NetworkManager
NetworkManager can be used to provide network management services in Alpine Linux. In addition to providing network management service, NetworkManager also provides a number of CLI|TUI|GUI tools compared to the inbuilt ifupdown-ng tool. Follow the steps on this page to ensure that only NetworkManager
service is running and other network management services are disabled to prevent conflicts.
Prerequisites
- The community repository must be enabled.
- Set up eudev. Otherwise your network devices can be listed as (strictly-)unmanaged.
- A non-root user account, is recommended.
- Ensure that network interfaces are configured and tested.
Installation
Install the basic network management daemon of NetworkManager suite:
# apk add networkmanager
Some of the popular NetworkManager user interfaces or front ends available as sub-packages are:
- TUI: networkmanager-tui, (run
nmtui
) - Command line: networkmanager-cli (run
nmcli
) - GUI: plasma-nm for Plasma integration and applet
- GUI: network-manager-applet for a GTK system tray applet
Configuration
To be able to use NetworkManager with your current user (i.e. non root), you need to add your user to the plugdev
group created by NetworkManager:
# adduser <YourUsername> plugdev
Add the following to the /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf file as follows:
Contents of /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf
Using nm-applet
You can enable all users to edit connections in the Networkmanager gui tool i.e nm-applet
without using Polkit as follows:
- Create the
conf.d
directory for networkmanager:# mkdir -p /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d
- Add following content to /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/any-user.conf so that
Contents of /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/any-user.conf
[main] auth-polkit=false - Restart networkmanager:
# rc-service networkmanager restart
Wired networks
For wired networks the configuration is complete. Proceed to Service configuration section.
Wireless networks
NetworkManager supports both wireless daemons i.e iwd and wpa_supplicant. Using both daemons simulatenously leads to conflicts. Install the networkmanager-wifi package, so NetworkManager can use the WiFi device plugins to connect and manage wifi:
# apk add networkmanager-wifi
wpa_supplicant backend
wpa supplicant is the default wifi daemon in Alpine Linux. To use it as backend, retain the NetworkManager's configuration file /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf as shown in Configuration section and add the [device]
section alone as follows:
Contents of /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf
Now you need to stop conflicting services:
# rc-service networking stop # rc-service wpa_supplicant stop
Now restart NetworkManager:
# rc-service networkmanager restart
Now connect to a network using one of the interfaces configured. If that connects and stays connected with no issues add the networkmanager
service and disable the networking
and wpa_supplicant
boot services:
# rc-update add networkmanager default # rc-update del networking boot # rc-update del wpa_supplicant boot
iwd backend
NetworkManager supports wireless networks with iwd daemon as backend, however, consider existing issues before using it.
To use iwd as backend retain the NetworkManager's configuration file /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf as shown in Configuration section and add the [device]
section alone as follows:
Contents of /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf
Ensure that wpa_supplicant and related services are stopped before continuing. Start the iwd service and restart NetworkManager:
# rc-service iwd start # rc-service networkmanager restart
Service configuration
To start|stop|restart the networkManager
service, use OpenRC command:
# rc-service networkmanager start
Set the service to autostart on boot:
# rc-update add networkmanager default
VPN support
NetworkManager support for Wireguard is inbuilt, but other VPN's like OpenVPN require plugins which are found in the networkmanager-openvpn subpackage.
Plasma support


Troubleshooting
nm-applet not authorized to control networking
If you get above error message, follow the Using nm-applet section to permit all users to use nm-applet.
device is strictly unmanaged
If you get an error message like "Could not activate connection: Connection 'Ethernet connection 1' is not available on device eth0 because device is strictly unmanaged", and networks do not appear, ensure that [ifupdown] section is configured in the /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf file as explained in Configuration section.
See also
- Networking - Main page
- wpa_supplicant - Default wifi daemon
- iwd - An alternate wifi daemon