(usagi-users 00525) Autoconfiguration problem with radvd

["Venkata Jagana" <jagana@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi all,

We have noticed a problem with autoconfiguration at the router, and have
found a potential workaround. We would like to know if this is really a
problem or a configuration setup issue, and whether others have experienced
this similar problem.

We have configured a 2.4.2 linux box as a router with 2 network interfaces,
and two nodes connected to the two interfaces. We are using radvd to
configure
global subnet prefixes on both the interfaces as well as the 2 nodes
connected on this network.

When the router boots, if we enable forwarding
(net.ipv6.conf.all.forwarding)
and then start radvd, the two local interfaces on the router don't get
global
addresses and also there are no corresponding route entries. However the 2
nodes on the network get global addresses (with global prefixes set in
radvd.conf) from the radvd's router advertisement as expected. Due to this,
we are not able to even ping6 one node from the other since the routing
entries on the router are not setup at all.

We have found a workaround for this problem by first running radvd and then
enabling ipv6 forwarding. Without changing the kernel or any other
configuration, the local interfaces are initialized with global addresses,
and the routing tables are also setup correctly and then we are able to
ping6 across the router.

Has anyone else seen this problem, is this an error in our configuration or
a genuine problem ?

Thanks,

Krishna Kumar & Venkat Jagana
IBM IPv6 Team