How to find the MAC address on a Linux machine

linux

network

Software and digital electronics / IT

2023-01-13 02:41

I have installed a CentOS 8 Linux on a virtualbox.

I have requested a company to provide me a license for their software.

They asked me for my MAC address to create that license for me.

How can I find my MAC address?

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Answer

Answered by robin

2023-01-13 03:55

For ethernet

It depends on what device's MAC address are you looking.

In the console type

ifconfig

netstat -ie

it will show you an output like this


Kernel Interface table
enp5s0: flags=4099<UP,BROADCAST,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        ether f0:5e:41:8b:76:ac  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0
        device memory 0xfc200000-fc2fffff  

lo: flags=73<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING>  mtu 65536
        inet 127.0.0.1  netmask 255.0.0.0
        inet6 ::1  prefixlen 128  scopeid 0x10<host>
        loop  txqueuelen 1000  (Local Loopback)
        RX packets 8373  bytes 734084 (734.0 KB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 8373  bytes 734084 (734.0 KB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

wlp4s0: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        inet 192.168.1.121  netmask 255.255.255.0  broadcast 192.168.1.255
        inet6 fe20::2e5c:1ca0:132f:dec6  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x20<link>
        ether 85:1b:47:28:6c:7d  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 135050  bytes 170217922 (170.2 MB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 35092  bytes 6367349 (6.3 MB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

For each interface, check the MAC address in front of the word ether.

The MAC address is made of 12-digit hexadecimal code (48-bits) in the form of MM:MM:MM:SS:SS:SS .

You can alternatively look for

cat /sys/class/net/wlp4s0/address
cat /sys/class/net/enp5s0/address

These commands give you the MAC address without any extra information

For Bluetooth

For Bluetooth however, use the command

hciconfig

The MAC address is the hexa-decimal number in front of BD Address.

Finding MAC address by GUI

On Ubuntu, if you have access to the GUI, go to the settings, then network or wireless, click on the gear button. Under "details" tab look for "Hardware address".