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Enable Wake-on-LAN on Ubuntu 26.06

Ubuntu Wake-on-Lan Wol Netplan Networking Linux
Table of Contents

Introduction
#

Wake-on-LAN (WoL) lets you power on your Ubuntu system remotely by sending a magic packet. On Ubuntu 26.06, you can enable WoL directly in Netplan by setting wakeonlan: true on your network interface.

Prerequisites
#

Before you start, make sure:

  • Wake-on-LAN is enabled in your BIOS/UEFI,
  • your system is connected using Ethernet (WoL over Wi-Fi is usually unsupported),
  • you know your interface name (for example ens33), and
  • you have sudo access.

Find Your Netplan File
#

List available Netplan config files:

ls /etc/netplan/

You will usually see something like:

00-installer-config.yaml

or:

50-cloud-init.yaml

Open your file (replace with your actual filename if different):

sudo nano /etc/netplan/00-installer-config.yaml

Enable Wake-on-LAN in Netplan
#

Add wakeonlan: true under your Ethernet interface.

Example:

network:
  version: 2
  ethernets:
    ens33:
      dhcp4: true
      wakeonlan: true

If you already use a static IP, keep your existing settings and just add:

wakeonlan: true

under the correct interface block.

Apply the Configuration
#

Validate the Netplan syntax first:

sudo netplan try

If it looks good, apply permanently:

sudo netplan apply

Test Wake-on-LAN
#

From another device on your network, send a magic packet to this machine’s MAC address.

If your system powers on, Wake-on-LAN is configured correctly.

Conclusion
#

You have enabled Wake-on-LAN on Ubuntu 26.06 using Netplan. This makes it easy to remotely power on your system when needed, while keeping your network configuration clean and persistent across reboots.