LKBEN11178: Howto disable ipv6 on debian Lenny


Symptom

You would like to disable your ipv6 stack on your linux system

Cause

It is enabled by default

Solution

Disabling the ipv6 stack can be done if your are shure you only need ipv4. For disabling ip version 6 you need to edit /etc/modprobe.d/aliases.

I like to check if it is active first by:

lsmod|grep ipv6

Output will look like:
ipv6    235396    38

Open the file /etc/modprobe.d/aliases and edit the following lines:

alias net-pf-10 ipv6

Replace with:

alias net-pf-10 off
alias ipv6 off

I alway uncomment the line "alias net-pf-10 ipv6" with a # character and add the two following lines under it. I use to reboot my system to make shure it will come up the way I want it. To check if your stack is disabled you can use:

lsmod|grep ipv6

You should not find it anymore.

Disclaimer:

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About the Author

Author: Wim Peeters - Keskon GmbH & Co. KG

Wim Peeters is electronics engineer with an additional master in IT and over 30 years of experience, including time spent in support, development, consulting, training and database administration. Wim has worked with SQL Server since version 6.5. He has developed in C/C++, Java and C# on Windows and Linux. He writes knowledge base articles to solve IT problems and publishes them on the Lubby Knowledge Platform.