How to restart the networking service?

networking services

1,841,087

Solution 1

For Desktops

Try

sudo service network-manager restart

Or on recent Ubuntu versions:

sudo systemctl restart systemd-networkd

instead.

Ubuntu uses network-manager instead of the traditional Linux networking model. so you should restart the network-manager service instead of the network service. Or use ifup/down.

For Servers

Check this answer.

Solution 2

For Servers

Restarting networking on a desktop machine will cause dbus and a bunch of service to stop and never be started again, usually leading to the whole system being unusable.

As Ubuntu does event based network bring up, there quite simply isn't a way to undo it all and redo it all, so a restart just isn't plain possible. The recommended way instead is to use ifdown and ifup on the interfaces you actually want to reconfigure:

sudo ifdown --exclude=lo -a && sudo ifup --exclude=lo -a

Solution 3

You could try

ifconfig eth0 down && ifconfig eth0 up

(or whatever your network interface is called) to restart the network.

Solution 4

ubuntu CLI: to restart the network service either

sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

ifdown eth0
ifup eth0

Solution 5

For ubuntu server 18.04, this works :

sudo systemctl restart systemd-networkd

View more solutions

1,841,087

waspinator

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

waspinator over 1 year
I tried to use
```
sudo service networking restart
```
and
```
sudo /etc/init.d/network restart
```
but they both crash the window manager and I can no longer use my keyboard for input into X.

when I use the /etc/init.d/ method it complains saying that I should use the service utility
```
e.g. service networking restart
```
but it crashes just the same.

Is there a GUI method of restarting networking?
- Admin almost 11 years
  
  I also faced similar issue on Gnome 3 on Ubuntu 13.03. Screen disorted as top bar gone. Short keys not worked. As no menu/Activies shown I get no way to operate the system. Luckily console was opened already. So reboot command can be typed.
- Admin over 9 years
  
  if you are looking for GUI method just open dash, type "Network" and select that. now press "On/Off" button to turn off and again click to on. your networking is restarted now.
Marilou over 10 years

I'm getting ifup: failed to open lockfile /run/network/.ifstate.lock: Permission denied even on --force
aProperFox over 10 years

@waspinator - it happens to me too. (FYI.)
waspinator almost 10 years

@Jorge Castro: is this behavior going to be fixed, or is it broken by design?
Jorge Castro almost 10 years

@waspinator the bug is marked fixed as of march of this year: bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/dbus/+bug/1072518
Samveen almost 10 years

This does not restart the network services, that is, no retry for DHCP addresses etc.
moritz about 9 years

... as far as I know, this doesn't update the interface's config according to /etc/network/interfaces ... which you might want
tarkeshwar about 9 years

When using sudo: sudo ifconfig eth0 down && sudo ifconfig eth0 up. Otherwise if you are connected over ssh, you will have to reboot machine.
wolfgang over 8 years

I get a ifdown: interface eth0 not configured RTNETLINK answers: File exists Failed to bring up eth0.
Jon B over 8 years

after trying ifup/ifdown and the reg service networking call, this finally worked for me
Jeff Atwood over 8 years

what's the purpose of exclude=lo here?
Abdennour TOUMI over 8 years

Autocomplete give networking, however , the right cmd is network-manager
SomeoneSomewhereSupportsMonica almost 8 years

@JeffAtwood Loopback is used for X, dbus etc. Disabling it causes... issues.
Derek Mahar over 7 years

Worked on Ubuntu Server 16.04.1. Ubuntu Server doesn't appear to include Network Manager, so askubuntu.com/a/230751/13756 doesn't work.
cloudsurfin over 7 years

Try "systemctl restart networking.service" on server 16.04.
Underverse over 7 years

How is this better than sudo service network-manager restart and why?
danijelc over 7 years

This is solution which works always on 16.04. In my experience Ubuntu 16.04 have issues to restart Wi-Fi after returning from hibernation.
kcpr over 7 years

@Underverse, I believe that sudo service network-manager restart just didn't work for me when posting this answer.
josircg about 7 years

This used to work for older kernels. Now it seems that do not work indeed. Prefered ifconfig eth0 down & ifconfig eth0 up
Jonathan about 7 years

I wish I had tried Jorge's answer first.
Nikolay Kostov almost 7 years

Beware not to use this command when connecting on remote machine.
gilad905 almost 6 years

I think it's better than the accepted answer because ifup doesn't handle bonded interfaces correctly, while ifconfig does
Eduardo Lucio over 5 years

The ifdown --exclude=lo -a && ifup --exclude=lo -a command did not work for Ubuntu Server 14.04. The ifconfig eth0 down && ifconfig eth0 up command worked (askubuntu.com/a/230804/134723).
Gringo Suave over 5 years

Don't need the ".service" part at the end.
van abel over 5 years

Thus save my life, since I run /etc/init.d/iptables restart on my VPS, which turns the host has no ip address even after reboot. This solves my problem.
Ejoso about 5 years

As of 18.04.2 the answer is: systemctl restart systemd-networkd
LandiLeite almost 4 years

To new LTS 20.04 the comand above work, thanks!
user643722 over 3 years

On my Desktop system this answer gave me Failed to restart network-manager.service: Unit network-manager.service not found. I found the answer from @dagrha seems to work.
Mohammed Noureldin over 2 years

I confirm! This works on 20.04! Thanks!
Moritz Friedrich over 2 years

Why oh why do they change the name every year. Sigh. That works on 20.04.