fe801eth0

fe801eth0 is a network interface label that may appear on Linux and other Unix-like systems to refer to a specific Ethernet device. The exact meaning of the name is not standardized and can vary by system, driver, and the naming scheme in use. In some environments it may be a vendor- or driver-generated alias, while in others it may be produced by the predictable network interface naming rules or by virtualization and PCI passthrough configurations.

Origins and naming context

Names like fe801eth0 can result from different mechanisms. Some kernel and driver implementations generate unique identifiers tied to a device’s PCIe location or other hardware features. In other cases, the label arises from the distribution’s or administrator’s custom naming rules. Because there is no universal convention, fe801eth0 should not be assumed to carry a fixed meaning across systems.

Usage and configuration

On a running system, the interface can be manipulated with standard tools such as ip and ethtool. Commands include ip link show fe801eth0 to inspect status, ip link set fe801eth0 up to enable the interface, and ip addr add for IPv4 or IPv6 addresses. The interface may appear under /sys/class/net/fe801eth0 and can be renamed or aliased by udev rules or kernel parameters such as net.ifnames. If the interface does not appear after boot, check dmesg and lspci for driver or hardware issues and verify that the correct driver is loaded.

Context and troubleshooting

fe801eth0 commonly surfaces in environments with PCIe passthrough, virtualization (KVM/QEMU), containers with direct NIC mappings, or embedded systems with custom naming schemes. When diagnosing problems, verify the device’s PCIe address, driver compatibility, and any virtualization or renaming rules that may affect the interface name.

See also

Predictable network interface names, eth0, iproute2, udev, PCI passthrough.