network manager says "device not managed"

Question

enter image description here I used to be able to share my network connection by editing the Auto Eth0 to share with other computers in the Ipv4 section and now I upgraded my laptop to 11.10 .

Now are there no wired connections in the network manager. When I click my connections applet at the top of the tray it also says wired device not managed!

when I type ifconfig -a

daniella@daniella-1001HA:~$ ifconfig -a
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 90:e6:ba:83:d6:fc  
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
          Interrupt:45 

eth0:avahi Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 90:e6:ba:83:d6:fc  
          inet addr:169.254.13.40  Bcast:169.254.255.255  Mask:255.255.0.0
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          Interrupt:45 

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:25:d3:90:43:41  
          inet addr:192.168.0.6  Bcast:192.168.0.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::225:d3ff:fe90:4341/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:12881 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:12867 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:8851081 (8.8 MB)  TX bytes:2343199 (2.3 MB)

score 287 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 15 '25 at 17:50

wired device not managed

Most probably your interface appears in the /etc/network/interfaces file. By default, NetworkManager does not manage interfaces that appear in the /etc/network/interfaces file. You can change this behaviour.

To do this - in a terminal:

sudo nano /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf

change the line managed=false to managed=true

Save, stop and start network manager:

sudo service network-manager restart

Alternatively, you can remove the interface from the /etc/network/interfaces file.

backup the current interfaces file:

sudo cp /etc/network/interfaces /etc/network_interfaces_backup

Then open the file:

sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces

Delete everything in that file and copy and paste the following:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

Save, stop and start network manager:

sudo service network-manager restart

enter image description here

Double check in network manager (click on the indicator) that you have Enabled Networking ticked and you should also force deletion of old "wired connections" and selecting the new wired connection shown in the network manager indicator.

score 57 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 06 '22 at 15:44

57

Ubuntu installs a config file that sets most devices unmanaged:

/usr/lib/NetworkManager/conf.d/10-globally-managed-devices.conf:

[keyfile]
unmanaged-devices=*,except:type:wifi,except:type:gsm,except:type:cdma

To disable this, You can create a blank file with the same name in /etc:

sudo touch /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/10-globally-managed-devices.conf
sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager

edited Apr 06 '22 at 15:44

Gary van der Merwe

358

answered Sep 14 '18 at 00:09

David Baucum

1,036

score 17 · Answer 3 · edited May 20 '12 at 11:18

wired device not managed

I had the same problem with a fresh install on my Asus Eee PC 1005HA. The live environment worked with no problems, but once installed I couldn't get the connection to respond or to not read "device not managed". When I changed the text in this configuration file and restarted Network Manager everything worked!

gksudo gedit /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf

for lubuntu:

gksudo leafpad /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf

Now the text editor will open. Find the line managed=false and replace false with true and save the file (ctrl+s) and close the file.

Restart your computer or the NetworkManager service (sudo service network-manager restart).

score 12 · Answer 4 · edited May 20 '12 at 11:17

wireless device not managed

I've also found this issue after installing the Ubuntu 11.10 alternate version.

In my case, the /etc/network/interfaces was configured during installation to download new packages, and the conflict arose after the NetworkManager was set up during the first session.

The solution I've found was commenting the lines related to the wlan interface in the /etc/network/interfaces (in console, sudo vim /etc/network/interfaces or your editor of choice):

# The primary network interface
#auto wlan0
#iface wlan0 inet dhcp
#    wpa-ssid [your_ssid]
#    wpa-psk [your_wpa_password]

And then, as Joseph VanPelt proposed, set managed=false in the /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf and running sudo service network-manager restart.

score 9 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 18 '20 at 16:52

All solutions above failed. Here is the solution for Ubuntu 19.10 on minimal install so the odds that this solution works for you are very high.

