Ifdown Cannot See My Wifi Interface (Kubuntu 16.04.3)

So I'm trying to a very simple command (ifdown) to bring down my WiFi interface but the command cannot see it (see below)

When I ran the ifdown command, I copy/paste the interface name from the results of the iwconfig so it's very unlikely I made a typo. I've done this several times and I get the same results.

Any ideas what I could be doing wrong? Thanks

user@mydesktop:~/$ ifconfig
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:65536  Metric:1
          RX packets:4915 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:4915 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:413384 (413.3 KB)  TX bytes:413384 (413.3 KB)

wls1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 34:13:e8:63:3d:cd  
          inet addr:192.168.1.11  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::19a:7204:6f13:7593/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:62390 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:43986 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:79936235 (79.9 MB)  TX bytes:5382829 (5.3 MB)

chiyo@mydesktop:~/$ iwconfig
wls1      IEEE 802.11  ESSID:"XXXXX"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.412 GHz  Access Point: 80:EA:96:F2:4A:E2   
          Bit Rate=57.8 Mb/s   Tx-Power=20 dBm   
          Retry short limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:on
          Link Quality=37/70  Signal level=-73 dBm  
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:2   Missed beacon:0

lo        no wireless extensions.

user@mydesktop:~/$ sudo ifdown wls1
ifdown: interface wls1 not configured
1

3 Answers

The command ifdown is reserved for interfaces which are configured in /etc/network/interfaces. Yours is configured in Network Manager instead. I suggest that you use:

sudo ifconfig wls1 down

Your interface is probably configured using Network Manager.

In this case you can disable it by e.g. (there are other ways).

nmcli radio wifi off

Then you can check the result by ifconfig.

You can use the iproute2 command:

sudo ip link set wls1 down

As montioned @chilli555 "ifdown is reserved for interfaces which are configured in /etc/network/interfaces"

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David Miller

David Miller

Executive Financial & Market Analyst

David Miller brings 15 years of experience in global economics, personal finance strategy, and market dynamics. He specializes in turning complex economic trends into actionable insights for everyday readers.

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