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How To Troubleshoot Missing ifconfig Command on Linux

The ifconfig command is used to view and configure network interfaces on Linux systems. However, in some Linux distributions like Ubuntu and Fedora, ifconfig may not be installed by default or could be deprecated.

If you try to run ifconfig and get an error like:

-bash: ifconfig: command not found

Here are some things you can try to troubleshoot and restore access to the ifconfig command on Linux:

Check Alternative Commands

ip

Most modern Linux distributions use the ip command instead of ifconfig. The ip command has similar functionality to view and configure network interfaces.

To view interfaces, use:

ip addr show

To assign an IP address, use:

ip addr add 192.168.1.10/24 dev eth0

So in many cases, you can just use ip instead of ifconfig.

nmcli

Some systems also have nmcli available to view network configuration from NetworkManager.

For example, to show interfaces:

nmcli device status

Install ifconfig Package

If you still need or want to use ifconfig, try installing it directly:

Debian/Ubuntu

sudo apt install net-tools

RHEL/CentOS

sudo yum install net-tools

Fedora

sudo dnf install net-tools

After installing the net-tools package, ifconfig should be available.

Check System Path

In some cases, ifconfig could still be installed but not available in your system path.

Check if it exists with:

which ifconfig

If it shows nothing, try locating ifconfig manually:

locate ifconfig

If it exists in a non-standard path like /usr/sbin/ifconfig, you can either add that path to your environment, symlink ifconfig, or reinstall net-tools.

Use Static Build

If no ifconfig package is available for your distribution, you can download and compile a static build:

wget https://net-tools.sourceforge.io/releases/net-tools-2.10.tar.gz
tar xvzf net-tools-2.10.tar.gz
cd net-tools-2.10
./configure --prefix=/usr --static
make -C man
make -C po
make install

This will manually install a static ifconfig binary into your system.

Container/Chroot Issues

When running inside a container or chroot jail, the network interfaces and ifconfig binary may not be available.

Try running ifconfig from the host system instead or reconfigure networking to expose interfaces inside your container/jail.

Summary

  • Use ip or nmcli for most network configuration tasks instead of ifconfig
  • Install the net-tools package if you specifically need the ifconfig command
  • Check system path and symlinks if ifconfig seems to exist but command not found
  • Compile a static build as a last resort if no packages available
  • Ensure proper container/chroot networking setup if applicable

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