Fedora 20: Failed to start LSB: Bring up/down networking

Question

I'm trying to restart my networking service in Fedora 20, and I get the following error:

[dev@localhost das]$ sudo service network restart
[sudo] password for dev: 
Restarting network (via systemctl):  Job for network.service failed. See 'systemctl status network.service' and 'journalctl -xn' for details.
                                                           [FAILED]


[dev@localhost das]$ systemctl status network.service
network.service - LSB: Bring up/down networking
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/rc.d/init.d/network)
   Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Wed 2014-07-30 11:26:17 CDT; 8min ago

Jul 30 11:26:16 localhost.localdomain network[22542]: RTNETLINK answers: File exists
Jul 30 11:26:16 localhost.localdomain network[22542]: RTNETLINK answers: File exists
Jul 30 11:26:16 localhost.localdomain network[22542]: RTNETLINK answers: File exists
Jul 30 11:26:16 localhost.localdomain network[22542]: RTNETLINK answers: File exists
Jul 30 11:26:16 localhost.localdomain network[22542]: RTNETLINK answers: File exists
Jul 30 11:26:16 localhost.localdomain network[22542]: RTNETLINK answers: File exists
Jul 30 11:26:16 localhost.localdomain network[22542]: RTNETLINK answers: File exists
Jul 30 11:26:17 localhost.localdomain systemd[1]: network.service: control process exited, code=exited status=1
Jul 30 11:26:17 localhost.localdomain systemd[1]: Failed to start LSB: Bring up/down networking.
Jul 30 11:26:17 localhost.localdomain systemd[1]: Unit network.service entered failed state

[dev@localhost das]$ ll /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts  
total 216
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root   254 Jan 14  2014 ifcfg-lo
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root   319 Dec 23  2013 ifcfg-p2p1
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root    24 Jun  4 16:04 ifdown -> ../../../usr/sbin/ifdown
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root   627 Jan 14  2014 ifdown-bnep
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root  5553 Jan 14  2014 ifdown-eth
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root   781 Jan 14  2014 ifdown-ippp
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root  4141 Jan 14  2014 ifdown-ipv6
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root    11 Jun  4 16:04 ifdown-isdn -> ifdown-ippp
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root  1642 Jan 14  2014 ifdown-post
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root  1068 Jan 14  2014 ifdown-ppp
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root   837 Jan 14  2014 ifdown-routes
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root  1444 Jan 14  2014 ifdown-sit
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root  1599 Mar 31 03:52 ifdown-Team
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root  1556 Mar 31 03:52 ifdown-TeamPort
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root  1462 Jan 14  2014 ifdown-tunnel
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root    22 Jun  4 16:04 ifup -> ../../../usr/sbin/ifup
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 12449 Jan 14  2014 ifup-aliases
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root   859 Jan 14  2014 ifup-bnep
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 10293 Jan 14  2014 ifup-eth
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 12039 Jan 14  2014 ifup-ippp
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 10430 Jan 14  2014 ifup-ipv6
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root   804 Jan 14  2014 ifup-ipx
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root     9 Jun  4 16:04 ifup-isdn -> ifup-ippp
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root   642 Jan 14  2014 ifup-plip
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root  1043 Jan 14  2014 ifup-plusb
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root  2609 Jan 14  2014 ifup-post
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root  4154 Jan 14  2014 ifup-ppp
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root  1925 Jan 14  2014 ifup-routes
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root  3263 Jan 14  2014 ifup-sit
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root  1755 Mar 31 03:52 ifup-Team
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root  1876 Mar 31 03:52 ifup-TeamPort
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root  2607 Jan 14  2014 ifup-tunnel
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root  1621 Jan 14  2014 ifup-wireless
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root  4623 Jan 14  2014 init.ipv6-global
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 13793 Jan 14  2014 network-functions
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 26134 Jan 14  2014 network-functions-ipv6

Solution

I just ran into the same problem immediately after installing RHEL 7.0. Bizarrely enough, a reboot with no config changes eliminated the problem.

Somehow, when RHEL came up following the install, it's networking was apparently in a messed up state, and it needed another reboot to come up clean.

Comments

[Admin]

Have you manually edited these? If so, do you have more than one GATEWAY entry as it can cause the same symptoms?

[Admin]

@garethTheRed, I haven't, but I'm not the one who set up this VM.

[Admin]

You haven't edited them, or you do not have more than one GATEWAY entry?

[Admin]

Note that by now Fedora 20 is end-of-life, and much of the system administration tools have been overhauled. This question (and its answers) might be stale.