There are a couple of pieces in play here. One aspect is that we don't really want to write the .link files for systemd-networkd to /lib or get anything from /run into the initrd -- that defeats the purpose of netplan's config being dynamic.
The second aspect is that depending on how the systems are deployed (MAAS? cloud images? openstack? VM? hardware?) changes the behavior a bit. Some USB-based network interfaces are simply "unaffected" and rename just fine at boot. Other systems may be renaming the interfaces, but seeing cloud-init re-change the name *back* to the previous value (this has been observed for MAAS-deployed systems). This is why I added cloud-init to affected packages -- cloud-init should not be second- guessing the network layer and attempting to do renames / to run udevadm, except *maybe* at first boot/when the instance data is created. I believe it should just leave it alone completely, and let netplan/systemd/NM deal with the interfaces themselves (if anything needs to be poked, it's arguably a bug in the backend). Another issue is that systemd is also second-guessing configuration. If we set things to be renamed, we do want them to be renamed. Now, this is a bit more up to discussion upstream, but I do think systemd should always rename if configuration tells it to (via .link files or udev rules -- .link files are "cleaner", easier to write). Users renaming their interfaces manually via 'ip link dev X name Y' are doing so on their own, and the change would not be persistent across a reboot -- renaming in configuration is expected to work normally. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Touch seeded packages, which is subscribed to systemd in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1770082 Title: systemd-networkd not renaming devices on boot Status in netplan: Confirmed Status in cloud-init package in Ubuntu: Confirmed Status in systemd package in Ubuntu: Confirmed Bug description: === systemd issue === Renaming devices doesn't seem to work. If I disable all other network configuration and create /etc/systemd/network/10-network.link with: [Match] MACAddress=52:54:00:c1:c9:bb [Link] Name=myiface3 I expect this to cause the device with that MAC address to be renamed to myiface3. However, when I reboot, I instead see: $ ip l 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: ens3: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc noop state DOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000 link/ether 52:54:00:c1:c9:bb brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff The device is not renamed. This link file is pretty much identical to Example 2 in https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd.link.html. The renaming does work if I boot with net.ifnames=0, and oddly, it also works if I unbind the device and rebind it as netplan apply does. No setting of NamePolicy seems to help. === Original Bug == 'set-name:' doesn't change the name of a network interface on boot, it only works when you do netplan apply. Say I take this 50-cloud-init.yaml file: # This file is generated from information provided by # the datasource. Changes to it will not persist across an instance. # To disable cloud-init's network configuration capabilities, write a file # /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/99-disable-network-config.cfg with the following: # network: {config: disabled} network: version: 2 ethernets: ens3: dhcp4: true match: macaddress: 52:54:00:de:bd:f6 set-name: ens3 Say I change set-name to 'myiface3' and reboot. I expect that the device will be called myiface3 and brought up fine with dhcp. However, instead I see: $ ip a 1: 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 valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever 2: ens3: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc noop state DOWN group default qlen 1000 link/ether 52:54:00:de:bd:f6 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff The name has not been changed, and the device has not been brought up. If I run netplan apply however, I see the following: 1: 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 valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever 3: myiface3: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP group default qlen 1000 link/ether 52:54:00:de:bd:f6 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff inet 192.168.122.151/24 brd 192.168.122.255 scope global dynamic myiface3 valid_lft 3575sec preferred_lft 3575sec inet6 fe80::5054:ff:fede:bdf6/64 scope link valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever So names are successfully changed with netplan apply. This seems to be some udev-related timing or priority issue that I'm still trying to hunt down. This breaks some forms of migration in certain cloud environments. 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