VPN settings not working

[molecule-eye]

After updating from 13.10 Beta 2 to 13.10, VPN is broken. I haven't made any configuration changes. Running tail -f /var/log/syslog | tee vpntest.txt and then trying to connect to the vpn gives me:

Oct 21 15:38:03 charles NetworkManager[1833]: <info> VPN service 'vpnc' started (org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.vpnc), PID 2001
Oct 21 15:38:03 charles NetworkManager[1833]: <info> VPN service 'vpnc' appeared; activating connections
Oct 21 15:38:11 charles NetworkManager[1833]: get_secret_flags: assertion 'is_secret_prop (setting, secret_name, error)' failed
Oct 21 15:38:11 charles NetworkManager[1833]: <info> VPN plugin state changed: starting (3)
Oct 21 15:38:11 charles NetworkManager[1833]: <info> VPN connection 'Konstanz VPN' (Connect) reply received.
Oct 21 15:38:11 charles NetworkManager[1833]: <warn> VPN connection 'Konstanz VPN' failed to connect: 'property 'CA-File' file path 'file:///home/michael/chain-dtag-dfn-uni.pem' is not absolute or does not exist'.
Oct 21 15:38:11 charles NetworkManager[1833]: <info> Policy set 'Wired' (eth0) as default for IPv4 routing and DNS.
Oct 21 15:38:11 charles NetworkManager[1833]: <warn> error disconnecting VPN: Could not process the request because no VPN connection was active.
Oct 21 15:38:12 charles NetworkManager[1833]: keyfile: updating /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/Konstanz VPN
Oct 21 15:38:16 charles NetworkManager[1833]: <info> VPN service 'vpnc' disappeared

The CA-File file path IS absolute and DOES exist, so I have no idea why it's bickering about it. Should I put the certificate in my root certificates folder? What broke this?

[kirchkamp]

Same problem here: After new install of 13.10 I get
VPN connection 'Uni Jena' failed to connect: 'property 'CA-File' file path ...' is not absolute or does not exist'
(of course, the file does exist and it is world readble)
:-(

[SteveRiley]

Because this is really a different conversation, I've moved these posts into this new thread.

(Original location: http://www.kubuntuforums.net/showthread.php?62390)

[SteveRiley]

Please try this. Delete your VPN entries in the UI. Then verify that they no longer exist in /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections. Now recreate them in UI. Do they work?

[Buddlespit]

Also, ensure that you've installed the vpn plugins for networkmanager.

[kirchkamp]

Deleting VPN entries does not help

Delete your VPN entries in the UI...

Nope, same problem again. And, of course, vpnc is installed (pulled by kvpnc).

[SteveRiley]

pulled by kvpnc

I believe this is your problem. KVpnc is ancient -- hasn't been updated since May 2010.

The current Network Manager and the Plasma widget for it can handle all your VPN needs. I would recommend that you purge the kvpnc package and install the correct Network Manager VPN plugin for the server you're connecting to. For Cisco VPN concentrators, that would be network-manager-vpnc.

[kirchkamp]

vpnc also breaks with network-manager-vpnc

... purge the kvpnc package and install ... network-manager-vpnc.

I did that (I did it yesterday, and, again, today) - no change, same error message.

connection 'Jena' failed to connect: 'property 'CA-File' file path 'file:///home/oliver/certs/c/Universitaet-Jena-CA-G01.pem' is not absolute or does not exist.

[SteveRiley]

@kirchkamp and @molecule-eye: What kind of VPN servers are you connecting to?

Here, I have configured an OpenVPN connection to reach my employer, and it works fine. Plasma-NM and Network Manager successfully locate the certificates. Of course, I'm using the network-manager-openvpn plugin. Perhaps there's a bug in the plugin for VPNC?

[KDEnewbie]

Hi Steve & all,

I had to dump Linux due to not being able to reliably use a pptp VPN, I tried everything under the sun. I have also seen an interesting thread on some other computing forum where a professional Linux web server admin made it very clear how he never used Linux at his home, only Windows due to VPN connection setups being so unreliable in Linux but so 100% reliable in Win 7. It made me think.
I guess all the main linux distros are ok for general stuff, but when you need something a bit more specialised, either prepare for perpetual 'work arounds' or other fluffing around.

It's a shame for me, maybe if I tried using openVPN it would be fine, but I really like the VPN service I have been using for a long time and their openvpn is several £ per month more expensive then the pptp one.

A couple of years back with Mint 9, it all worked so well, but I have found most of the main distros since, problematic to put it mildly.

I have subbed to this new thread ( I was the OP in the original one till Steve moved it here), and really hope someone can come along with a story of how they got pptp vpn connections to actually work using any Linux distro or DE, especially KDE.

[steelsnake]

Maybe some helpful debug info

So, I've banged my head against the wall with KDE PPTP (and fighting Network Manager in general - static IP... pulling teeth is more fun).

