Switch Ubuntu Server to Network Manager

Command line, Devops

In most of the cases, ubuntu server’s default networking stack which uses cloud-init is fine. However if you want to install KDE on ubuntu server, you will have to switch it to use NetworkManager which KDE uses and here’s how.

As root or sudo run the following:

  1. Disable cloud-init from managing the network

    echo "network: {config: disabled}" > /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/99-disable-network-config.cfg

  2. Instruct netplan to hand all network management to NetworkManager

    cat <<EOM > /etc/netplan/01-network-manager-all.yaml
# Let NetworkManager manage all devices on this system
network:
version: 2
renderer: NetworkManager
EOM

  3. Reboot

    reboot

If you have KDE already installed, you will notice that the network app doesnt show “disconnected” anymore.