SystemdNetworkd

Raspbian/Raspberry Pi OS initially used Debian Networking which was replaced by dhcpcd in 2015.
dhcpcd is the current default networking system.

Raspbian is now based on systemd which includes systemd-networkd, a system service that manages networks.
It detects and configures network devices as they appear, as well as creating virtual network devices.

This tutorial describes how to setup basic networking using systemd-networkd.
NOTE only basic networking using the in-built interfaces eth0 and wlan0 is described.

It is assumed you are familiar with networking and reasonably competent configuring Linux.
It is NOT a method recommended for beginners; it is more complex to setup.
Each interface needs to be explicitly configured.

WARNING this will disable the Networking tool on the Desktop Panel.

Ethernet Networking

You need to define a network by creating a file in /etc/systemd/network. This can be given any name with the extension .network

The following example tells systemd-networkd to use eth0 (which is set up by udev) and assign it an address using DHCP.

[Match]
Name=eth0

[Network]
DHCP=ipv4

[DHCP]
RouteMetric=201

An alternative using static IP Addresses

[Match]
Name=eth0

[Network]
Address=192.168.1.20/24
Gateway=192.168.1.1
DNS=192.168.1.1

[DHCP]
RouteMetric=201

Wireless Networking

In order to connect to a wireless network with systemd-networkd, a wireless adapter configured with another application such as WPA supplicant is required.
To use wlan0 You should create a suitable /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant-wlan0.conf e.g.

ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
country=<2 letter ISO 3166-1 country code>

network={
    ssid="ESSID"
    psk="Your_wifi_password"
}

(If you have existing WiFi setup you can copy the file /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf.)

Create a .network file in /etc/systemd/network.

[Match]
Name=wlan0

[Network]
DHCP=ipv4

[DHCP]
RouteMetric=301

Having created the appropriate configuration files you NEED to disable existing networking and enable systemd-networkdservices.
NOTE there is NO NEED to purge existing network services. If disabled they will not interfere, and can be easily re-enabled if required.

sudo systemctl enable systemd-networkd
sudo systemctl disable dhcpcd
sudo systemctl disable networking

sudo systemctl enable systemd-resolved.service
sudo systemctl disable wpa_supplicant.service
sudo systemctl enable [email protected]

You can check the status using the following:-

systemctl status systemd-networkd
systemctl status systemd-resolved.service
systemctl status wpa_supplicant.service
systemctl status [email protected]
systemctl status dbus.service

References

1. Debian Wiki
2. The ArchLinux Wiki provides a comprehensive set of documentation.

First thing you should do is make your Raspberry pi's IP static. So that whenever you power up your Raspberry pi it should connect to your access point(Hotspot).

Connect to your Access point. Type ifconfig in raspberry pi's terminal and enter that IP address below, in my case it was 192.168.43.233

Start by editing the dhcpcd.conf file

sudo nano /etc/dhcpcd.conf

Scroll all the way to the bottom and add this lines at the end as per your connection (wired or wireless).

interface eth0

static ip_address=192.168.0.10/24
static routers=192.168.0.1
static domain_name_servers=192.168.0.1


interface wlan0
static ip_address=192.168.43.233/24
static routers=192.168.0.1
static domain_name_servers=192.168.0.1

Press Ctrl+x to save and reboot. Now power up your raspberry pi and it will automatically connect to your access point.

This tutorial describes how to setup networking using the default network manager dhcpcd included in Raspbian since 2015-05-05.
^{It applies to the Foundation releases of Raspberry Pi OS -Bullseye, Raspberry Pi OS -Buster, Raspbian Buster, Raspbian Stretch, Raspbian Jessie and the last Raspbian Wheezy.
Bullseye & Buster settings are identical to Stretch.}

How to setup Raspbian Networking - Preliminaries

The Pi3B+ and Pi4 have Gigabit Ethernet interfaces and will only work on a Gigabit Ethernet (1000BASE-T) router if a 8 wire CAT 5E cable is used. Earlier Pi models which only supported 100BASE-T work over 6 wire cable.

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NOTE The Pi3/Pi Zero W inbuilt WiFi does not support 5GHz networks, and may not connect to Ch 12,13 on 2.4GHz networks until wireless regulatory domain is set.

