\dns-nameservers 8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4"
# for WiFi with fix ssid in interfaces
sed /tmp/2/etc/network/interfaces -i -e '/wpa-conf/d'
sed /tmp/2/etc/network/interfaces -i -e '/iface wlan0/a\wpa-ssid "my-wlan" '
sed /tmp/2/etc/network/interfaces -i -e '/wpa-ssid/a\wpa-psk "We_Love_RPi" '
#sed /tmp/2/etc/network/interfaces -i -e '/wpa-psk/a\address 192.168.1.101'
#sed /tmp/2/etc/network/interfaces -i -e '/address/a\gateway 192.168.1.1'
# using dhcpcd.conf for fix ip now
sed /tmp/2/etc/dhcpcd.conf -i -e '$a\ interface eth0'
sed /tmp/2/etc/dhcpcd.conf -i -e '$a\ static ip_address=192.168.1.101/24 '
sed /tmp/2/etc/dhcpcd.conf -i -e '$a\ static routers=192.168.1.1 '
sed /tmp/2/etc/dhcpcd.conf -i -e '$a\ static domain_name_servers=192.168.1.1 '
sed /tmp/2/etc/dhcpcd.conf -i -e '$a\ interface wlan0'
sed /tmp/2/etc/dhcpcd.conf -i -e '$a\ static ip_address=192.168.1.201/24 '
sed /tmp/2/etc/dhcpcd.conf -i -e '$a\ static routers=192.168.1.1 '
sed /tmp/2/etc/dhcpcd.conf -i -e '$a\ static domain_name_servers=192.168.1.1 ' 

and noobs headless comes up on WiFi..

[RobinGreig]

Somewhere along the way an upgrade modified my /etc/network/interfaces file with the 'manual' word instead of dhcp or static and I ended up with two IP addresses, my static one and a dhcp address. I finally had time to play with it and found out that dhcpcd5 works differently than whatever was in it before. To get just your static address, do not modify /etc/network/interfaces. Put back the 'manual' word if you changed it and instead modify /etc/dhcpcd.conf as shown in the example from the docs:

Code: Select all

     static value
             Configures a static value.  If you set ip_address then dhcpcd
             will not attempt to obtain a lease and just use the value for the
             address with an infinite lease time.

             Here is an example which configures a static address, routes and
             dns.
                   interface eth0
                   static ip_address=192.168.0.10/24
                   static routers=192.168.0.1
                   static domain_name_servers=192.168.0.1

Thanks knute!!!!
Fixed the issue for me as well
Robin

[Master68]

Hello all,

thanks for this solution! This also puzzled me for quite some time. However while searching for a solution to this problem, I tampered a lot with my Interfaces file - now it looks like a mess and I don't have the original version any more (yes, I know I should have made a backup before trying, but every time I found a "solution" in some Forum I thought this is it now and it turned out later that it didn't work... )

Could anyone please post the complete "default" of the interfaces file here (the new version with the "manual" keyword instead of the "dhcp" keyword)?
Since I did some other configurations already I would rather not need to reinstall everything just to become "clean" again.

Thanks a lot!

[Joe Schmoe]

Could anyone please post the complete "default" of the interfaces file here...

Did you install from NOOBS or from a "raw image" ?

(Yes, this question is relevant.)

[Master68]

Did you install from NOOBS or from a "raw image" ?

I installed Raspbian Wheezy 2015-05-05

Ah, yes - and if you also happen to have the unmodified Version of the "dhcpcd.conf" (and even better also the correctly modified one for comparison), that would be really help!

Thanks!

[Joe Schmoe]

Did you install from NOOBS or from a "raw image" ?

I installed Raspbian Wheezy 2015-05-05

Thanks!

OK - then all you have to do is mount the original raw image file as a "loop" device and you will have access to the original /etc/interfaces file.

Note that if you installed via NOOBS (middleweight), the same basic idea will work but the details are a little bit more complicated.

