How to manually disable IPv6 on Linux

Reading: 2 mins
Category: Troubleshooting

The official Proton VPN Linux app now supports IPv6 connections.

Learn more about Proton VPN and IPv6 support(new window)

We recommend using our official Proton VPN app on Linux. However, it is also possible to manually configure a VPN connection in Linux using the WireGuard or OpenVPN(new window) VPN protocols.

If using a manual VPN connection, we recommend disabling IPv6 to ensure no leaks can occur. The following solution should work for most Debian-based distros.

1) Open Terminal and enter the command:

sudo nano /etc/sysctl.conf

2) Add all the lines to the bottom of the file and save it:

net.ipv6.conf.all.disable_ipv6 = 1 
net.ipv6.conf.default.disable_ipv6 = 1 
net.ipv6.conf.lo.disable_ipv6 = 1 
net.ipv6.conf.tun0.disable_ipv6 = 1

3) Now make the system read the file and confirm the changes using this line:

sudo sysctl -p

That’s it! To check whether IPv6 was disabled on your computer, you can do an IPv6 leak test here(new window).

Related articles:

How to use Proton VPN on Linux(new window)
How to disable IPv6 on Windows(new window)
How to disable IPv6 on macOS(new window)

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