How to install Fing on Ubuntu Debian Servers.

The Fing Command Line Interface (Fing CLI) is a standalone program that provides a set of very handy network troubleshooting tools (NIC information, scan, ping, traceroute, and so on).

Installation

The software has been packed using Debian (DPKG) and Read Hat (RPM) package manager.
Below is the Architecture supported:

• i686 and amd64 (intel 32/64 bit)
• arm and arm64 (arm soft-float 32/64 bit)
• armhf (arm hard float 32 bit)
• mips and mips64 (mips big endian 32/64 bit)
• mipsel and mipsel64 (mips little endian 32/64 bit)

Download the package most suitable for your distribution.

$ wget https://www.fing.com/images/uploads/general/
CLI_Linux_Debian_5.5.2.zip

Ouput

--2022-03-18 15:54:23--  https://www.fing.com/images/uploads/general/CLI_Linux_Debian_5.5.2.zip
Resolving www.fing.com (www.fing.com)... 165.84.219.23
Connecting to www.fing.com (www.fing.com)|165.84.219.23|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 80609819 (77M) [application/zip]
Saving to: 'CLI_Linux_Debian_5.5.2.zip'
.....
...
..

Of course, replace Linux_Debian_5.5.2.zip with the latest version up to date.

Extract the zip file and ls.

$ unzip CLI_Linux_Debian_5.5.2.zip


$ ls 

fing-5.5.2-arm64.deb        fing-5.5.2-mips64.deb
__MACOSX                    fing-5.5.2-armhf.deb  fing-5.5.2-mips64el.deb
fing-5.5.2-amd64.deb        fing-5.5.2-i686.deb   fing-5.5.2-mipsel.deb
fing-5.5.2-arm.deb          fing-5.5.2-mips.deb

Now, check your machine's architecture processor name.

$ uname -m

Ouput

arm64

Now install fing according to your architecture processor name.

on Debian / Ubuntu/ ..

$ sudo dpkg -i fing-<version>-<architecture>.deb

on Fedora / Gentoo / ..

sudo rpm -i fing-<version>-<architecture>.rpm

In our case;

$ dpkg -i fing-5.5.2-arm64.deb

Once the installation is completed, check and verify the version from the below command they should match.

$ fing -v

Output

5.5.2

How to run fing

An administrative user account is required to run the software on all platforms.
When you start fing without arguments, it takes the nearest of your available networks and starts performing discovery on it and reporting stuff directly on the console indefinitely.

$ sudo fing

Output

| State | Host                | MAC Address       | Last change |

 UP   | 192.168.1.1           | xx:D3:xx:xx:C5:C4 | 17:03:21    |
|  UP   | 192.168.1.2         | xx:C1:x0:4x:xF:x4 | 17:03:21    |
|  UP   | 192.168.1.119       | xx:x4:xx:34:56:xx | 17:03:23    |
|  UP   | 192.168.1.122       | xc:91:xx:x6:x3:x9 | 17:03:24    |
|  UP   | 192.168.1.139       | 64:E6:xx:F1:C9:1D | 17:03:24    |
|  UP   | 192.168.1.123       | 7C:91:xx:V0:65:58 | 17:03:24    |
|  UP   | 192.168.1.126       | 8E:DC:DX:37:T8:TC | 17:03:24    |
|  UP   | 192.168.1.137       | AB:9C:65:GH:57:66 | 17:03:24    |
|  UP   | 192.168.1.156       | 5F:6D:62:89:9E:B5 | 17:03:25    |
|  UP   | 192.168.1.159       | F2:39:AX:D9:8B:64 | 17:03:25    |
|  UP   | 192.168.1.175       | CX:Y8:UG:RR:FX:E4 | 17:03:25    |
|  UP   | 192.168.1.177       | FC:Z6:GT:04:3T:RS | 17:03:21    |
|  UP   | 192.168.1.182       | 57:03:XX:BD:83:DD | 17:03:25    


....
...
..

It also has a --interactive mode that walks you through a series of questions and leads you the way.

$ sudo fing --interactive
password for snubmonkey:

===  Fing 5.5.2 - www.fing.io ===
This interactive procedure will guide you through available options.When multiple choices are presented, press one of the letters in brackets.Press <CTRL^C> to exit, press  for default answer and <?> to askfor help.
Do you want to (D)iscover, (S)can, (P)ing, (T)raceroute or display (I)nfos?

For more info on how to use fing and its arguments/ options type:
sudo fing -help

Uninstallation

If you have installed fing using dpkg, type:

$ sudo dpkg -r fing

If you have installed fing using rpm, type:

$ sudo dpkg -r fing

Otherwise, type:

$ sudo /usr/local/bin/fing-uninstall.sh

And that wraps up our tutorial on fing.
I hope you have found it 'helpful'.