What are enp6s0, lo, wlp5s0, lobal>, global>?

C

CrazedNerd

Guest
I'm guessing that these are all internet drivers, for lack of better terminology, they came from my ifconfig output:

Code: 
enp6s0: flags=4099<UP,BROADCAST,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        ether 04:42:1a:ef:58:a6  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0
        device memory 0xfcb00000-fcbfffff 

lo: flags=73<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING>  mtu 65536
        inet 127.0.0.1  netmask 255.0.0.0
        inet6 ::1  prefixlen 128  scopeid 0x10<host>
        loop  txqueuelen 1000  (Local Loopback)
        RX packets 1484  bytes 164235 (164.2 KB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 1484  bytes 164235 (164.2 KB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

wlp5s0: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST>  mtu 1430
        inet 192.168.1.45  netmask 255.255.255.0  broadcast 192.168.1.255
        inet6 2600:380:195d:618b:46e:5299:6d92:9fca  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x0<global>
        inet6 fe80::96d6:b2ca:a7be:ed6a  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x20<link>
        inet6 2600:380:195d:618b:83b6:4a47:5cc4:cd96  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x0<global>
        ether 20:1e:88:d5:ae:bc  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 16368  bytes 18031563 (18.0 MB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 8481  bytes 3034671 (3.0 MB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0
 


I might fudge up the middle.

1. Your ethernet connection.
2. A loopback device.
3. Your wireless.

They're not named eth0 anymore, really.

Anyhow, you can guess what's going on with two of them. The loopback is that the kernel and software sends stuff to port, but they're local and reserved ports. The other two are obvious. You can see the loopback and wireless device has had some traffic. The loopback is just a virtual network that your kernel and software are interfacing on.
 
KGIII said:
I might fudge up the middle.

1. Your ethernet connection.
2. A loopback device.
3. Your wireless.

They're not named eth0 anymore, really.

Anyhow, you can guess what's going on with two of them. The loopback is that the kernel and software sends stuff to port, but they're local and reserved ports. The other two are obvious. You can see the loopback and wireless device has had some traffic. The loopback is just a virtual network that your kernel and software are interfacing on.
Click to expand...
Are local> and global> the loop back devices? I swear I put those up there...
 
this is what it looks like now, no further comment. Not sure why this command is still part of linux installations by default if it's obsolete:

Code: 
enp6s0: flags=4099<UP,BROADCAST,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        ether 04:42:1a:ef:58:a6  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0
        device memory 0xfcb00000-fcbfffff 

lo: flags=73<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING>  mtu 65536
        inet 127.0.0.1  netmask 255.0.0.0
        inet6 ::1  prefixlen 128  scopeid 0x10<host>
        loop  txqueuelen 1000  (Local Loopback)
        RX packets 1083  bytes 116138 (116.1 KB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 1083  bytes 116138 (116.1 KB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

wlp5s0: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST>  mtu 1430
        inet 192.168.1.45  netmask 255.255.255.0  broadcast 192.168.1.255
        inet6 fe80::96d6:b2ca:a7be:ed6a  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x20<link>
        inet6 2600:380:195d:618b:d10c:3e82:992a:1de2  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x0<global>
        inet6 2600:380:195d:618b:83b6:4a47:5cc4:cd96  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x0<global>
        ether 20:1e:88:d5:ae:bc  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 17239  bytes 21588304 (21.5 MB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 7358  bytes 1118803 (1.1 MB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0
 
CrazedNerd said:
Not sure why this command is still part of linux installations by default if it's obsolete:
Click to expand...

Probably to give people time to change, especially those who have scripts that still use the deprecated command. That'd be my guess.

You can actually rename your network interfaces:

linux-tips.us

How To: Rename Your Network Adapters in Ubuntu • Linux Tips

For whimsy or for whatever reasons you dream up, you may want to rename your network adapters in Linux. Well, you can. This article will explain how to rename your network adapters, from perhaps eth0 to whatever you want.
linux-tips.us linux-tips.us
 
KGIII said:
Probably to give people time to change, especially those who have scripts that still use the deprecated command. That'd be my guess.

