Edit Connections
This section shows how to use the network-manager built-in editor to modify connections as well as provide a reference for changing some of the settings.
Using nmcli Console
Aside from offering the possibility to manage and modify the network connections using the command-line, network-manager offers a built-in, interactive console to achieve the same. In order to use it type:
$ nmcli connection edit
It will bring up an interactive console. In the first step you will be prompted to enter the connection type. The list of valid connection types will be displayed on the screen. Once you select one you will be taken to the nmcli console where you have the possibility to modify its parameters.
Alternatively, if you know the valid connection types, you could jump straight to the nmcli console by providing the type as a parameter:
$ nmcli connection edit type <type>
where <type> must be a valid connection type such as 'wifi'.
An attempt to edit the wifi connection type would look like:
$ nmcli c edit Valid connection types: generic, 802-3-ethernet (ethernet), pppoe, 802-11-wireless (wifi), wimax, gsm, cdma, infiniband, adsl, bluetooth, vpn, 802-11-olpc-mesh (olpc-mesh), vlan, bond, team, bridge, bond-slave, team-slave, bridge-slave, no-slave, tun, ip-tunnel, macvlan, vxlan Enter connection type: wifi ===| nmcli interactive connection editor |=== Adding a new '802-11-wireless' connection Type 'help' or '?' for available commands. Type 'describe [<setting>.<prop>]' for detailed property description. You may edit the following settings: connection, 802-11-wireless (wifi), 802-11-wireless-security (wifi-sec), 802-1x, ipv4, ipv6 nmcli>
From now on it is possible to edit the wifi connection settings. The list of settings is provided as in the example above. The nmcli console offers a set of commands that can be used to navigate between settings. To get the list of available commands type 'help' or '?'
nmcli> ? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ---[ Main menu ]--- goto [<setting> | <prop>] :: go to a setting or property remove <setting>[.<prop>] | <prop> :: remove setting or reset property value set [<setting>.<prop> <value>] :: set property value describe [<setting>.<prop>] :: describe property print [all | <setting>[.<prop>]] :: print the connection verify [all | fix] :: verify the connection save [persistent|temporary] :: save the connection activate [<ifname>] [/<ap>|<nsp>] :: activate the connection back :: go one level up (back) help/? [<command>] :: print this help nmcli <conf-option> <value> :: nmcli configuration quit :: exit nmcli ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ nmcli>
Change Connection Details
This section will show how to change some of the connection details including IPv4 and IPv6 settings.
It is important to understand that every option can be modified using either the command-line or the editor. The advantage of the editor is that it shows which options are available for modification in contrast to the command-line which does not.
It is possible however to learn about the available settings from the command-line by printing the connection details. Type:
$ nmcli c show <name>
where <name> is the connection name.
The above will bring a fairly long list of text on the terminal, therefore it is best to either use a pager or grep to make the results manageable.
IPv4 and IPv6 Options
For example for IPv4 settings one would do:
$ nmcli c show <name> | grep ipv4 ipv4.method: auto ipv4.dns: ipv4.dns-search: ipv4.dns-options: (default) ipv4.addresses: ipv4.gateway: -- ipv4.routes: ipv4.route-metric: -1 ipv4.ignore-auto-routes: no ipv4.ignore-auto-dns: no ipv4.dhcp-client-id: -- ipv4.dhcp-timeout: 0 ipv4.dhcp-send-hostname: yes ipv4.dhcp-hostname: -- ipv4.dhcp-fqdn: -- ipv4.never-default: no ipv4.may-fail: yes ipv4.dad-timeout: -1 (default)
For example setting up the DNS server would require typing:
$ nmcli c modify <name> ipv4.dns "8.8.8.8"
The rest of the settings can be modified in the same fashion.
WiFi Powersave Option
The WiFi powersave option can have one of the following values:
Value | Meaning |
---|---|
0 | Default |
1 | Ignore, do not touch currently configured setting |
2 | Disable |
3 | Enable |
Changing it is as simple as:
$ nmcli c modify <name> 802-11-wireless.powersave 2