I'm trying to troubleshoot a connectivity issue to an IPv6 addressed host using mtr, however, despite using the -6 switch, it fails with the error:

mtr -6 2001:db8:1d4f:10::1
mtr-packet: Failure to open IPv4 sockets
mtr-packet: Failure to open IPv6 sockets
mtr: Failure to start mtr-packet: Invalid argument

How do I use mtr to traceroute an IPv6 address?!?!?

1 Answer

Using mtr installed via Homebrew on my Mac I received the above error.

However, I tried answering this on question on serverfault which has (at the time of this writing) 455 views, but this wasn't possible as it was closed (off-topic), so I'll answer it here due to the high interest:

Solution:

Preface the command with sudo in addition to specifying the -6 switch:

sudo mtr -6 2001:db8:1d4f:10::1

That clears the error and mtr now functions as expected.

2

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