How to disable IPv6 on Ubuntu?

Question

I disabled IPv6 on an Ubuntu box which has ssh and rsync running. But both of these are still listening on an IPv6 address. How should I fix this?

root@box.com:~# sysctl net.ipv6.conf.all.disable_ipv6
net.ipv6.conf.all.disable_ipv6 = 1
root@box.com:~# sysctl net.ipv6.conf.default.disable_ipv6
net.ipv6.conf.default.disable_ipv6 = 1
root@box.com:~# sysctl net.ipv6.conf.lo.disable_ipv6
net.ipv6.conf.lo.disable_ipv6 = 1

And

root@box.com:~# ss -lnp6
State      Recv-Q Send-Q        Local Address:Port    Peer Address:Port
LISTEN     0      128            :::22                 :::*      users:(("sshd",1505,4))
LISTEN     0      5              :::873                :::*      users:(("rsync",3423,5))

Answer 1

This worked for me:

Add these lines to the bottom of sysctl.conf

net.ipv6.conf.all.disable_ipv6 = 1
net.ipv6.conf.default.disable_ipv6 = 1
net.ipv6.conf.lo.disable_ipv6 = 1

Then run sudo sysctl -p or reboot

source: http://www.noobslab.com/2012/05/disable-ipv6-if-your-internet-is.html

This of course won't stop bind from blindly trying to use ipv6 though, so you also need to alter /etc/default/bind9 like so:

# run resolvconf? 
RESOLVCONF=yes 
# startup options for the server 
OPTIONS="-4 -u bind"

source: http://blog.evilcoder.net/disable-ipv6-on-bind9-linux/#sthash.U95y4s6U.dpuf

Answer 2

To check if IPv6 is enabled or disabled, from a terminal window:

$ cat /proc/sys/net/ipv6/conf/all/disable_ipv6

0 means it’s enabled and 1 is disabled.

To disable IPv6

$ sudo su -
# nano /etc/sysctl.conf

and add these lines to sysctl.conf file

#disable ipv6
net.ipv6.conf.all.disable_ipv6 = 1
net.ipv6.conf.default.disable_ipv6 = 1
net.ipv6.conf.lo.disable_ipv6 = 1

Save sysctl.conf file with new config, then reboot your system

# reboot

Check your system again

$ cat /proc/sys/net/ipv6/conf/all/disable_ipv6

Now you should see “1″ means IPv6 has been disabled on your system.

From http://namhuy.net/1419/disable-ipv6-ubuntu-linux-mint.html

Answer 3

1. Open a terminal and type the following command (if you don't use Gedit, replace it with your text editor such as Kate, etc).

   sudo gedit /etc/default/grub
   

2. And search for this:

   GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX
   

   Modify it so it looks like this:

   GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="ipv6.disable=1"
   

3. Now, let's update the GRUB:

   sudo update-grub2
   

   Or if you don't use GRUB 2, do:

   sudo update-grub
   

4. And finally, restart your system.

Answer 4

Disable listening on ipv6 addresses for some services.

sshd /etc/default/ssh

# Options to pass to sshd
SSHD_OPTS="-4"

avahi-daemon /etc/avahi/avahi-daemon.conf

[server]
use-ipv4=yes
use-ipv6=no

java /etc/java-7-openjdk/net.properties

http.nonProxyHosts=localhost|127.*
ftp.nonProxyHosts=localhost|127.*

Then restart services

service restart sshd
service restart avahi-daemon
service restart tomcat7

In my case tomcat was using java with ipv6. May differ for you.

Answer 5

To just turn of IPv6 on your computer, why you ever wanted to do that, is easy. Just add one line to a configuration file. Yes, you have to be root to create the file.

$ cat <<EOF >/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-ipv6.conf
# To turn off IPv6, though you don't need too.
# But anyways.
blacklist ipv6

# eof
EOF

Just reboot or try:

$ sudo rmmod ipv6