You can actually rename your network interfaces:

linux-tips.us

How To: Rename Your Network Adapters in Ubuntu • Linux Tips

For whimsy or for whatever reasons you dream up, you may want to rename your network adapters in Linux. Well, you can. This article will explain how to rename your network adapters, from perhaps eth0 to whatever you want.
linux-tips.us linux-tips.us
Click to expand...
not much of a point in that if i don't understand what they do, but thank you.
 
CrazedNerd said:
not much of a point in that if i don't understand what they do, but thank you.
Click to expand...
I told you what they did. The first one is your wired connection - which is idle 'cause you're using wireless. The second one is a loopback device, meaning that it's the computer interacting with itself on various ports. The final one is your wireless device. That's active. You can tell by reading the data included.

I'm reasonably sure about the loopback device... Lemme check...

Yeah, that's what it does. There's also this lovely gem from my search results:

 
You have a few "buses" on your computer. These are simply hardware wire channels for
data to get from one component to another. From RAM to disk, from CPU to RAM.
From USB drive to Network Interface. I'm over-simplifying a little bit here. But that's the general idea.

If you run a pretty common linux command lspci (list devices on the pci bus) It will output something like this.

00:00.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse Root Complex
00:01.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse PCIe Dummy Host Bridge
00:01.2 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse GPP Bridge
00:02.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse PCIe Dummy Host Bridge
00:03.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse PCIe Dummy Host Bridge
00:03.1 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse GPP Bridge
00:04.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse PCIe Dummy Host Bridge
00:05.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse PCIe Dummy Host Bridge
00:07.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse PCIe Dummy Host Bridge
00:07.1 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse Internal PCIe GPP Bridge 0 to bus[E:B]
00:08.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse PCIe Dummy Host Bridge
00:08.1 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse Internal PCIe GPP Bridge 0 to bus[E:B]
00:14.0 SMBus: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH SMBus Controller (rev 61)
00:14.3 ISA bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH LPC Bridge (rev 51)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse/Vermeer Data Fabric: Device 18h; Function 0
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse/Vermeer Data Fabric: Device 18h; Function 1
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse/Vermeer Data Fabric: Device 18h; Function 2
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse/Vermeer Data Fabric: Device 18h; Function 3
00:18.4 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse/Vermeer Data Fabric: Device 18h; Function 4
00:18.5 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse/Vermeer Data Fabric: Device 18h; Function 5
00:18.6 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse/Vermeer Data Fabric: Device 18h; Function 6
00:18.7 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse/Vermeer Data Fabric: Device 18h; Function 7
01:00.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse Switch Upstream
02:01.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse PCIe GPP Bridge
02:02.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse PCIe GPP Bridge
02:05.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse PCIe GPP Bridge
02:06.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse PCIe GPP Bridge
02:08.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse PCIe GPP Bridge
02:09.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse PCIe GPP Bridge
02:0a.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse PCIe GPP Bridge
03:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller: Intel Corporation SSD 660P Series (rev 03)
04:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82571EB/82571GB Gigabit Ethernet Controller D0/D1 (copper applications) (rev 06)
04:00.1 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82571EB/82571GB Gigabit Ethernet Controller D0/D1 (copper applications) (rev 06)
05:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wi-Fi 6 AX200 (rev 1a)
06:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation I211 Gigabit Network Connection (rev 03)
07:00.0 Non-Essential Instrumentation [1300]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse Reserved SPP
07:00.1 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse USB 3.0 Host Controller
07:00.3 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse USB 3.0 Host Controller
08:00.0 SATA controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 51)
09:00.0 SATA controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 51)
0a:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation TU104 [GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER] (rev a1)
0a:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation TU104 HD Audio Controller (rev a1)
0a:00.2 USB controller: NVIDIA Corporation TU104 USB 3.1 Host Controller (rev a1)
0a:00.3 Serial bus controller: NVIDIA Corporation TU104 USB Type-C UCSI Controller (rev a1)
0b:00.0 Non-Essential Instrumentation [1300]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse PCIe Dummy Function
0c:00.0 Non-Essential Instrumentation [1300]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse Reserved SPP
0c:00.1 Encryption controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse Cryptographic Coprocessor PSPCPP
0c:00.3 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse USB 3.0 Host Controller
0c:00.4 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse HD Audio Controller

The numbers at the beginning of each line are the device number. Sometimes this correlates with a physical slot,
but not always. Sometimes there are "virtual" slots.
In my case, notice I have two Ethernet controllers in slot 4 above. This is a physical ethernet card with 2 ports on it.
They show up like this, if I do something like "ip add"

enp4s0f0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state DOWN group default qlen 1000
link/ether 00:26:55:ea:b9:aa brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
enp4s0f1: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state DOWN group default qlen 1000
link/ether 00:26:55:ea:b9:ab brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

enp4.... ethernet... network.... pci-bus, slot4. e n p 4. I have two interfaces on the same card so they show up
0f0 and 0f1.

