1) It can't be unloaded anyway. 2) If it's a module, it will be loaded at entirely random times, depending on what sockets a user opens, what functions they call, etc. For example, 'ping6 -?' loads IPv6. 3) Because of its modularity, users attempt to disable it in a variety of misguided ways, which may or may not work depending on when the module is loaded. 4) Because of its unpredictability of loading, setting IPv6 sysctls for an interface becomes complicated. It requires both the presence of the device, and the presence of the IPv6 module; however, these events aren't tied together.

By building in IPv6, we solve these issues, and make the behavior of the system more predictable. Plus, hey, it's the future.

To disable IPv6, boot with:

ipv6.disable_ipv6=1 (to disable IPv6 addresses on all interfaces)

or

ipv6.disable=1 (to render the entire module non-functional)

--- config-generic | 2 +- 1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)

diff --git a/config-generic b/config-generic index 6b18a41..524e8fd 100644 --- a/config-generic +++ b/config-generic @@ -814,7 +814,7 @@ CONFIG_IP_VS_NQ=m CONFIG_IP_VS_FTP=m CONFIG_IP_VS_PE_SIP=m

-CONFIG_IPV6=m +CONFIG_IPV6=y CONFIG_IPV6_PRIVACY=y CONFIG_IPV6_ROUTER_PREF=y CONFIG_IPV6_ROUTE_INFO=y