[Master68]

OK - then all you have to do is mount the original raw image file as a "loop" device and you will have access to the original /etc/interfaces file.

Ah, ok! Thanks for this tip! Sorry for dumb questions, I'm still at the beginning of my learning curve...

[KLL]

if i may add some more confusion, but as you see is the access to parameters
in /etc/network/interfaces not easy from the "outside" but for a raspbian only / non noobs / SD
it is possible,
here some nice trick you could use:
sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces

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auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto eth0
allow-hotplug eth0

auto wlan0
allow-hotplug wlan0

source /boot/interfaces.conf 

sudo nano /boot/interfaces.conf

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# interfaces.conf
# RASPBIAN BOOT NETWORK CONFIG
# this file is included into the /etc/network/interfaces

iface eth0 inet manual

iface wlan0 inet manual
wpa-ssid "my-wlan"
wpa-psk "We_Love_RPi" 

but for the fix IP now must use:
sudo nano /etc/dhcpcd.conf

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interface eth0
static ip_address=192.168.1.101/24
static routers=192.168.1.1
static domain_name_servers=192.168.1.1
interface wlan0
static ip_address=192.168.1.201/24
static routers=192.168.1.1
static domain_name_servers=192.168.1.1 

[hippy]

On a somewhat related note; does anyone know how to properly set up two IP addresses on eth0; one DHCP, one static ?

I have been using the quirk to have 192.168.0.206 (DHCP) and 192.168.0.100 (static) which has worked well so far but I now want to move the static to 192.168.1.100. If I change it to that in /etc/network/interfaces and reboot I end up with only the DHCP address. It gets both if I change it back and reboot.

I am happy to have DHCP plus two static if that's easier to set up.

[rpdom]

You can set up a virtual port as eth0:0 and assign the address to that in the interfaces file (and another to eth0:1 etc)

[Master68]

if i may add some more confusion, but as you see is the access to parameters
in /etc/network/interfaces not easy from the "outside" but for a raspbian only / non noobs / SD
it is possible,
here some nice trick you could use: [...]

Hello KLL,

thanks! That's a really useful tip! makes it much more comfortable to customize the network setup.
This should be integrated into the default Raspbian images, so one could easily preconfigure the network setup from the Windows machine before writing the image to the SD Card.

Is this "source" keyword trick possible with any config files in Linux, or only with the "Interfaces" file? I mean: could I replace any *.conf file in the Linux file system by simply one line "source /boot/name_of_the_conf.conf" and place all the "real" conf files together in one place into the boot partition?

[KLL]

really useful tip! makes it much more comfortable to customize the network setup.
This should be integrated into the default Raspbian images, so one could easily preconfigure the network setup from the Windows machine before writing the image to the SD Card.

yes, that's why i mentioned it here, actually i found it in the config files for "octopi" from Guy Sheffer.

Is this "source" keyword trick possible with any config files in Linux, or only with the "Interfaces" file? I mean: could I replace any *.conf file in the Linux file system by simply one line "source /boot/name_of_the_conf.conf" and place all the "real" conf files together in one place into the boot partition?

i would not expect that!

but actually for noobs ( noobs noir ) headless silent install
i do exactly that by a hack, in the
/os/Raspbian/partition_setup.sh i add:

