ifconfig, iwconfig disabled?

[benjo]

Hi, just curious why i cant do an ifconfig or an iwconfig:

[benjo@localhost ~]$ ifconfig
bash: ifconfig: command not found
[benjo@localhost ~]$ iwconfig
bash: iwconfig: command not found

Is it disabled by default?

[zackf]

Benjo,

Become root and you can do it.

su -

[benjo]

Slapping myself on the face right now.
Sorry, it's been a long 3 days, up until 3am every morning trying to get this laptop installed. Wireless is doing my head in, it's the only excuse i have.

[stevea]

You don't need to be root. The problem is that these programs are in a directory whic his NOT be default on the non-root user's path. If you type /sbin/ifconfig or whatever it should work.

A better solution is to do this command once as root ...
sed -i s/\$EUID/0/g /etc/profile
After that the system tools will be on everyone's path.

[benjo]

That's very cool, thank you.
Im in my first year of a networking degree and i appreciate all these great little tips. (one day i may actually understand whats happening in all that code).

[zackf]

Linux and wireless can be very tricky too. I have had mild successes and great failure getting it to work, but outside of that it's a great OS.

[sideways]

Originally Posted by stevea

You don't need to be root. The problem is that these programs are in a directory whic his NOT be default on the non-root user's path. If you type /sbin/ifconfig or whatever it should work.

A better solution is to do this command once as root ...
sed -i s/\$EUID/0/g /etc/profile
After that the system tools will be on everyone's path.

That's pretty cool. I usually recommend adding /sbin, /usr/sbin to your path in ~/.bash_profile but your solution is particularly elegant.