How To Disable ipv6 on Ubuntu 7.10 “Gutsy Gibbon”

By | 2007/11/18

I found a really quick fix today for disabling ipv6 completely on Ubuntu 7.10 (not yet tested on previous versions). This might be of interest to some of you that have had networking problems, as I’ve heard disabling ipv6 at least within the browser has been a help here. This tutorial will disable ipv6 completely on the machine. At this point activating or disabling ipv6 probably wont make much of a difference as very few people actually implement or use ipv6. Unless you know you have a reason to need (or not need) this, you can probably safely leave it where it is.

Disabling ipv6 on Ubuntu 7.10

We’ll simply need to change a line in one of the configuration files that loads the ipv6 module to the kernel. As of yet I have not figured out a way to update this change outside of restarting the machine. If anyone has any suggestions on removing ipv6 “live” I would appreciate it.

Change the line is /etc/modprobe.d/aliases from:

alias net-pf-10 ipv6

to

alias net-pf-10 off

Again, at this point you’ll need to restart your machine for the change to take place. If anyone knows of a way to avoid the reboot I would appreciate it.

14 thoughts on “How To Disable ipv6 on Ubuntu 7.10 “Gutsy Gibbon”

  1. pasquale

    i have these:
    #alias net-pf-10 ipv6
    alias net-pf-10 ipv6 off
    alias net-pf-10 off
    alias ipv6 off

  2. Rui Miguel Silva Seabra

    /etc/inet.d/networking stop
    modprobe -r ipv6
    do changes
    depmod -a
    /etc/inet.d/networking start

    should probably do the trick (yup, untested, do all as root).

  3. pvandewyngaerde

    without reboot would this work ?? i dont know
    /etc/init.d/networking restart

  4. Shane

    Is it my imagination or did you remove the vmware server 2.0 beta post?

    Did you not like the new approach they took that much? 🙂

  5. Jeff Schroeder

    # On lines that start ‘alias net-pf-10’, find ‘ipv6’ and change it to ‘off’. (for those who don’t know)
    sudo sed -i ‘/net-pf-10/s/ipv6/off/’ /etc/modprobe.d/aliases

    Since the ipv6 module is going to complain about being “in use” if you try to force unload it, you have to stop your networking, unload ALL related networking modules, and finally ipv6.

    Then you can modprobe them all again (sans ipv6) but it is much easier to just bounce the box.

  6. Keith

    I used to disable IPv6 on Fedora the same way. However, on Ubuntu, I just add the following line to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist:

    blacklist ipv6

    I thought this was the “right” way to do it (not sure where I got that idea), but I doubt there really is any such thing…

  7. PriceChild

    Maybe it would be worth mentioning why this “workaround” has any effect at all on some systems… and what the real solution should be.

  8. Divan Santana

    I’ve tried all of the above and it is still there. Blacklisted it removed/changed in /etc/modprobe.d/aliases and rmmod -f ipv6 etc. It depends on:

    ipv6 317192 17 nf_conntrack_h323

    Seems it won’t go away. Hopefully vmware 2 will still work.

    I’m using 64bit Kubuntu.

  9. name

    only this one worked on Ubuntu 7.10 aka Gutsy add the following line to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist :

    blacklist ipv6

  10. cirion

    I also needed to do the blacklist in order for it to work. I’m on 64 bit Ubuntu Gutsy. It looks like the original steps (modifying /etc/modprobe.d/aliases) disabled ipv6 on my wired connection (eth0), but not on my wireless (wlan0). Blacklisting disables both, and now I can connect fine.

  11. klavergne

    For me disabling IPv6 on Gutsy disables all networking. I still have a v4 address, but can’t connect to anything except localhost.

  12. Chris English

    I’m having the same problem with IPV6 in use,

    Jeff Schroeder, could you give us a step by step guide for us newbie linux users, thx
    (ie ” you have to stop your networking, unload ALL related networking modules, and finally ipv6.

    Then you can modprobe them all again (sans ipv6) but it is much easier to just bounce the box.”)

  13. shane

    Hi,

    I found the solution for those who tried all the alias stuff and none of it worked.

    Goto the menu System->Administration->network

    Once the network tool loads, goto the Hosts tab.

    CHANGE ALL the ip6 text to ip4

    Close and then ping something on the network, it may take some seconds to readjust itself.

    Thanks.

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