Enabling IPv6 support for IPv4-only apps on Linux
blog.apnic.net
Enabling IPv6 support for IPv4-only apps on Linux
1–10 of 199 posts
Re: Enabling IPv6 support for IPv4-only apps on Linux
#2Super cool! I tried doing a pure IPv6 network a little over a decade ago; Maybe I’ll try it again. Though, my cheap IoT devices likely still need IPv4… but perhaps not internet connectivity. It might be fun to explore just how much IPv4 continues to be ingrained into cheap Things (eg: Arduino WiFI?) There always seems to be a long tail of small places where IPv4 pops straight back into the equation.
Re: Enabling IPv6 support for IPv4-only apps on Linux
#3If the network already supports NAT64 I would use CLAT running on the system. That way you don't need LD_PRELOAD.
Re: Enabling IPv6 support for IPv4-only apps on Linux
#4> To prove that IPv6 is ready for production use
No one is debating it's not ready for production use. It's just that it's a lot easier to configure clients in dual stack than do a 6 to 4 translation.
Re: Enabling IPv6 support for IPv4-only apps on Linux
#5Super cool! I tried doing a pure IPv6 network a little over a decade ago; Maybe I’ll try it again. Though, my cheap IoT devices likely still need IPv4… but perhaps not internet connectivity. It might be fun to explore just how much IPv4 continues to be ingrained into cheap Things (eg: Arduino WiFI?) There always seems to be a long tail of small places where IPv4 pops straight back into the equation.
Small places?
When I disabled IPv4 a few weeks ago, I couldn't use: HN, GitHub, Reddit, Discord, Duckduckgo.
Re: Enabling IPv6 support for IPv4-only apps on Linux
#6"To prove that IPv6 is ready for production use, I built a second PC so I can access the IPv4 Internet"
Re: Enabling IPv6 support for IPv4-only apps on Linux
#7If the network already supports NAT64 I would use CLAT running on the system. That way you don't need LD_PRELOAD.
I feel the exact opposite. I've recently been experimenting with ipv6 only via NAT64/DNS64 and run into the same problem (with steam trying to connect out to hard-coded ipv4 addresses).
I started to look into CLAT and really didn't want to have to go through the hassle of a whole new virtual interface with routes etc, when one single app can't just pass a couple different args to connect().
I actually had thought about trying to write something exactly like this myself.
I'm glad to learn it already exists.
Re: Enabling IPv6 support for IPv4-only apps on Linux
#8"To prove that IPv6 is ready for production use, I built a second PC so I can access the IPv4 Internet"
Being able to access legacy systems from new ones is a good property of new systems. This workaround is important.
(Also that may be done on routers which today deal with NAT anyway)
Re: Enabling IPv6 support for IPv4-only apps on Linux
#9"To prove that IPv6 is ready for production use, I built a second PC so I can access the IPv4 Internet"
An average user is not expected to do that. But I understand there are mobile operators out there who have been doing this (instead of NAT) for a while because they don't have IPv4 addresses for every consumer subscription? Wasn't T-Mobile US one of them? (Not living in the US.)
Re: Enabling IPv6 support for IPv4-only apps on Linux
#10"To prove that IPv6 is ready for production use, I built a second PC so I can access the IPv4 Internet"
Being able to access legacy systems from new ones is a good property of new systems. This workaround is important. (Also that may be done on routers which today deal with NAT anyway)
This isn't a workaround; it is a kludge. There are far better solutions in this problem space (some mentioned in this very thread).