Comments on: Linux: How To Disable The IPv6 Protocol

By: Thron

Thron — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 20:01:39 +0000

I add the following line to /etc/sysctl.conf
net.ipv6.conf.all.disable_ipv6 = 1
or do it for the specific nic
net.ipv6.conf.eth0.disable_ipv6 = 1

Then service network restart

By: Stefan Lasiewski

Stefan Lasiewski — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 22:59:13 +0000

I see many solutions in this thread. What are the advantages/disadvantages of doing this via /etc/modprobe.d/* [1], vs. /etc/sysctl.conf vs. /etc/sysconfig/network vs. /etc/default/grub ?

Which way is the “best” way?

[1] Also see http://tldp.org/HOWTO/html_single/Linux+IPv6-HOWTO/#AEN734 , which agrees with Vivek’s solution.

By: Heinrich

Heinrich — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 11:06:46 +0000

Thanks Geir, very useful

By: Peter

Peter — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 19:18:16 +0000

@Harri
This is correct. I had this problem on Ubuntu I disabled ipv6 on system, however some commandline utilities were still using ipv6.

By: Geir Helland

Geir Helland — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 09:30:49 +0000

Add these lines to “/etc/sysctl.conf” and run “sysctl -p /etc/sysctl.conf”
#disable ipv6 net.ipv6.conf.all.disable_ipv6=1
Alternatively, just run this command to disable ipv6 temporarily:
echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv6/conf/all/disable_ipv6
Aktivate again with “echo 0 ..”

By: the dsc

the dsc — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 04:41:48 +0000

You do not need to reboot the system, “sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart” should suffice (or su if sudoers is not configured to permit that).

It may be interesting to have a tiny script or maybe two huge aliases to toggle ipv6, so whenever you stumble with something that requires it (debian multimedia repositories, for example), you may reactivate it.

I hope the whole ipv6-and-speed get solved soon, if too many people use such circumventions, then we’ll face some trouble when everything becomes ipv6.

By: Harri

Harri — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 09:02:00 +0000

Even modifying /etc/modprobe.d/aliases.conf or blacklisting ipv6 might not be sufficient. Some packages load other kernel modules that depend upon ipv6, and then it is back.

There is only one reliable way: Build a kernel without ipv6 support.

By: Sean

Sean — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 21:45:14 +0000

DISABLE IPV6 IN UBUNTU 9.10
gksu gedit /etc/default/grub

CHANGE THIS LINE:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=”quiet splash”

TO
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=”ipv6.disable=1 quiet splash”

THEN UPDATE GRUB:
sudo update-grub

TO TEST WITH TERMINAL:
ip a | grep inet6

By: Pete

Pete — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 23:29:42 +0000

In Fedora, you can edit /etc/sysconfig/network and add the following:
NETWORKING_IPV6=no
IPV6INIT=no

Pete.

By: Axel

Axel — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 18:35:59 +0000

in Debian Sid it’s /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
Regards, Axel

By: Teodor

Teodor — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 06:24:15 +0000

In Debian you should just blacklist the module like this:

HOSTu:~# vi /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
[..]
## disable IPv6 module (to avoid DNS query delays)
blacklist ipv6

Sometimes this works on RHEL5 too, but not always (XEN virtualization).

Cheers