setting a static ip on ubuntu, netplan confuses me

the file lives in /etc/netplan/, something like 01-netcfg.yaml or 50-cloud-init.yaml. run ip a first to get the real interface name, then it looks like this: network: version: 2 ethernets: enp3s0: dhcp4: no addresses: [192.168.1.50/24] routes: - to: default via: 192.168.1.1 nameservers: addresses: [1.1.1.1, 8.8.8.8] apply it with sudo netplan try rather than apply. if you lose the connection it rolls back on its own after two minutes, which is a lifesaver over ssh. what trips everyone up is indentation. spaces only, never tabs, and every level has to line up exactly or it fails with a vague error. also gateway4 is the old way of writing the gateway and newer versions complain about it, so use the routes block like above.