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When I down the loopback interface and try to ping my own IP, it's showing 100% packet loss, even when my eth0 is up. Why is this?

Here's what I did:

root@faisal-desktop# ifconfig lo down
root@faisal-desktop# ping -I eth0 172.16.10.112 -c 2
PING 172.16.10.112 (172.16.10.112) from 172.16.10.112 eth0: 56(84) bytes of data.

--- 172.16.10.112 ping statistics ---
2 packets transmitted, 0 received, 100% packet loss, time 1007ms

root@faisal-desktop# ifconfig
eth0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 6c:f0:49:f6:82:03  
         inet addr:172.16.10.112  Bcast:172.16.10.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
         inet6 addr: fe80::6ef0:49ff:fef6:8203/64 Scope:Link
                          .
                          .

Check the ifconfig TX packets count

root@faisal-desktop# ifconfig 
eth0  Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 6c:f0:49:f6:82:03  
      inet addr:172.16.10.112  Bcast:172.16.10.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
      inet6 addr: fe80::6ef0:49ff:fef6:8203/64 Scope:Link
      UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
      RX packets:25822 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
      TX packets:24825 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
      collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
      RX bytes:19581301 (19.5 MB)  TX bytes:4013322 (4.0 MB)
      Interrupt:26 Base address:0x6000 

root@faisal-desktop# ping -c 1 -I eth0 172.16.10.112
PING 172.16.10.112 (172.16.10.112) from 172.16.10.112 eth0: 56(84) bytes of data.

--- 172.16.10.112 ping statistics ---
1 packets transmitted, 0 received, 100% packet loss, time 0ms

root@faisal-desktop# ifconfig 
eth0  Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 6c:f0:49:f6:82:03  
      inet addr:172.16.10.112  Bcast:172.16.10.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
      inet6 addr: fe80::6ef0:49ff:fef6:8203/64 Scope:Link
      UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
      RX packets:25840 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
      TX packets:24845 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
      collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
      RX bytes:19588641 (19.5 MB)  TX bytes:4017338 (4.0 MB)
      Interrupt:26 Base address:0x6000
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3 Answers 3

Reset to default
3

I got the answer
Pinging to same interface uses loopback interface only. Check here
And one doubt, in which function/module does the ip checking and replacing with loopback?

Loopback

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4
  • 1
    It doesn't say "pinging to the same interface." it says "Anything sent to one of the host's own IP addresses is sent to the loopback interface." It also says "a loopback interface [...] allows a client and server on the same host to communicate with each other using TCP/IP." The implication is that without a loopback interface this is not possible.
    – RedGrittyBrick
    Aug 16, 2011 at 9:31
  • Yea thats it. I have a doubt, do you know in which module / function that comparison happens?
    – Faisal
    Aug 16, 2011 at 10:05
  • Alright, but i couldn't find it. Can anyone point out the file/function which is responsible for comparing packets(sending out) destination ip with interfaces ip, and changing to loopback !!.
    – Faisal
    Aug 17, 2011 at 6:27
  • I doubt its in $(KERNEL_SOURCE)/net/ipv4/route.c
    – Faisal
    Aug 17, 2011 at 12:38
2

Why does ping to the same interface fail when loop-back is down?

Because you don't ping an interface you ping an IP-address.

Your operating system works out which interface is the most appropriate one to use based on the target IP-address. If the target IP-address is your own, the most appropriate interface to use is the loopback interface as it has the lowest overheads.

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  • Agreed but now there is no loopback interface, so it should use other appropriate one. But it is not even calling the driver start_xmit function.
    – Faisal
    Aug 16, 2011 at 4:49
0

Yep, it's simply verify ("via dev lo"):

# ifconfig eth0
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 08:00:27:8b:38:0c
          inet addr:10.0.2.15  Bcast:10.0.2.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::a00:27ff:fe8b:380c/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:539 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:550 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:60478 (59.0 KiB)  TX bytes:38274 (37.3 KiB)

# ip ro get 10.0.2.15
local 10.0.2.15 dev lo src 10.0.2.15
    cache
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