nmtui

Open the user interface

$ nmtui

$ nmtui connect

$ nmtui connect [name|uuid|device|SSID]

$ nmtui edit [name|id]

$ nmtui hostname

nmtui [command]

nmtui
    Starts the main menu, allowing interactive navigation to edit connections, activate connections, or set the hostname.

nmtui edit connection-id
    Directly opens the 'Edit a connection' dialog for the specified connection ID. This allows immediate modification of a particular network profile.

nmtui connect connection-id
    Opens the 'Activate a connection' dialog, pre-selecting the specified connection ID and attempting to activate it. Useful for quickly bringing up a specific network interface.

nmtui hostname
    Directly opens the 'Set System Hostname' dialog, allowing modification of the system's hostname.

nmtui status
    Displays a concise summary of the NetworkManager status, including connection states and general connectivity.

nmtui is a curses-based Text User Interface (TUI) for configuring and managing network connections using NetworkManager. It provides a menu-driven, interactive way to perform common networking tasks directly from the terminal, making it ideal for server environments, SSH sessions, or situations where a graphical desktop environment is unavailable.

Users can easily add, edit, activate, and deactivate network connections, modify connection profiles (e.g., IP addresses, DNS servers, Wi-Fi settings), and manage the system's hostname. Its intuitive interface, navigated using arrow keys, Tab, and Enter, simplifies network configuration for users who might find nmcli's command-line syntax too complex or prefer a visual workflow without the overhead of a full GUI. nmtui essentially brings the ease of graphical network configuration to the command line.

nmtui requires the NetworkManager service to be running. It uses D-Bus for communication with NetworkManager and typically requires root privileges or appropriate D-Bus policy permissions to modify network configurations. As a TUI, it's primarily designed for interactive use and is not suitable for complex scripting without tools like expect.

Within the nmtui interface, navigate using arrow keys (Up, Down, Left, Right), Tab to move between elements, Enter to select or confirm, and Esc to go back or cancel. Options are often highlighted, and text input fields allow direct typing.

nmtui is part of the NetworkManager project, which was initiated by Red Hat to simplify network configuration on Linux systems. While nmcli provided a powerful command-line interface, nmtui was developed to offer a more user-friendly, interactive text-based alternative for environments lacking a full graphical desktop. It leverages the ncurses library to provide its menu-driven interface, making network management accessible and intuitive for administrators and users in text-only console sessions.

nmcli(1), NetworkManager(8), ip(8), ifconfig(8)