How to disable or delete virbr0 interface CentOS / RHEL 6,7 ?

Updated: 28 September 2026 · Applies to: Ubuntu 24.04, Debian 12, AlmaLinux 9 and Rocky Linux 9

virbr0 is created by libvirt for virtual machines. If you do not run virtual machines, you can disable or delete it. The steps apply to Ubuntu 24.04, Debian 12, AlmaLinux 9 and Rocky Linux 9.

Where these interfaces come from

• virbr0 (usually 192.168.122.1) is the default NAT network of libvirt, the KVM virtual machine manager.
• lxcbr0 is the bridge of LXC containers.
• docker0 belongs to Docker. Do not remove it while Docker is in use.

Remove virbr0

If you do not run virtual machines on the server, stop the default network and keep it from starting:

virsh net-list --all
virsh net-destroy default
virsh net-autostart default --disable

Or remove libvirt completely: dnf remove libvirt-daemon (AlmaLinux/Rocky) or apt remove libvirt-daemon-system (Ubuntu/Debian).

Remove lxcbr0

systemctl disable --now lxc-net
# and set USE_LXC_BRIDGE="false" in /etc/default/lxc-net (Ubuntu/Debian)

Check the result with ip link.

Note: On a Ucartz VPS you normally do not need libvirt: the VPS itself is the virtual machine.