WiFi on 5GHz enabled devices is disabled until wireless regulatory domain is set (Pi4B, Pi3B+, Pi3A+)

• The domain can be set through Raspberry Pi Configuration (rc_gui), raspi-config or by setting country= to an appropriate ISO 3166 alpha2 country code in /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf.

If you use the latest Raspberry Pi Imager there are advanced options, invoked by the magic key sequence: Ctrl-Shift-X. These enable you to set many initial options; hostname, password, ssh, WiFi Country Code etc during imaging.

Setup a Static IP Address

Questions about setting Static IP Address are among the most common on this site. There are very many tutorials (many wrong, obsolete or incomplete).

If the reason you are contemplating a Static IP Address is you want your Pi to be assigned a predictable IP Address you can request the DHCP server to assign one.
E.g. Adding the following to /etc/dhcpcd.conf will request an address on wlan0 and on eth0.

interface wlan0
request 10.1.2.99

interface eth0
request 10.1.2.98

If you request an IP Address within the range managed by the DHCP server which is available this should be honoured, otherwise the DHCP server will allocate an address as normal.

Disclaimer

Before proceeding I feel obliged to state that setting up a static address is NOT recommended. Telecommunications Engineers do not do this. Static IP Addresses can be the bane of a Network Administrator's life. There are situations where Static IP Addresses are necessary e.g. if you are running a DHCP server, or running on an isolated network with no DHCP server.

If you want to have a known IP Address it is preferable to reserve one on your DHCP server - preferably outside the range served by DHCP (I do this for my network printers). This avoids the complication of determining gateways etc.

If you are determined to proceed anyway you should make sure you get it right.

Find the Settings of your local Network

This is most easily done with the Pi itself, using DHCP, but can be done on any computer on your network, although the commands may differ on other systems.

Run

ip -4 addr show | grep global

The above assumes IPV4 addressing - if your ISP uses IPV6 omit the "-4" parameter.

which should give an output like:

inet 10.1.1.30/24 brd 10.1.1.255 scope global eth0
inet 10.1.1.31/24 brd 10.1.1.255 scope global wlan0

The first address is the IP address of your Pi on the network, and the part after the slash is the network size. It is highly likely that yours will be a /24.

The second address is the brd (broadcast) address of the network.

Find the address of your router (or gateway)

ip route | grep default | awk '{print $3}'

10.1.1.1

Finally note down the address of your DNS server, which is often the same as your gateway.

cat /etc/resolv.conf

# Generated by resolvconf
nameserver 10.1.1.1

Then follow ONE of the following methods. (There are other methods not documented here. These are the most common on Raspbian.) (In either method substitute the appropriate network interface name for eth0, wlan0 or predictable network interface names.)

If you want to find the interface names, even if not connected, run the following command ls /sys/class/net/

In either method you should choose IP addresses which are not in use; ideally outside the range used by your DHCP server, within the same sub-network.

dhcpcd method

Leave /etc/network/interfaces at its default (as above).

Edit /etc/dhcpcd.conf as follows:-

 Here is an example which configures a static address, routes and dns.
       interface eth0
       static ip_address=10.1.1.30/24
       static routers=10.1.1.1
       static domain_name_servers=10.1.1.1

       interface wlan0
       static ip_address=10.1.1.31/24
       static routers=10.1.1.1
       static domain_name_servers=10.1.1.1

ip_address is the address and size from the command above (or another unused address on the same network), routers is the address of your router (or gateway). domain_name_servers is the DNS address(es) from /etc/resolv.conf. (see man dhcpcd.conf)

There is a good article on dhcpcd at https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/dhcpcd The Fallback profile is an alternative to static IP

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Network Interfaces method

NOTE This method is NOT recommended (and only works if you disable the DHCP client daemon), particularly if you plan to use both interfaces.

Configure a static network adddress on your Pi in /etc/network/interfaces

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
        address 10.1.1.30
        netmask 255.255.255.0
        gateway 10.1.1.1

allow-hotplug wlan0
iface wlan0 inet static
        address 10.1.1.31
        netmask 255.255.255.0
        gateway 10.1.1.1
    wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

address is the address from the command above (or another unused address on the same network), netmask 255.255.255.0 corresponds to network size/24. gateway is the address of your router (or gateway).

