Wireshark-dev: [Wireshark-dev] Re: Idea for changing interface scanning

From: Roland Knall <rknall@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 2026 17:44:17 +0200
I've added a change for people to test:

https://gitlab.com/wireshark/wireshark/-/merge_requests/24356

By default the interfaces are hidden, but in the dropdown Jaap mentioned you can enable them if you need them. In the case of macOS for instance those interfaces are really physically not available, therefore it makes no sense in adding them, but there might be some usecases I cant think of yet.

cheers

Am Mo., 13. Apr. 2026 um 17:25 Uhr schrieb Jaap Keuter via Wireshark-dev <wireshark-dev@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
Hi,

With “configuration" I assume you mean an extra entry in the dropdown at the right of the capture filter textbox on the welcome screen.

Thanks,
Jaap


> On 13 Apr 2026, at 13:38, Roland Knall <rknall@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Hi All
>
> Currently we return ALL interfaces. While that is good in general, it will also return interfaces on OSX and possible other systems that are not available at the moment of scanning.
>
> In my case for instance, devices which are dev-devices (like Seeger J-Link or MacroPad2040) created usb modem interfaces that are there even when the devices are not attached or available.
>
> PCAP has the ability to inform via flags (Connected, Unknown, Inactive, ...) but we currently ignore them. I would like to - by default - use that information in interface_frame to hide the interfaces not connected or unknown, but give the user via configuration an option to enable them if they wish so. On my system that would reduce the number of available devices from 19 to 5 which I think especially users new to Wireshark would appreciate.
>
> What do you think?
>
> cheers,
> Roland
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