I also have an "on-board" eternet controller in "slot" 6. This isn't a physical card in a physical slot.
It's made onto the motherboard. There isn't really a standard convention for this yet, but many times
on-board devices will show up "eno" ethernet network on-board. as opposed to "enp" ethernet network pci.

So if you have ethernet controllers in slots 2 and 3, they would show up as enp2s0 and enp3s0

I also have a wifi chipset in slot 5. Again this isn't a physical card in a physical slot. It is just made
onto the motherboard. lspci tells me this is a wifi device. This shows up as...

wlp5s0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state DOWN group default qlen 1000
link/ether 1a:82:f3:fd:04:f8 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff permaddr 50:e0:85:f4:47:d

wlp... WireLess Pci in slot 5.

You can almost always tell what your network interface name will be by looking at lspci.

I also have yet another network interface on this computer. So why didn't show up in lspci ?
Because it is a USB device. If I run lsusb This will list my USB devices. The output might look
similar to this.

Bus 008 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 002: ID 13b1:0041 Linksys Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 046d:0894 Logitech, Inc. CrystalCam
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 152d:2578 JMicron Technology Corp. / JMicron USA Technology Corp. USB to SATA bridge
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 8087:0029 Intel Corp. AX200 Bluetooth
Bus 001 Device 007: ID 1b1c:0c1a Corsair CORSAIR Lighting Node CORE
Bus 001 Device 006: ID 1b1c:0c19 Corsair H100i RGB SE
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 05e3:0608 Genesys Logic, Inc. Hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 05e3:0608 Genesys Logic, Inc. Hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 046d:c534 Logitech, Inc. Unifying Receiver
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

Notice I have an ethernet adapter in bus 004, dev 002, This shows up ip addr as...

enp7s0f3u4: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state DOWN group default qlen 1000
link/ether c0:56:27:8f:ea:2a brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

Notice up in the lspci out I had a USB controller in slot slot.
So this interface starts off like the others.... enp7... and it ends with ... 3u4 Notice I had a slot 3 above, and this is the 4
device on that USB controller. Simple huh?

So to re-cap.

eno = ethernet network interface "on board"
enp = ethernet network interface "on PCI"
enu = usb ethernet interface "on USB"
wlp = wireless on PCI.
I do see "wlu" sometimes... anyone want to take a guess....
 
Last edited:
KGIII said:
I'm reasonably sure about the loopback device... Lemme check...
Click to expand...

It is an RFC standard, that every networked computer have at least one "loop-back" interface.

It will almost always show up as "lo"

lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
inet6 ::1/128 scope host

According to the RFC, it will ALWAYS have an IP address of 127.0.0.1. This is a reserved IP address that you
can't use for any other purpose. 127.0.0.1 or "localhost" is always "myself" ( this computer ).
Every single computer, tablet, smart-phone, or printer has at least one interface designated as a loopback interface.
If you have a smart television, smart appliances, or even a smart door-bell camera... guess what...
It not only has an IP address, it has a loopback address, and that address will always be 127.0.0.1
 
Last edited:
You might think... well aren't all network interfaces ethernet? No.
Wifi interfaces for example, blueTooth is another example... while they are both "network" ports
neither of them is ethernet. Also, there are other kinds of network adapter types, one of my customers still uses
an ancient (circa early 1990's) network called token-ring, which also is not ethernet.
 
KGIII said:
Probably to give people time to change, especially those who have scripts that still use the deprecated command. That'd be my guess.
Click to expand...

Probably right, but not all distro's still support the old ifconfig, ifup and ifdown commands.
Fedora for example, forces you to use NetworkManager ( nmcli ). You have to use nmcli con up and nmcli con down
You can install a "wrapper" called network-scripts, but these are just bash scripts that run nmcli in the back-ground.
 