We are going to edit a file, but you cannot jam everything on one line as this will cause an error. Put [keyfile] on the first line, and the rest of the command on the second line.

sudo nano /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/10-globally-managed-devices.conf

[keyfile]

unmanaged-devices=*,except:type:wifi,except:type:wwan,except:type:ethernet

ctrl-o to save ctrl-x to close file and nano

Before you reboot, make sure the contents @ /usr/lib/NetworkManager/conf.d/10-globally-managed-devices.conf are empty

Explanation, Please Read So you don't screw up: Network-manager presumably looks at both 10-globally-managed-devices.conf files in the two aforementioned directories. If neither of them have [keyfile] seperated by a new line, network-manager crashes (confirmed). If both of them have [keyfile] separated by a new line, presumably as before network-manager will crash (unconfirmed). Presumably [keyfile] means "use this file as config" hence the aforementioned network-manager behavior. So one of those files should be empty and the other should have [keyfile] followed by new line and the rest of the command. So in Ubuntu the /usr/ file will always be zeroed unless possibly way back like 14.04 or earlier. But for other distros it might be reverse where /etc/ file is zeroed and /usr/ file edited and formatted properly.

Ubuntu Jedi Master

kiri · Answer 6 · 2013-11-29T21:28:00.800

8

wired device not managed

This is a simple command which does the same as the accepted answer non-interactively.

Run this command in a Terminal to use it:

sudo sed -i 's/^managed=false/managed=true/' /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf

You may have to restart the network manager afterwards with this command:

sudo service network-manager restart

edited Nov 29 '13 at 21:28

answered Nov 29 '13 at 21:20

kiri

28,986

score 5 · Answer 7 · edited Jun 08 '12 at 02:02

Situation like this may appear, when one runs pppoeconf or something similar and the command overwrites the setting saved by NetworkManager. Even though the device seems to be working properly, Network Manager shows device status to be unmanaged.

If this a normal user's pc with simple network configuration like connecting via DHCP and automatic configuration, simply out comment the lines and restart network manager.

$ sudo restart network-manager

If situations other than these, please explain.

score 3 · Answer 8 · edited Apr 26 '14 at 07:18

I had the same problem, I solved it by commenting the lines where the unmanaged device was mentioned, by mac address, in /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf.

[main]
plugins=ifupdown,keyfile
dns=dnsmasq

[ifupdown]
managed=false

[keyfile]
unmanaged-devices=mac:00:26:2d:fd:5c:e0

changed to

[main]
plugins=ifupdown,keyfile
dns=dnsmasq

[ifupdown]
managed=false

\#[keyfile]

\#unmanaged-devices=mac:00:26:2d:fd:5c:e0

score 1 · Answer 9 · edited May 20 '12 at 11:17

wireless device not managed

This is because the alternate images were for a period of time, configuring the wireless networks in /etc/network/interfaces; which causes NetworkManager to, on purpose, ignore the interface and consider them online.

A good solution if you want to simply use your wireless connection (or wired) with DHCP is to comment out these settings in /etc/network/interfaces for all interfaces except lo, and reboot your system or restart NetworkManager like so:

sudo restart network-manager

Of course, this means you will need to enter your wireless settings into NetworkManager (password, etc) after clicking on the right item from the applet menu.

score 1 · Answer 10 · answered Feb 11 '14 at 17:55

1

Just to add a non-default answer, this can also happen if your computer has a hardware ON/OFF switch for the Wi-Fi interface. If you have such a "killswitch", ensure that you haven't accidentally turned the interface off

answered Feb 11 '14 at 17:55

Hamy

500

Bobhuber · Answer 11 · 2011-10-23T22:46:34.773

There are two ways to manage network connections. You either have to do everything thru the network manager and remove everything Except the Loopback entry in /etc/network/interfaces

auto lo

iface lo inet loopback

or totally remove the network manager thru the package manager or terminal and use the /etc/network/interfaces and /etc/resolve.conf file to control your connections. If not you will see the error you are getting. Even with static IP I've found that the network manager makes things easy and you can configure your IPV4 connections thru the menu.

score 0 · Answer 12 · answered Oct 23 '11 at 21:47

In 11.10 you can go to System Settings and you should see a Network Icon. Run that utility and you should see tabs for your network devices, wired and wireless. Each tab has a slider that allows you to switch the device off. Or in your case switch eth0 or wired connection 1, as it is now called, on. May be. At least check that it not switched to off.

regards.

network manager says "device not managed"

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