You can also specify dns-nameservers, but this is generally not necessary. The broadcast is automatically derived from address and netmask and need not be specified. For more detail see https://wiki.debian.org/NetworkConfiguration

You can set either or both eth0, wlan0 or one of the predictable network interface names

Then disable the DHCP client daemon and switch to standard Debian networking:

sudo systemctl disable dhcpcd
sudo systemctl enable networking

Reboot for the changes to take effect:

sudo reboot

Short and foolproof method how to do this with:

Raspbian Jessie, Stretch, Buster

This will set a fixed IP and enable the ssh daemon:

• Stick the sd card in your pc and find that it has two partitions; mount the smallest partition as /boot/
• Open /boot/cmdline.txt and add ip=192.168.1.20 to the end of the line.
• Create an empty file /boot/ssh
• Unmount the sd card from the pc, insert in the Pi and boot your Raspberry Pi
• On Linux start ssh [email protected] the password is raspberry. Use Putty on Windows to connect via ssh.
• On the Pi, configure settings to enable SSH, e.g. with GUI or raspi-config, because /boot/ssh is automatically removed at first boot

I'm using to this to access my Raspbian Jessie and Stretch which boots without a attached monitor, with power and ethernet only. After accessing it with a ssh shell I can continue my setup.

After this treatment the Raspberry PI had two IPs: One from the fixed IP you specified and one from the dhcp-client running on the Raspberry Pi.

ifconfig will show you the fixed IP. Whereas the blue arrow-Icon on the top-right shows the dhcpd-IP.

For a static IP address on an Ethernet connection:

1. sudo nano /etc/dhcpcd.conf

2. Type in the following lines on the top of the file:

   interface eth0
   static ip_address=192.168.1.XX/24
   static routers=192.168.1.1
   static domain_name_servers=192.168.1.1
   

3. sudo reboot

This needs to be done for the recent Jessie update. /etc/network/interfaces should be left alone. Open your browser and enter your router address (192.168.1.1 for most) and check your home network to make sure the Raspberry Pi shows up as 'Static'.

Apologies - Links to raspberrypi.org/documentation are broken.

In an act of monumental arrogance/incompetence all raspberrypi.org Documentation was moved/changed on 9 August, without any redirection or even a meaningful error.

This has invalidated hundreds of existing Tutorials and Answers.
Hopefully the links now point somewhere useful.
NOTE be patient, the new Documentation downloads a large HTML file, even though a small portion is relevant.

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This tutorial describes how to setup networking using the default network manager dhcpcd included in Raspbian since 2015-05-05.
^{It applies to the Foundation releases of Raspberry Pi OS -Bullseye, Raspberry Pi OS -Buster, Raspbian Buster, Raspbian Stretch, Raspbian Jessie and the last Raspbian Wheezy.
Bullseye & Buster settings are identical to Stretch.}

How to setup Raspbian Networking

If you are using an Ethernet connection with a router there should be no configuration required and it should work out of the box.

The Pi3B+ and Pi4 have Gigabit Ethernet interfaces and will only work on a Gigabit Ethernet (1000BASE-T) router if a 8 wire CAT 5E cable is used. Earlier Pi models which only supported 100BASE-T work over 6 wire cable.

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NOTE The Pi3/Pi Zero W inbuilt WiFi does not support 5GHz networks, and may not connect to Ch 12,13 on 2.4GHz networks until wireless regulatory domain is set.

WiFi on 5GHz enabled devices is disabled until wireless regulatory domain is set (Pi4B, Pi3B+, Pi3A+)

• The domain can be set through Raspberry Pi Configuration (rc_gui), raspi-config or by setting country= to an appropriate ISO 3166 alpha2 country code in /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf.

If you use the latest Raspberry Pi Imager there are advanced options, invoked by the magic key sequence: Ctrl-Shift-X. These enable you to set many initial options; hostname, password, ssh, WiFi Country Code etc during imaging. This should enable you to setup a headless system, without the need to edit any files.

If you are using WiFi and the GUI set up by following Using the Desktop

If you are using WiFi from the Command Line set up by following Using the Command Line
This is the only way to set up a network which does not broadcast SSID.

This can also be used to setup a 'Headless' system e.g. using a serial console cable, but it MUCH easier if you can borrow a monitor and keyboard for setup. See below for another possible method using an Ethernet cable to a PC.