Thanks for all the replies (it's less effort than hitting the like button with each one...), i should have just asked if there's a name or names to what's in the far left column of the ipconfig command, but otherwise no it's not great to use it because ip is a lot more flexible.
 
the command "ip link show" shows every relevant hardware device that can connect you to the internet, the link layer is the same as the hardware layer:


phoenixnap.com

Linux IP Command Ultimate Tutorial with 31 Examples

Updated Linux tutorial on How to Use the ip Command. A Comprehensive List of 31 ip commands for system and network administrators, with examples.
phoenixnap.com

the output is much simpler, which i like...less terms to put in google and forget later!

Code: 
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
2: enp6s0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state DOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 04:42:1a:ef:58:a6 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
3: wlp5s0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1430 qdisc noqueue state UP mode DORMANT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 20:1e:88:d5:ae:bc brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

PS: Duck-a-go-go is much better for stuff like this, because it outputs an entire page of technical information, whereas google rephrases your question and shows you ads. I circumvented Google and just consulted the notes i was taking on "how linux works" to record the part in bold i put there, among other things...

EDIT: no need for the "show", the output remains the same with "ip link"
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I actually get the best results from Google - but I let Google track my searches. I don't even need to specify Linux when searching. Google knows what I'm after. For a while, Bing was even better.

But, in order for either of them to be any good, you need to spend some months doing all your searches there exclusively. Personalized search results are awesome and I knowingly cede privacy to get them. I'm perfectly okay with the exchange.
 
CrazedNerd wrote:
Duck-a-go-go
Click to expand...
That would "the dancing browser" I guess formerly known as DuckDuckGo :) . Without getting into the browser wars, I did enjoy your sense of humour! Thanks also for sharing that useful website on the ip command.
 
NorthWest said:
CrazedNerd wrote:

That would "the dancing browser" I guess formerly known as DuckDuckGo :) . Without getting into the browser wars, I did enjoy your sense of humour! Thanks also for sharing that useful website on the ip command.
Click to expand...
Haha, I didn't try lol, I tend to make up words and sounds pretty compulsively...
 
KGIII said:
I actually get the best results from Google - but I let Google track my searches. I don't even need to specify Linux when searching. Google knows what I'm after. For a while, Bing was even better.

But, in order for either of them to be any good, you need to spend some months doing all your searches there exclusively. Personalized search results are awesome and I knowingly cede privacy to get them. I'm perfectly okay with the exchange.
Click to expand...
Yeah, there's some truth to that, except there's always some "wierd question" you have that people don't ask very often or at all and Google can't answer it...and like you i don't really care that google is collecting my information because i know why they are collecting my information, and assuming they're evil and going down the rabbit hole is just going possibly create some more dangerous delusions...

Reading an article all the way through is generally the best way to learn things, because the writer is tying certain ideas together in a story like manner. The tricky thing about the whole IT field is that there are a lot of terms which almost mean the same thing but don't just like in banking/finance...

Understand my username now:p Feel free to disagree with me as that's the whole point of me being here.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
CrazedNerd said:
Feel free to disagree with me as that's the whole point of me being here.
Click to expand...

But... You can't reason someone out of a position they didn't reason themselves into. ;)

On a more realistic track... I don't see any reason to use (to me) inferior search results on the off-chance that Google fails me. Instead, I use Google and sometimes check another search engine or two if it appears that Google is stumped. That usually doesn't help any, but I like to be thorough.
 
KGIII said:
But... You can't reason someone out of a position they didn't reason themselves into. ;)

On a more realistic track... I don't see any reason to use (to me) inferior search results on the off-chance that Google fails me. Instead, I use Google and sometimes check another search engine or two if it appears that Google is stumped. That usually doesn't help any, but I like to be thorough.
Click to expand...
i guess i just prefer to use each of my devices a different way, i haven't used Duck-duck-go in a while and it's a new experience again on my linux mint parition...and i know i could used google the same way, but woah, i actually know what the difference is between an MTU and a packet now...
 
I've also heard lots of good things about startpage.com, if you're interested in alternatives.

Bing gave brilliant results to tech questions for a while. They went downhill - and went there fast. Dunno why it was, but in just a few months their results were pretty crappy.
 
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