When I run ifconfig -a
on my Chromebook (both through shell inside ChromeOS and my Ubuntu chroot) I get the following entries:
acrbr0: ...
lo: ...
veth_android: ...
wlan0: ...
I was able to find information about wlan0
and veth_android
but not about the others. I don't really know much about networking so I would really appreciate some run down.
Best Answer
The entries you see ae called Predictable Network Interface Names. It means that non-permanent network interfaces (ie, USB interfaces) have a name in the form of
enx<MAC_ADDR>
orwlx<MAC_ACCR>
(or similar), so that any scripts and systems depending on that specific device will have 100% confidence that it's targeting the right device.The Predictable Network interface naming convention goes like this :
Coming to specific entries you asked for in question, I think potatoman answered it well.
lo
: Loopback interfaceIt's a virtual network interface that your computer uses to communicate with itself. It is used mainly for diagnostics and troubleshooting, and to connect to servers running on the local machine.
wlan0
: Wireless LAN interfacewlan0 is basically your wifi card. It is wireless lan and 0 is the number of your card. The count starts from 0 and goes up (0,1,2,3,etc..). So if you had 2 wifi cards plugged in they would be represented by wlan0 and wlan1.
veth_android
&acrbr0
: Net namespaces for Android Containersacrbr0
is the isolated network interface that gets an IP Address fromveth_android
( a virtual ethernet interface for Android ). They are closely related to each other. See the image below (from Page 7 in this link)to get an ideaFeel free to add details.