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I have changed my MAC address in my Linux machine using ifconfig. Now the problem is I have not saved my original MAC address. I want to restore it without rebooting.

Is there a way to do it?

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4
  • Any reason no to reboot?
    – new123456
    Commented Jun 16, 2011 at 15:12
  • Running half a dozen applications. Dont want to close them.
    – narayanpatra
    Commented Jun 16, 2011 at 15:14
  • 1
    Run this?: sudo ifdown interface && sudo ifup interface Or maybe: sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart
    – evan.bovie
    Commented Jun 16, 2011 at 15:25
  • @emb : did not work.
    – narayanpatra
    Commented Jun 16, 2011 at 15:30

5 Answers 5

Reset to default
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You can get your vendor-specified hardware MAC address using ethtool:

ethtool -P eth0

To reset the MAC address to this value, you can do something like:

sudo ifconfig eth0 hw ether $(ethtool -P eth0 | awk '{print $3}')
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2

Assuming eth1:

grep "eth1" /var/log/*log | egrep "([0-9a-fA-F]{2}:){5}"

could find something in the logs {daemon,kern,syslog}.log on my system.

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2

[rooted] assuming wlan0

...(to find driver)
airmon-ng | awk '/wlan0/ {print $4}' ...or

airmon-ng | awk '/wlan0/ {print $3}' ...or just

airmon-ng ..and look under 'driver'

...(to restart driver)
ifconfig wlan0 down

modprobe -r rt2800usb <=Replace (rt2800usb) with your driver

modprobe rt2800usb <=Replace (rt2800usb) with your driver

ifconfig wlan0 up

This is how I do it. I made a script for this and use it with a couple of my programs. If that's the route you take, put a 'time.sleep(3)' {or whatever sleep command} before bringing the interface back up.

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2

2021.05.25

The easiest is to use macchanger utility. It is available for every GNU/Linux distribution.

STEP 1: Disable the network interface you want to restore. Let's say eth0

# ip link set eth0 up

STEP 2: Restore MAC address using macchanger

# macchanger -p eth0

STEP 3: Enable the interface

# ip link set eth0 up

This is it!

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0

Maybe try removing then installing the module again?

sudo rmmod <NICmodule>
sudo insmod <NICmodule>

Or maybe dropping the interface and bringing it back up?

sudo ifdown <interface> && sudo ifup <interface>
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5
  • can you elaborate the first method. The second one did not work.
    – narayanpatra
    Commented Jun 16, 2011 at 15:31
  • The <NICmodule> would be what ever kernel module the NIC is using. e.g. e1000 You can see what you have with this guide.
    – evan.bovie
    Commented Jun 16, 2011 at 15:36
  • Do you know what module your network card uses? This will just remove the module and then put it back (hopefully with the right MAC)
    – sealz
    Commented Jun 16, 2011 at 15:38
  • @narayanpatra Did you replace interface with what you use to access the internet? In most cases it's eth0
    – paradd0x
    Commented Jun 16, 2011 at 15:39
  • @thiago : Ya, i did that.
    – narayanpatra
    Commented Jun 16, 2011 at 15:46

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