No IPv6 addresses in default /etc/hosts

[Martin Pitt]

Binary package hint: netbase

The automatic dist-upgrade tester revealed a diff in /etc/hosts between a gutsy->hardy upgrade (+++) and a clean hardy install (---):

--- /tmp/tmpkLNbyZ/etc-fresh.tar/etc/hosts 2008-01-28 15:45:45.000000000 +0100
+++ /tmp/tmpkLNbyZ/etc-upgrade.tar/etc/hosts 2007-12-18 16:35:53.000000000 +0100
@@ -1,2 +1,12 @@
 127.0.0.1 localhost
 127.0.1.1 ubuntu.localdomain ubuntu
+
+# The following lines are desirable for IPv6 capable hosts
+# (added automatically by netbase upgrade)
+
+::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

It's probably intended that the IPv6 addresses are present in a clean installation as well.

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

Also happens on dapper->hardy upgrade.

[Mackenzie Morgan (maco.m)]

Given the degradation in quality by having packets routed through translation servers to go between IPv4 and IPv6 parts of the internet, I'm not sure I'd consider having IPv6 enabled is a good thing just yet. The infrastructure's not really there. Many of the flaky networking issues on ubuntuforums.org are resolved by commenting out IPv6. Perhaps a commented version as default with instructions to uncomment if you need IPv6 would make more sense?

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

We've been enabling these for ages, and now isn't really the time to turn them off. This bug is simply about the discrepancy between upgrade and fresh install.

In any case, this seems to be a bug in the installation system used by the test harness; the regular installers add these entries unconditionally.

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

This is a bug in jeos-builder, as used for the upgrade testing.

[Nick Barcet (nijaba)]

Fix commited in https://code.launchpad.net/~nijaba/ubuntu-jeos/ipv6
Soren should merge u-v-b for an SRU soon I think.