Fixing Permissions on Network Config Files

When you create a new network configuration file as root user, the network service might be unable to process it until you set the file mode bits (i.e. chmod) to 644.

If you query the journal with journalctl -u systemd-networkd, you might see the following error message along with an indication that the network service did not start:

could not load configuration files. permission denied

The permissions on the network files might cause this problem. Without the correct permissions, networkd-systemd cannot parse and apply the settings, and the network configuration that you created will not be loaded.

After you create a network configuration file with a .network extension, you must run the chmod command to set the new file’s mode bits to 644. Example:

chmod 644 10-static-en.network

For Photon OS to apply the new configuration, you must restart the systemd-networkd service by running the following command:

systemctl restart systemd-networkd