I've read about IPv6 several years. I've listened to talks about it, I even did a talk about it. Now it was about time that I made it reality and installed it on my own box.

I started out with a basic working Linux 2.4 kernel.

Start with enter the 'Code maturity level options' and set Prompt for development and/or incomplete code/drivers to yes.

Enter the 'Networking Options' menu and set the following options to yes:

• TCP/IP networking
• The IPv6 protocol
• IPv6: enable EUI-64 token format
• IPv6: disable provider based address

I had them all to 'yes' and none as module, as the Bieringer IPv6 page claims that may cause problems.

Recompile, make it a boot image, reboot on the new kernel.

In order for some tools to work, you must edit your /etc/protocols file and enter the following section:

ipv6       41 IPv6       # IPv6
ipv6-route 43 IPv6-Route # Routing Header for IPv6
ipv6-frag  44 IPv6-Frag  # Fragment Header for IPv6
ipv6-crypt 50 IPv6-Crypt # Encryption Header for IPv6
ipv6-auth  51 IPv6-Auth  # Authentication Header for IPv6
ipv6-icmp  58 IPv6-ICMP  icmpv6 icmp6   # ICMP for IPv6
ipv6-nonxt 59 IPv6-NoNxt # No Next Header for IPv6
ipv6-opts  60 IPv6-Opts  # Destination Options for IPv6

You might also like to add a few basic IPv6-hosts in the /etc/hosts file:

::1     ip6-localhost ip6-loopback
fe00::0 ip6-localnet
ff00::0 ip6-mcastprefix
ff02::1 ip6-allnodes
ff02::2 ip6-allrouters
ff02::3 ip6-allhosts

Now when your kernel is IPv6 aware, we need to get some tools installed that are:

• nkit is a set with finger[d], inetd, ping/ping6, telnet[d] and IPv4 only ruptime, rwho[d]. You find the latest nkit package over at ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/people/kukuk/ipv6/.
• net-tools is a set with hostname, netstat, arp, ifconfig, rarp, route. You'll find the latest net-tools package over at http://www.tazenda.demon.co.uk/phil/net-tools/ .

Get them, configure, make and make install. Voila, now you can use your new 'ifconfig' to list your IPv6-addresses and ping6 to ping your interface's IPv6-address!

'ping6 0::1' pings your localhost.

'route -A inet6' displays your IPv6-routes

Tools you won't have to install but that may make things more comfortable:

• ftpd-BSD - a full IPv6 ftp server: http://www.eleves.ens.fr:8080/home/madore/programs/#prog_ftpd-BSD
• lukemftp - ftp client: ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/misc/lukemftp/
• tcpdump - http://www.tcpdump.org/
• xinetd - an inetd that speaks v6: http://synack.net/xinetd/

• Peter Bieringer's "Linux: IPv6" pages
• Interesting IPv6 read: The Case for IPv6.