In Debian 12 Bookworm, the traditional ifconfig command is replaced by the ip command from the iproute2 package. The ip command provides more powerful and flexible networking tools compared to ifconfig.
“ifconfig” remains a useful command for basic network management tasks, advanced users and administrators often prefer using the “ip” command from the iproute2 package due to its more extensive functionality and enhanced features. Nevertheless, “ifconfig” continues to be a widely used tool for network interface management on Linux systems.
To use ifconfig in Debian 12, you can install the net-tools package, which includes the ifconfig command. However, it’s recommended to use the modern ip command for networking tasks. But we will see how we can install and fix ifconfig in our Debian 12..
Advantages of ifconfig
Network Interface Configuration: ifconfig provides a straightforward way to configure and manage network interfaces, including setting IP addresses, netmasks, and enabling or disabling interfaces.
Quick Network Information: It offers a quick overview of the current network settings and statistics for all active network interfaces, helping users troubleshoot and diagnose network-related issues.
Legacy Support: Although newer tools like “ip” have become more popular for network management, ifconfig is still available and widely used, ensuring compatibility with older systems and scripts.
Simple and Familiar Syntax: ifconfig’s command syntax is relatively straightforward, making it easy for both beginners and experienced users to work with network settings effectively.
On-the-Fly Configuration: Users can use ifconfig to change network settings on the fly, allowing for real-time adjustments and network optimizations without requiring a system restart.
We might encounter an error when running and using the ifconfig command. This is mostly because of missing the ifconfig in our Linux distribution.
Check ifconfig Availability
As we have talked about above, this command has been replaced with ip command. We can also use the ip addr command like the following.
Use ip addr
Now the question is how we can fix this ifconfig: command not found issue? We have several ways that we can practice.
If we install net-tools in our Debian 12, this issue will be removed from our Debian12.
Install net-tools for ifconfig Command
Let’s use the ifconfig command once again
There is a high likelihood that we may encounter the same error again. It is because we have to use the complete path of our ifconfig command to use it. The /sbin/ifconfig is the path of the ifconfig command. So we need to call it in Debian 12 to use ifconfig here.
Here we can successfully use the ifconfig command. So if we face a similar or same error from the ifconfig command, we can follow the solution above-mentioned.
Uninstall ifconfig
It is never a good idea to uninstall ifconfig from Debian 12 or from any Linux distribution. But still, if you want to uninstall it, it can be done with the following command.
To remove all the remaining packages automatically, we have a command as
Conclusion
The ifconfig command in Debian 12 has been replaced with ip and ip addr commands. Even in other Linux distributions in which the ifconfig command is available and supported, we might see the error related to ifconfig commands. To solve this issue we have a way around as we discussed above in the article.
