In this chapter, we will discuss how to configure your Adélie Linux system for networking. Wired, wireless, and VPN connections using both static and dynamic IP addressing will be covered. In addition, advanced topics including interface bondage and KVM configuration will also be discussed.

The Adélie Linux system uses netifrc as its network configuration and management system. The netifrc system uses a declarative configuration syntax in a single file, /etc/conf.d/net, for ease of administration. All main system network configuration is declared in this file. Some additional configuration may be required for wireless or VPN connections; notably, wireless connections require WPA Supplicant to be configured using either wpa_gui (on computers that use X11), or in the /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf file. The default configuration for the Adélie Linux system uses the traditional Linux interface names (such as "eth0", "eth1", and "wlan0"). If you prefer the new "predictable" interface names (such as "enP2p36s15f0" or "wlp9s0"), refer to .

The netifrc configuration file consists of INI-style configuration variables. For example, config_eth0="dhcp" sets the variable config_eth0 to the value dhcp. By default, all interfaces on the system that are enabled will attempt to retrieve a DHCP address. Retrieving a DHCP address requires the dhcpcd package to be installed. To enable a network interface, you must create a symbolic link to /etc/init.d/net.lo in /etc/init.d named net.IFACE where IFACE is the name of the interface. For example, for the interface named eth0, you would run ln -s /etc/init.d/net.lo /etc/init.d/net.eth0. Next, you need to add the service to the default runlevel. As noted in , you would run rc-update add net.IFACE default to enable the net.IFACE service. You may then start the service, assuming the interface has been configured properly in /etc/conf.d/net. To disable a network interface, you must first stop it, if it is running. Next, remove it from the default runlevel (rc-update del net.IFACE default). Finally, remove the symbolic link in /etc/init.d.

Before we begin configuring the network, we will list the network adaptors available on your computer. This will ensure that the adaptor or adaptors were detected successfully by the kernel. To do this, ensure the iproute2 package is installed, and run the command ip link as root.

For the purposes of this handbook, a wired connection is a connection to a network that utilises Ethernet. While the Adélie Linux system supports ATM, CAN bus, IEEE 1394, and Token Ring networking, these connection types are exceedingly rare and out of the scope of this handbook.

Note that by default, all interfaces must be active before the rest of the system will consider the network to be active. This will cause network services to delay start-up until all interfaces are active. If this is not desired, you may set rc_depend_strict to NO in /etc/rc.conf.