How to prioritise ipv4 over ipv6 on Solus?

BuzzPCSOS

Back when I used Windows there used to be a tweak that allowed me to prioritise ipv4 over ipv6 which seemed to make connectivity much more fluid. A quick look shows me that there are methods of doing this that don't simply disable ipv6 but genuinely set a priority. Typically by editing /etc/gai.conf and un-commenting precedence ::ffff:0:0/96 100
Solus Plasma certainly does not seem to have this file so I suppose it must be called something else or there is another way. Any help here would be much appreciated.

Original-Syn

You should be able to simply create the file and add theprecedence ::ffff:0:0/96 100

Reboot your system, and it should work. I have not tried this in a while, as I just disable IPv6 most of the time as I am lazy.

BuzzPCSOS

Original-Syn Thank you for your reply, it is a bit more complicated than that as I think that would set ipv6 as the preferred mode whereas I want to move away from that option. On other systems the /etc/gai.conf tells the computer how to deal with wireless and precedence ::ffff:0:0/96 100 sets ipv6 as the favoured protocol which is why that line gets commented out.
Edit: I don't want to disable ipv6 if it is avoidable as it definitely has advantages under certain conditions. Not having to wait for ipv6 to time out before connecting on ipv4 can make for a much snappier response when you are not actually sharing the room with your wireless hub.

infinitymdm

BuzzPCSOS In Solus, all default configurations live in /usr/share/defaults/etc/. When you want to make your own config, you typically copy the relevant file or folder to /etc and make your changes there.

That said, I couldn't find a file called gai.conf anywhere. So that's all the helpfulness I can contribute, unfortunately.

BuzzPCSOS

infinitymdm Thanks for taking a look!
I found this which seems to make sense so I followed the instructions and dropped the suggested gai.conf into/etc. I'm guessing that to make it work I need to tell my OS to look at the file.

infinitymdm

Hmm, from a quick web search gai.conf appears to be configuration for the getaddrinfo() C function which is part of the POSIX API. I assume that means it should be part of the linux kernel, so you shouldn't have to do anything to make your system look at that configuration file.

Perhaps this is a Solus-specific quirk? We'll have to see what more knowledgeable folks have to say.

BuzzPCSOS

I can confirm that dropping gai.conf into /etc changes the response to ipv4/ipv6 without any further actions required other than a reboot.
Before committing to making modifications it is probably best to check that you can actually receive ipv6 by accessing this website.
I have written a simple script that can create the gai.conf file and fill in all the required information. It has been tested and works.

# Script to set ipv4 as priority over ipv6
#!/usr/bin/bash

echo "ipv4 priority enabled"
echo "label  ::1/128       0" | sudo tee -a /etc/gai.conf
echo "label  ::/0          1" | sudo tee -a /etc/gai.conf
echo "label  2002::/16     2" | sudo tee -a /etc/gai.conf
echo "label ::/96          3" | sudo tee -a /etc/gai.conf
echo "label ::ffff:0:0/96  4" | sudo tee -a /etc/gai.conf
echo "precedence  ::1/128       50" | sudo tee -a /etc/gai.conf
echo "precedence  ::/0          40" | sudo tee -a /etc/gai.conf
echo "precedence  2002::/16     30" | sudo tee -a /etc/gai.conf
echo "precedence ::/96          20" | sudo tee -a /etc/gai.conf
echo "precedence ::ffff:0:0/96  100" | sudo tee -a /etc/gai.conf