NetworkManager

NetworkManager is the network configuration tool suite that is installed by default. It supports a large range of networking setups for a wide range of devices. It is used to manage the wired ethernet, Wi-Fi and cellular connections on the Linux based Moduline controllers.

NetworkManager works with “connections”, these are configuration files that describe a connection, for example each connection to a Wi-Fi network will be its own file. Configuring a Wi-Fi access point is also a connection, or Configuring a static IP address for the ethernet interface. To list all current connections use:

nmcli connection

By default this will produce something like:

NAME UUID TYPE DEVICE Wired connection auto 8c2047e9-dbe9-4f28-9a33-0d0e55eab292 ethernet end0 GOcontroll-AP 35b43bab-26fc-4fc1-87fb-6d858a7c1ec6 wifi wlan0 GO-cellular ca4d8fc0-e4b0-47c0-b1f9-9d4221650c61 gsm cdc-wdm0 lo 02f4ef02-4240-4c24-bc4c-6f725f1b5573 loopback lo Wired connection static 1dfce3ba-5875-4f53-a63f-2441855eabd8 ethernet -- Wired connection auto is the default connection used for ethernet (the end0 device), it is a standard dynamic interface that will use DHCP to configure an IP address.
Wired connection static is a configuration for a static IP address on the ethernet interface, if your application requires a static address you will likely want to use this one and modify it to fit your needs, or make your own using it as an example.
GOcontroll-AP is the default Access Point that is configured on the Wi-Fi interface
GO-cellular is for controllers that have a cellular modem to configure the connection, like setting the PIN for the sim card or configuring the APN.

If it is desired to use a static ethernet interface one of the things you will want to configure is the connection.autoconnect property. By default this is enabled on “Wired connection auto” and disabled on “Wired connection static” to switch the default connection do:

nmcli connection modify "Wired connection static" connection.autoconnect yes
nmcli connection modify "Wired connection auto" connection.autoconnect no

next boot it will enable the “static” connection instead of the “auto” one. To switch the connection without rebooting you can manually switch which connection is active right now with:

nmcli connection down "Wired connection auto"
nmcli connection up "Wired connection static"

Note: When working on the connection of a specific interface, there is a potential to lock yourself out of the controller, make sure you always have a way to connect when tinkering with network settings. The USB Serial terminal is a great fall-back option for this, make sure you haven’t disabled it.

For any additional information see the docs or use the help option that is baked into to the nmcli tool: