Bug 233754 - Router Advertisement configuration and prefixlen
Summary: Router Advertisement configuration and prefixlen
Status: Closed Overcome By Events
Alias: None
Product: Documentation
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Books & Articles (show other bugs)
Version: Latest
Hardware: Any Any
: --- Affects Only Me
Assignee: freebsd-doc (Nobody)
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2018-12-03 17:29 UTC by Lapo Luchini
Modified: 2023-07-16 19:38 UTC (History)
1 user (show)

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Description Lapo Luchini 2018-12-03 17:29:52 UTC
Hi,
    while trying to debug a SLAAC configuration problem of mine, I noticed something strange in the documentation:

https://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/network-ipv6.html

chapter 31.9.4 states:

    Next, create the configuration file, /etc/rtadvd.conf as seen in this example: […]
    For a dedicated /64 subnet, nothing else needs to be changed. Otherwise, change the prefixlen# to the correct value.

while `man rtadvd.conf` states:

     As described in rtadvd(8), you do not have to set this configuration file
     up at all, unless you need some special configurations.  You may even
     omit the file as a whole.  In such cases, the rtadvd daemon will
     automatically configure itself using default values specified in the
     specification.

and indeed, I checked with Wireshark and it is broadcasting the correct prefix length (in my case, /80) with no need to have created that file.

Then my problem is that prefixlen ≠ 64 cannot be used by accept_rtadv or, at least, it is what I understand from RTFS nd6_rts.c line 1495, which reads:

    if (ifidlen + pr->ndpr_plen != 128)

(and ifidlen is always 64, as returned by in6_if2idlen())

I'm not sure what's the best solution for the Handbook, but I'd probably remove the `rtadv.conf` example altogether, as it gives no advantage and only the risk of writing it wrong; also, as far as `rtadvd` goes, any prefix length is fine, but then any FreeBSD client won't accept it anyways, so I'm not so sure suggesting what to do "when prefixlen is different" is very useful… a warning about the lack of SLAAC for any other prefixlen could be useful, for people who don't know it already.
Comment 1 Sergio Carlavilla Delgado freebsd_committer freebsd_triage 2023-07-16 19:38:00 UTC
We created a the new network chapter with instructions to configure IPv4 and IPv6.
I'm gonna close this PR and please check the new chapter.
If you find a section to improve about IPv6 please open another PR :)