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For most users READ NO FURTHER

The following are Advanced options

Headless Raspbian WiFi Setup

Raspbian, since May 2016, checks the contents of the boot directory for a file called wpa_supplicant.conf, and will copy the file into /etc/wpa_supplicant, replacing any existing wpa_supplicant.conf file that may be there. The file in the boot directory is then removed. This can be used to enable headless setup, using the wpa_supplicant.conf settings detailed below or Setting up a Raspberry Pi headless (You will probably want to enable ssh as well.)

NOTE the links to raspberrypi.org suggest using ifconfig - this is deprecated use ip a; ip r instead.

NOTE If you use the latest Raspberry Pi Imager the advanced options Ctrl-Shift-X make the above unnecessary.

What is my IP Address?

If you just want to know the IP Address your Pi is using enter hostname -I on the command line.

SSH

As of the November 2016 release, Raspbian has the SSH server disabled by default. You will have to enable it manually.

Enter sudo raspi-config in the terminal, first select advanced options, then navigate to ssh, press Enter and select Enable or disable ssh server.

For headless setup, SSH can be enabled by placing a file named 'ssh', without any extension, onto the boot partition of the SD card.

Networking Files

If you are running a recent Raspbian /etc/network/interfaces should be as below. If you have changed it PUT IT BACK. (Or on Stretch just delete it - it effectively does NOTHING.)

# interfaces(5) file used by ifup(8) and ifdown(8)

# Please note that this file is written to be used with dhcpcd
# For static IP, consult /etc/dhcpcd.conf and 'man dhcpcd.conf'

# Include files from /etc/network/interfaces.d:
source-directory /etc/network/interfaces.d

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The file /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf will be created/modified by the recommended setup methods, but can be setup by hand. Recent Raspbian have an option in raspi-config to enter SSID and Password. It should contain something like the following:-

ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
country=AU

network={
    ssid="ESSID"
    psk="Your_wifi_password"
}

If you need to connect to a private network (i.e. no broadcast SSID) include the line scan_ssid=1 inside network={⋯}.

NOTE If you want to connect to different networks (e.g. at work or home) you can include multiple network={⋯} entries.

If you have access to multiple networks and want to connect to a specific network, include the line priority=100 inside the network={⋯} entry.
You can select a different priority for each network, the highest priority accessible network will be selected; the default is 0.

There are many other options which can be used see man wpa_supplicant.conf.

Notes on obsolete Operating Systems

Jessie does not include the 10-wpa_supplicant hook to manage WiFi interfaces, so links to wpa_supplicant are needed. These settings are incompatible with Predictable Network Interface Names.

The /etc/network/interfaces used by Jessie should be:-

# interfaces(5) file used by ifup(8) and ifdown(8)

# Please note that this file is written to be used with dhcpcd
# For static IP, consult /etc/dhcpcd.conf and 'man dhcpcd.conf'

# Include files from /etc/network/interfaces.d:
source-directory /etc/network/interfaces.d

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

iface eth0 inet manual

allow-hotplug wlan0
iface wlan0 inet manual
    wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

allow-hotplug wlan1
iface wlan1 inet manual
    wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

NOTE calling dhcp in /etc/network/interfaces will disable dhcpcd.

Predictable Network Interface Names

Stretch introduced¹ predictable network interface names which have been used in other distributions for some time.

Network interfaces will have names formed from a prefix en — Ethernet or wl — wlan followed by x indicating MAC and the MAC e.g. enxb827eb123456 or wlx00c140123456. The onboard WiFi of the Pi4, Pi3 and PIZeroW which is connected over sdio will however use the name wlan0

This can be beneficial to those using multiple network interfaces, however for most Pi users, with a single Ethernet and WiFi interface will make little difference. The previous names eth0 and wlan0 can be restored if you pass net.ifnames=0 on the kernel command line in /boot/cmdline.txt.

There is an option in raspi-config to enable predictable network interface names.

^{1. For some incomprehensible reason the Foundation decided to "Disable predictable network interface names for Ethernet devices" only 3 weeks after introducing the long-awaited feature. There is an option under Advanced Options of raspi-config to toggle this setting.}

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Setup a Static IP Address

If you want your Pi to be assigned a predictable IP Address you can either reserve one in your router OR request the DHCP server to assign one.
E.g. the following will request an address on wlan0.

interface wlan0
request 10.1.2.99

request [address]
Request the address in the DHCP DISCOVER message. There is no guarantee this is the address the DHCP server will actually give. If no address is given then the first address currently assigned to the interface is used.

