Disabling IPv6 for Linux distributions

Products

• VMware
• VMware Desktop Hypervisor
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

In many Linux distributions if IPv6 is enabled, VMware Tools cannot be configured with vmware-config-tools.pl after installation. Using which, you can automate configuration of VMware Tools in guest operating systems. With CLI you can modify VMware Tools settings, shrink virtual disks, connect and disconnect virtual devices, and more. For information on the VMware Tools configuration utility, see - Using VMware Tools Configuration Utility. In this case, VMware Tools is unable to set the network device correctly for the virtual machine, and displays a message similar to the following:

Unloading pcnet32 module
unregister_netdevice: waiting for eth0 to become free

This message repeats continuously until you reboot the virtual machine. To prevent this problem in virtual machines running Linux, disable IPv6 before installing VMware Tools.

 

Note: VMware ESX 4.0 and later versions support IPv6. You need not disable IPv6 before installing VMware Tools.

Resolution

Most Linux Systems

To disable IPv6 in a virtual machine running Linux:

1. If the /etc/sysconfig/network file contains the line NETWORKING_IPV6=yes, change the line to:

   NETWORKING_IPV6=no

2. In the /etc/modules.conf, file, add these lines:

alias ipv6 off

alias net-pf-10 off

Ubuntu Systems

To disable IPv6 in a virtual machine running Ubuntu:

1. Log in as root or superuser.

2.  

   In the /etc/modprobe/aliases file, change this line :

   alias net-pf-10 ipv6

   To:

   alias net-pf-10 off

    

3. Save the file and reboot the system.

RedHat 5.x

To disable IPv6 in a virtual machine running RedHat 5.x:

1. Log in as root or superuser.
2. If the /etc/sysconfig/network file contains the line NETWORKING_IPV6=yes, change the line to:

   NETWORKING_IPV6=no

3. In the file /etc/modprobe.conf, add this line:
   
   options ipv6 disable=1
   
   

4. Save the file and reboot the system.

After you disable IPv6, you should be able to install and configure VMware Tools successfully.