IPv6 support for Gen8

[jch0]

Hi.

I've put a Gen8 kernel with support for IPv6 on

http://www.pps.jussieu.fr/~jch/software/files/zImage-jch-20110304

(I'm not allowed to post URLs. Grr.)

Rename the file above to zImage, then download chulri's initramfs and follow his instructions on

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=930197

You can test that it works by browsing ip6.me. (Only if your AP has IPv6, obviously.)

--jch

 

[jch0]

About the IPv6 support

The above only adds IPv6 to the kernel, and relies on the existing userspace. While Google's userspace has fairly decent IPv6 support (most notably, all Java applications should run with IPv6 without trouble), the Archos uClibc is built without IPv6 support. This means that Archos utilities will not work with IPv6 -- in particular, you won't be able to mount any IPv6 SMB shares.

I've contacted an Archos developer on this subject, and he told me that they have no plans for official IPv6 support in Gen8. (Planned obsolescence?)

--jch

 

[wdl1908]

I've added your post to he [INFO] What is root? How do I root my gen8 device? What can I do when I have root? Thread and asked Mr. Clown the moderator to move it to the gen8 dev forum and give you access to it.

 

[Mr. Clown]

Moved to dev forums

 

[woti23]

The above only adds IPv6 to the kernel, and relies on the existing userspace. While Google's userspace has fairly decent IPv6 support (most notably, all Java applications should run with IPv6 without trouble), the Archos uClibc is built without IPv6 support. This means that Archos utilities will not work with IPv6 -- in particular, you won't be able to mount any IPv6 SMB shares.

I've contacted an Archos developer on this subject, and he told me that they have no plans for official IPv6 support in Gen8. (Planned obsolescence?)

--jch

the toolchain that comes with the archos kernel sources is quite outdated.

but the http://buildroot.uclibc.org/ toolchain (git clone git://git.buildroot.net/buildroot) has ipv6 support, i believe. but im no developer.

the toolchains options show beside others:

*** Toolchain Options ***
[*] Enable large file (files > 2 GB) support
[*] Enable IPv6 support
[*] Enable RPC support
-*- Enable WCHAR support
[*] Enable toolchain locale/i18n support

 

[jch0]

the http://buildroot.uclibc.org/ toolchain (git clone git://git.buildroot.net/buildroot) has ipv6 support, i believe.

It can be built with IPv6 support, yes (it's disabled by default).

But that doesn't solve the issue. Archos' /lib/libc.so and all the utilities linked against it don't support IPv6; short of replacing all of that, you're not going to get IPv6 support in the Archos-provided utilities (notably the SMB support).

(Off-topic rant. The IPv4 pool has become exhausted last month. Buying a networked device with no v6 support in 2011 is highly idiotic.)

--jch

 

[chrulri]

(Off-topic rant. The IPv4 pool has become exhausted last month. Buying a networked device with no v6 support in 2011 is highly idiotic.)

Rant on off-topic rant: why should it be idiotic? You don't need IPv6 in LAN. Thus the end-devices don't need to know it as well. ISPs can do NAT on all those dynamic IPs.
You cannot switch to IPv6 in 2011, neither in 2012. So many people still have IPv4-only devices. Switch the IP protocol and they'll be back in middle ages

 

[jch0]

Why we need IPv6

I think that's actually getting back on-topic -- why do you need IPv6 in your Android device in the first place?

ISPs can do NAT on all those dynamic IPs.

NAT breaks peer-to-peer applications, such as Skype, SIP or Spotify.

Right now, we're working around NAT by using UPNP, NAT-PMP, UDP hole punching, STUN and other nasty hacks. With the v4 pool exhausted, ISPs are going to start deploying double-NAT (which is what you're alluding to), and these techniques are going to become increasingly unrealiable.

Some actual data: Spotify uses both client-server and peer-to-peer communication, and falls back to pure client-server operation when peer-to-peer fails. According to Spotify's CEO, peer-to-peer works in a mere 60% of cases -- that means that 40% of Spotify clients are using pure client-server, putting load on Spotify's servers. (I'm not aware of any actual data from the Skype folks.)

In short -- you don't need IPv6 if all you do is browsing the web. You do need IPv6 if you want non-web applications to still work in 2013. And I certainly do.

Switch the IP protocol and they'll be back in middle ages

Nobody's speaking of switching IPv4 off in the foreseeable future -- we're doubtless going to use double-stack (both IPv4 over NAT and end-to-end IPv6 on the same device) for years to come.

--jch

P.S. $aur0n, are you listening?