sysctl: cannot stat /proc/sys/net/ipv4/icmp_echo_ignore_broadcast: No existe el fichero o el directorio

Question

I have a Debian 9 Stretch and I'm configuring as webserver. For this I'm applying rules in iptables and another parameters in /etc/sysctl.conf

I would like to apply this rule in FW:(it's inside the file /etc/sysctl.conf)

net.ipv4.icmp_echo_ignore_broadcast = 1

And the system show this error:

sysctl: cannot stat /proc/sys/net/ipv4/icmp_echo_ignore_broadcast: file not exist

It's missing any module or something, I don't know... Could you help me?

Answer 1

That's because you're missing the trailing "s" in the name of the option: it's actually named "net.ipv4.icmp_echo_ignore_broadcasts".

A couple more hints for the future:

1. Please don't cheat on us: the kernel could not say "file not exist" because

   • It's not a proper English.

   • A canonical translation for the ENOENT error (something was not found on a filesystem) is "No such file or directory".

     I would speculate you have a non-English locale enabled, and so the error was not in English, so you "translated" it.

     This is a wrong thing to do: the error message cannot be properly googled.

     When you need to get a "canonical" error message (to google for it or to ask for help, like in this case), re-try your action with the English (or neutral) locale—an example

     ~$ ls /foo
     ls: невозможно получить доступ к '/foo': Нет такого файла или каталога
     

     okay, not too useful to see this in Russian; so let's ask for English:

     ~$ LANGUAGE=en ls /foo
     ls: cannot access '/foo': No such file or directory
     

2. Once you have sorted the canonical error message thing, just google it. You'll see it will even try to correct you (watch for youself).

3. Why not just look under the offending directory hierarchy? A quick

   $ ls -1 /proc/sys/net/ipv4/
   

   would solve your mystery.