Balance unable to start ("setsockopt(IPV6_V6ONLY=0): Protocol not available)

[Nelson Chen]

Binary package hint: balance

This package is completely unusable. No matter what option is passed to -b or port, balance will error out with a "setsockopt(IPV6_V6ONLY=0): Protocol not available" message.

FYI:
I do not have miredo installed or ipv6 access.
The current version as of this report worked fine in Jaunty.
Using the version from hardy works (it contains no IPv6 capabilities).

[t3r0 (t3r0)]

I can confirm this bug.

# balance -f -d -p 25 host1 host2
argv[0]=balance
bindhost=NULL
source port 25
file /var/run/balance/balance.25.0.0.0.0 already exists
setsockopt(IPV6_V6ONLY=0): Protocol not available

[Darren Davison (darren-davisononline)]

confirmed here too

[tgo (thomas-obermair)]

The problem just has been fixed with release 3.48 available here: http://www.inlab.de/balance.html

[Craig Sawyer (csawyer-yumaed)]

This problem isn't fixed in the latest versions, the change appears that balance now needs IPv6 addresses if you specify IP addresses (versus host names). to fix this problem for v4 addresses add ::ffff: to the beginning of your address. for example:

balance -b 192.168.1.2 631 spiffycupshost

(which gives you this error)
should now become:
balance -b ::ffff:192.168.1.2 631 spiffycupshost

and the error will go away.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Theodotos Andreou (theodotos)]

Still there on Precise

[rcarvalho (rcarvalho)]

I solved it downgrade balance version to balance-3.35

https://www.inlab.de/balance-3.35.tar.gz

I hope that they keep this IPV4 old release alive until IPV4 exists...

wget https://www.inlab.de/balance-3.35.tar.gz
tar -xzvf balance-3.35.tar.gz
cd balance-3.35
make (may be you must first 'apt-get install make gcc')
make install

Regards
Robinson