If you request an IP Address within the range managed by the DHCP server which is available this should be honoured, otherwise the DHCP server will allocate an address as normal.

If you want an IP Address outside the range managed by the DHCP server e.g. if you have a range of addresses reserved use the inform directive.

inform address[/cidr[/broadcast_address]]
This does not get a lease, just notifies the DHCP server of the address in use. You should also include the optional CIDR network number in case the address is not already configured on the interface.

If you REALLY need a static IP Address see separate answer Static IP Address

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Advanced dhcpcd Configuration

Raspbian, by default, uses dhcpcd to manage network interfaces. This is automatic, and most users need do no more than specify the SSID and password for wireless networks.

It is possible to configure how dhcpcd works by entering options in /etc/dhcpcd.conf; see man dhcpcd.conf.There is a good article on dhcpcd at https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/dhcpcd

The following describe some of the more common configurations:-

Fallback profile

It is possible to configure a static profile within dhcpcd and fall back to it when DHCP lease fails. This is useful particularly for headless machines, where the static profile can be used as "recovery" profile to ensure that it is always possible to connect to the machine. The static profile is setup as any other Static IP Address

    # define static profile
    profile static_eth0
    static ip_address=⋯
    static routers=⋯
    static domain_name_servers=⋯

    # fallback to static profile on eth0
    interface eth0
    fallback static_eth0

Prevent dhcpcd from configuring an interface

This is often done to enable the Pi to act as an Access Point (which needs to be configured using other files), while allowing normal DHCP configuration on other interfaces.

Add denyinterfaces wlan0 to the end of the file (but above any other added interface lines).

Prevent dhcpcd from configuring a gateway on an interface

If you want an interface to not install any default routes (often used in conjunction with a static IP address) specify

    nogateway

Host Specific Configuration

dhcpcd can configure interfaces dependent on the host network. This uses the Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) to probe hosts based on MAC or IP address before attempting DHCP resolution.

    interface bge0
    arping 192.168.0.1

    # My specific 192.168.0.1 network
    profile dd:ee:aa:dd:bb:ee
    static ip_address=192.168.0.10/24

    # A generic 192.168.0.1 network
    profile 192.168.0.1
    static ip_address=192.168.0.98/24

You can speed up DHCP by disabling ARP probing if you are not using these features and have a simple network.

    noarp

Use different wpa_supplicant files

It is possible to configure dhcpcd to use different wpa_supplicant.conf files for a specific wireless interface.

Create a file named wpa_supplicant-"$interface".conf in /etc/wpa_supplicant/ e.g. wpa_supplicant-wlan0.conf will only be used by wlan0

/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf will be used for any other wireless interfaces.

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Connecting a Computer to the Pi

Recent versions of Raspbian (which use dhcpcd) allow ssh to work over a link-local address and avahi (which is a zeroconf implementation) enables programs to discover hosts running on a local network.

This means you can plug the Pi into a Computer (with an Ethernet cable) or a local network router and connect without knowing the IP address.

You can easily connect from Linux and OS X with ssh [email protected] (the default hostname is raspberrypi) This should work with popular GUI ssh programs. This is sometimes problematic with some versions of Windows and networks which use .local in a non-standard way. (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.local)

NOTE .local resolution does not always work e.g. in rsync. The following should resolve IP (and can be included in bash scripts)
RemotePi=$(getent hosts hostname.local | awk '{ print $1 }')

If your system does not have getent to query the hosts e.g. macOS you can use the following:-
RemotePi=$(arp -n hostname.local | awk '{x = $2; gsub(/[()]/, "", x); print x }')

If you have multiple Pi you need to make sure each Pi has a unique hostname.

You can use a crossover cable, but you don't need one (most modern interfaces automatically detect).

One drawback of direct connection is that the Pi will have no Internet access and the date will not be set. You can copy the date from the host by running ssh [email protected] sudo date -s$(date -Ins) before connection.

Scope:

This tutorial is about setting up a normal Raspbian installation to access the internet using the included software. It also covers connections to other computers on the same network.

It is primarily aimed at helping new users struggling to get their Pi (especially WiFi) working .

It does NOT cover:-

• Other Network Managers.
• Running advanced networking on the Pi (e.g. DHCP servers, Tunnelling, VPN, Access Point).
• Use of ipv6 (although if you have an ipv6 network this should work).
• Alternate networking setups. (There are many different ways of setting up networking.)