Re: IPv6 support in debian installer
Matthew,
On Sat, 2011-01-22 at 21:16 +1100, Matthew Palmer wrote:
> Hi Martin,
>
> Thanks for giving my changes a test, and especially for your detailed
> feedback.
>
Np. I'm one of those users already wanting IPv6-only installer support!
So +1 :)
(I'll just remove what I don't have any further comments on from now on)
> I was aware of the existence of rDNS-in-RA, but I didn't know what tool (if
> any) on Linux handled it. Looks like rdnssd is the way to go. Do you
> happen to know what radvd magic is required to send out RAs with the rDNS
> servers in, so I can test it (and avoid having to run DHCPv6 at home)?
The radvd package on squeeze comes with two examples
(in /usr/share/doc/radvd/examples/ IIRC). The longer one of those has a
RDNSS snippet towards the end of the file that I used today in radvd.
(and tcpdump printed the info with the verbose flag, but I haven't tried
it further)
> Going out to DHCPv6 is on the todo list (a fair way down, because it
> involves getting udebs of wide-dhcp6c sorted). I hadn't intended on
> examining the RA for bit6, but I can't imagine it'll be massively
> complicated.
A fair amount of IPv6-networks will probably use DHCPv6 for DNS
provisioning (win7 works with RA (without included DNS fields) +
stateless DHCPv6 for DNS, etc. Just saying this so you are aware, and
realize that the utility of the IPv6-only installation support will be
definitively larger if picking resolvers from DNS is supported.
At any rate, I believe you can use rdisc6 of Remis ndisc6-suite to
investigate the RA fields more closely. Set it up and try it out :) I
will tomorrow (bedtime now).
> > 4) eventually and finally complete support for auto-configuration of
> > all IPv6-only network settings, which I admit is far from trivial.
>
> I'm up for handling anything that d-i handles for IPv4, pretty much, but I'm
> not planning on going all out with every possible bit of network
> configuration (SIP servers? Naaaah).
Oh, that's not what I meant. :) I meant address/gateway/resolver only,
but the hard part being using a variety of means to find them.
> My overall mental map of netcfg is:
>
> for each interface
> attempt to autoconfigure v4/v6
> if autoconfiguration succeeded
> consider the network config all done
>
> if autoconfig failed for all interfaces
> ask for interface to configure manually
> configure that interface manually
>
> ensure we have gateway, DNS, hostname, domain name, ask for it if
> necessary
>
> write out all settings
Looks good, thanks for sharing (and sorry for pestering you with my
20-seconds mental product.. ;) )
> My philosophy with netcfg is to configure the network only as far as is
> required to complete the rest of the installation process. So, if we find
> working IPv4, I don't want to deal with IPv6. Similarly, if we find
> autoconfigured IPv6, I'm not going to ask about manually configuring IPv4.
> If we find one interface that works, I'm not going to ask about all the
> other interfaces and whether the user would like to configure those as well
> just now.
Sounds very reasonable to me.
> Since it's rare for people to have v6-only networks, I guess nobody's really
> worried about it too much. I don't have a need for it myself, I'm just
> doing this partially as an intellectual exercise, but I also think it's
> getting to the point where people *are* going to have v6-only networks soon,
> and I'd really prefer it if d-i wasn't the only reason someone had to setup
> a v4 infrastructure.
v6-only networks are on the rise, rest assured. Might not be your
typical home network, but they're coming. :)
Irregardless, the ease with which autoconfiguration can be done with
IPv6 (with globally unique addresses!) makes for a very easy networking
experience -- integrating this into the installation is just superb.
Plug and play comes home. I have plenty experience with IPv6 just
working while IPv4 continues to be a hassle.
> > 7. When I can login I see that there is a configured address from
> > /etc/network/interfaces, as well as a RA-configured address. A method
> > of specifying a inet6-section in /etc/network/interfaces without any
> > address (SLAAC should come from kernel) is needed.
>
> Weeeeell... if you don't put anything into /e/n/interfaces for the
> interface, it doesn't come up, so the kernel doesn't autoconfigure it. I'd
> like it if ifupdown had a 'slaac' interface type, so I could just put "iface
> eth0 inet6 slaac" and be done with it, but in the meantime I'll settle for
> what I'm planning to do now:
>
> # This is a SLAAC-configured interface
> iface eth0 inet6 manual
> post-up ip link set eth0 up
> down ip link set eth0 down
>
Right. I'm well aware :) I agree that a slaac stanza/option is
mandated for IPv6 in 'interfaces'. If nothing else to let you avoid
that hack above. .oO( I wonder how many minutes it will take to add
that... )
> Keep an eye on the mailing list for further announcements.
Right-o.
Again, thank you for making this (~today of all days)!
Cheers,
Martin
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