I tried setting up a simple basic PPTP, even though I need more than just "basic".

Here's the command line dump, sans IP, username and password:

QDBusConnection: system D-Bus connection created before QCoreApplication. Application may misbehave.
NetworkManagerQt "" ( 19817 ) void NetworkManager::SettingsPrivate::init() : New Connections list 
NetworkManagerQt "" ( 19817 ) void NetworkManager::SettingsPrivate::init() :   "/org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Settings/0" 
NetworkManagerQt "" ( 19817 ) void NetworkManager::SettingsPrivate::init() : New Connections list 
NetworkManagerQt "" ( 19817 ) void NetworkManager::NetworkManagerPrivate::init() : Active connections: 
NetworkManagerQt "" ( 19817 ) void NetworkManager::NetworkManagerPrivate::init() :      "/org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/ActiveConnection/0" 
NetworkManagerQt "" ( 19817 ) void NetworkManager::NetworkManagerPrivate::init() : Device list 
NetworkManagerQt "" ( 19817 ) void NetworkManager::NetworkManagerPrivate::init() :    "/org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Devices/0" 
Found VPN plugin "VPNC" , type: "org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.vpnc" 
Found VPN plugin "OpenSwan" , type: "org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.openswan" 
Found VPN plugin "PPTP" , type: "org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.pptp" 
Found VPN plugin "L2TP" , type: "org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.l2tp" 
Found VPN plugin "OpenVPN" , type: "org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.openvpn" 
Found VPN plugin "OpenConnect" , type: "org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.openconnect" 
didn't find type "802-3-ethernet" 
creating toplevel item "802-3-ethernet" 
found: "802-3-ethernet" 
ADDING new connection 11 
VPN type: "org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.pptp" 
Initting tabs, UUID: "841ed5e1-1aad-43b0-b566-2f50c8507212" 
CONNECTION SETTINGS
===================
id: "MyConnectionName"
uuid: "841ed5e1-1aad-43b0-b566-2f50c8507212"
type: "vpn"
permissions: QHash(("jennifer", "")) 
 autoconnect: true
timestamp: 4294967295
read-only: false
zone: ""
master: ""
slave-type: ""
secondaries: () 
 ===================
"IPV4" SETTINGS
---------------------------
type: "ipv4"
initialized: true
method: 0
dns:
"8.8.8.8" 
dns-search: ("inet")  
 addresses
routes 
ignore-auto-routes: true 
ignore-auto-dns: false
dhcp-client-id: "" 
dhcp-send-hostname: true 
dhcp-hostname: ""  
never-default: true
may-fail: true  
 
"VPN" SETTINGS  
--------------------------- 
type: "vpn"  
initialized: true  
service-type: "org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.pptp" 
user-name: ""
data: QMap(("gateway", "123.456.789.012")("password-flags", "2")("refuse-chap", "yes")("refuse-eap", "yes")("refuse-mschap", "yes")("refuse-pap", "yes")("require-mppe-128", "yes")("user", "MyUserName")) 
 secrets: QMap(("password", "MyPassWord")) 
 
 
QDBusMarshaller: type `UIntList' (288) is not registered with D-BUS. Use qDBusRegisterMetaType to register it
QDBusConnection: error: could not send message to service "org.freedesktop.NetworkManager" path "/org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Settings" interface "org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.Settings" member "AddConnection": Marshalling failed: Unregistered type UIntList passed in arguments

I suspect it's because the password starts with a number. The same happens when I add a custom route, same error. Nothing on Google about it.

[SteveRiley]

@steelsnake: I don't think you have a configuration problem based on the errors. Please file a bug at http://bugs.kde.org against the package plasma-nm.

[kirchkamp]

Indeed, vpnc is working flawlessly on the command line. The network-manager-vpnc plugin is broken.

[Guest]

Hi all,


the problem seems to be a bug in network-manager-vpn, i.e., in the GUI. In the nice and fancy KDE world we live, the GUI interprets the path to the certificate file as a URL. This means that the GUI prepends a 'file://' to the path where your certificate resides. Unfortunately, the GUI now takes this URL and stores it in the vpnc configuration file. Finally, vpnc is right when it tells us that 'file:///path' is not absolute...

In order to solve this issue, log in as root and change into the directory /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections. There, identify the file storing your VPN connection and edit it. In the line starting with 'CA-File=', remove the 'file://' so that only a simple, valid, absolute path remains.

This solved the issue for me, the vpn connection now works fine in my network manager.

[SteveRiley]

the problem seems to be a bug in network-manager-vpn, i.e., in the GUI...

In order to solve this issue, log in as root and change into the directory /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections. There, identify the file storing your VPN connection and edit it. In the line starting with 'CA-File=', remove the 'file://' so that only a simple, valid, absolute path remains.

@hfalk, do you mean network-manager-vpnc (a "c" at the end)?

This is a great discovery you've made. Please file a bug and report your solution:

apport-bug network-manager-vpnc