from cli I tried editing the interfaces file and that did not work.
You need to provide a bit more info than that. What system? FreePBX distro? TangoPBX? What steps did you take exactly?
Tango Pbx .
I edited /etc/network/interfaces file.
oddly there was no network set up . I added a stanza. on reboot it had the old address and my edits were still in the file.
I’ve used Debian for 22 years and have never seen an Ip address assigned with nothing set up in that file or the directories below it. I’ll learn something new…
it looks like systemd-networkd is used … will dig further
per the man page : “local administration network directory /etc/systemd/network”
however there is not a file there…