Code: Select all

# for a short ethernet connection PC RPI
#sed /tmp/1/cmdline.txt -i -e "s|rootwait|rootwait ip=192.168.10.101::192.168.10.10|"
#sed /tmp/2/etc/network/interfaces -i -e "/iface eth0/a\dns-nameservers 8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4"
# for WIFI with fix ssid in interfaces
sed /tmp/2/etc/network/interfaces -i -e '/wpa-conf/d'
sed /tmp/2/etc/network/interfaces -i -e '/iface wlan0/a\wpa-ssid "my-wlan" '
sed /tmp/2/etc/network/interfaces -i -e '/wpa-ssid/a\wpa-psk "We_Love_RPi" '
#sed /tmp/2/etc/network/interfaces -i -e '/wpa-psk/a\address 192.168.1.101'
#sed /tmp/2/etc/network/interfaces -i -e '/address/a\gateway 192.168.1.1'
# using dhcpcd.conf for fix ip now
sed /tmp/2/etc/dhcpcd.conf -i -e '$a\ interface eth0'
sed /tmp/2/etc/dhcpcd.conf -i -e '$a\ static ip_address=192.168.1.101/24 '
sed /tmp/2/etc/dhcpcd.conf -i -e '$a\ static routers=192.168.1.1 '
sed /tmp/2/etc/dhcpcd.conf -i -e '$a\ static domain_name_servers=192.168.1.1 '
sed /tmp/2/etc/dhcpcd.conf -i -e '$a\ interface wlan0'
sed /tmp/2/etc/dhcpcd.conf -i -e '$a\ static ip_address=192.168.1.201/24 '
sed /tmp/2/etc/dhcpcd.conf -i -e '$a\ static routers=192.168.1.1 '
sed /tmp/2/etc/dhcpcd.conf -i -e '$a\ static domain_name_servers=192.168.1.1 ' 

SD in RPI, powerup
and 30min later raspbian comes up even on WIFI..

[Jasimo]

Thx for this tip about the static configuration in dhcpcd.conf.
One question, what will happen if a configured IP in the dhcpcd.conf file is already in use by another device in the network, will then a free ip assigned to the Pi?

[rpdom]

If a static IP is assigned to an interface then it will use that IP even if it is also assigned to something else (it doesn't know!) this can cause network chaos. Been there... etc.

[Jasimo]

Means that there is no way to configure something like a fallback, i read something about that in the man pages (fallback profile).
But you will be right, thx for the info.

[DanielBarker]

I regret I have not managed to configure a static IP. I would appreciate advice.

The SD card is based on Raspbian 2015-05-05-raspbian-wheezy.zip.

Based on above posts, I added the following to the end of /etc/dhcpcd.conf. The settings are correct, as verified separately under OS X.

# Added by Daniel

interface eth0
static ip_address=138.251.156.122
static subnet-mask 255.255.255.0
static routers=138.251.156.199
static domain_name_servers=138.251.66.46
static domain_search=st-andrews.ac.uk

On reboot, the network still does not work.

On start-up, the Pi says wpasupplicant daemon failed to start.

I also see

ifup: interface eth0 already configured

and

eth0: using static address 138.251.156.122/16

I do not know what the /16 means - is it relevant?

Under earlier systems, I had a nice set-up, where both eth0 and eth0:1 were configured in /etc/network/interfaces. This gave both a static IP (that worked in the office and failed at home) and DHCP (that failed in the office but worked at home). I realise changing /etc/network/interfaces is no longer correct. Were it possible to somehow achieve the same effect with DHCPCD, that would be a bonus.

The main problem is to get the static IP working at all, though.

Advice will be very welcome.

Thanks,

Daniel

[DanielBarker]

May have solved my own problem - with help from further posts, above!

(1) sudo apt-get remove dhcpcd5
(2) put what I used to put in /etc/network/interfaces in /etc/network/interfaces (i.e. as under earlier Rasbpians)
(3) put the nameserver, which I used to put in /etc/resolve.conf, in /etc/resolvconf.conf

I get wired network with a static IP!

I haven't tried the two-interfaces idea, but I assume it will work (and it's not too important).

- Daniel

[ozpete999]

Hi
So, to get a static ip address under Jessie, do I edit the /etc/dhcpcd.conf file by merely ADDING the following code to it at the bottom of the file, or by completely REPLACING everything in it with the following code ?

interface eth0
static ip_address=192.168.x.x/n
static routers=192.168.x.x
static domain_name_servers=192.168.x.x

Thanks

[DougieLawson]

Add that stuff at the bottom.

[ozpete999]

Thanks, Dougie.

[cyttorak]

what's mean "/24" in "static ip_address=192.168.100.21/24"?