#linux #networking connection (device is running moOde audio, effectively Debian Trixie): on a system with both wired and wireless connections (with addresses in the same subnet), how do I prioritise use of the wired connection, while keeping the wireless in case of connectivity issues?
Discussion
Loading...
If you are using Network Manager / nmcli, does setting "connection.autoconnect-priority 100" on the wired network (or, rather, setting a higher priority on wired than the priority of WLAN) solve it?
Alternatively, could you have it bring up the WLAN automatically if the wired network fails?
A la https://neilzone.co.uk/2025/01/networkmanager-automatically-switch-between-ethernet-wi-fi-and-wwan/
@neil @WiteWulf Depending on the system specifics, the first option recommended here might not work.
I'm on Ubuntu 25.10, and by default my wireless network (Gnosis) has a higher autoconnect-priority value:
❯ nmcli -f name,autoconnect,autoconnect-priority c
NAME AUTOCONNECT AUTOCONNECT-PRIORITY
Wired connection 1 yes -999
Gnosis yes 0
lo no 0
Looking at the route table, though, you'll see that we're doing the "right" thing and prioritizing the wired interface by setting a higher metric (600) on the wireless interface (wlp63s0).
❯ ip route
default via 192.168.1.1 dev enp11s0 proto dhcp src 192.168.1.168 metric 100
default via 192.168.1.1 dev wlp63s0 proto dhcp src 192.168.1.167 metric 600
192.168.1.0/24 dev enp11s0 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.1.168 metric 100
192.168.1.0/24 dev wlp63s0 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.1.167 metric 600
This is the default behavior for Debian, I think.
@CiscoJunkie @neil yeah, just checked it now using ‘ip r’ and it shows a metric of 100 for wired and 600 for wireless on both v4 and v6. So: sensible defaults.
Thanks ppl 🙏
@WiteWulf @CiscoJunkie Yes, very helpful!
@neil ah, yes, nmcli. I’ll have a look at that, ta!