pptp vpn can't connect most of the times

[fearstaff]

Hello,
When I try to connect to my work pptp\vpn in Kubuntu 15.04 it works like 1 time out of 10. It doesn't depend on number of tries or wifi network I use and I don't touch any settings during that. It can connect one day and don't work completely another whehter I reboot or not. My guess is that something's wrong with routing table but i'm not shure how to fix it. Routing was done through GUI network manager. sudo tail -f /var/log/syslog during fault connection shows me this:

[FONT=monospace]Jun 29 11:18:00 ifirstov-HP-ProBook-4740s NetworkManager[933]: <info> VPN Gateway: 37.16.80.130
Jun 29 11:18:00 ifirstov-HP-ProBook-4740s NetworkManager[933]: <info> Tunnel Device: ppp0
Jun 29 11:18:00 ifirstov-HP-ProBook-4740s NetworkManager[933]: <info> IPv4 configuration:
Jun 29 11:18:00 ifirstov-HP-ProBook-4740s NetworkManager[933]: <info>   Internal Address: 10.16.10.15
Jun 29 11:18:00 ifirstov-HP-ProBook-4740s NetworkManager[933]: <info>   Internal Prefix: 32
Jun 29 11:18:00 ifirstov-HP-ProBook-4740s NetworkManager[933]: <info>   Internal Point-to-Point Address: 10.1.1.1
Jun 29 11:18:00 ifirstov-HP-ProBook-4740s NetworkManager[933]: <info>   Maximum Segment Size (MSS): 0
Jun 29 11:18:00 ifirstov-HP-ProBook-4740s NetworkManager[933]: <info>   Static Route: 172.25.6.60/32   Next Hop: 1
0.16.10.6
Jun 29 11:18:00 ifirstov-HP-ProBook-4740s NetworkManager[933]: <info>   Static Route: 172.25.6.231/32   Next Hop: 
10.16.10.6
Jun 29 11:18:00 ifirstov-HP-ProBook-4740s NetworkManager[933]: <info>   Forbid Default Route: yes
Jun 29 11:18:00 ifirstov-HP-ProBook-4740s NetworkManager[933]: <info>   Internal DNS: 172.16.5.65
Jun 29 11:18:00 ifirstov-HP-ProBook-4740s NetworkManager[933]: <info>   DNS Domain: '(none)'
Jun 29 11:18:00 ifirstov-HP-ProBook-4740s NetworkManager[933]: <info> No IPv6 configuration
Jun 29 11:18:00 ifirstov-HP-ProBook-4740s NetworkManager[933]: <error> [1435565880.411289] [platform/nm-linux-plat
form.c:1714] add_object(): Netlink error adding 172.25.6.60/32 via 10.16.10.6 dev ppp0 metric 1024 mss 0 src user:
 Unspecific failure
Jun 29 11:18:00 ifirstov-HP-ProBook-4740s NetworkManager[933]: <warn> VPN connection 'ASD' did not receive valid I
P config information.
Jun 29 11:18:00 ifirstov-HP-ProBook-4740s NetworkManager[933]: inet 172.25.6.60 table main
Jun 29 11:18:00 ifirstov-HP-ProBook-4740s NetworkManager[933]: priority 0x400 protocol static
Jun 29 11:18:00 ifirstov-HP-ProBook-4740s NetworkManager[933]: nexthop via 10.16.10.6 dev 12
Jun 29 11:18:00 ifirstov-HP-ProBook-4740s pppd[5529]: Terminating on signal 15
Jun 29 11:18:00 ifirstov-HP-ProBook-4740s pppd[5529]: Connect time 0.0 minutes.
Jun 29 11:18:00 ifirstov-HP-ProBook-4740s pppd[5529]: Sent 0 bytes, received 0 bytes.

[/FONT]

I can always connect if i'll delete routing settings but then I can't work. It also works ok on Win or Ubuntu.

[SteveRiley]

As a test, does it work if you remove the two static routes?

[fearstaff]

It does. My guess is that it's this infamous bug, but I can't figure out what a workaround would be for my network configuration.

[SteveRiley]

What happens if you open a console window and manually add the routes after the VPN is up?

[fearstaff]

Sorry, I'm not quite shure how to do this. A simple

route add 172.25.6.60 mask 255.255.255.255 10.16.10.6

doesn't work.

[SteveRiley]

Check man route for the syntax.

The newer command is ip. Check man ip route.

[fearstaff]

Well, there's SIOCAART: network unavailable for both of routes.

[SteveRiley]

When the VPN is connected, what's the output of

ip addr

ip route

And what was the command you typed that generated the error?

[fearstaff]

for ip addr:

[FONT=monospace]1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default  
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host  
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: eth0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state DOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/ether b4:b5:2f:7b:c1:d7 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
3: wlan0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 20:68:9d:2e:87:26 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 192.168.1.173/24 brd 192.168.1.255 scope global dynamic wlan0
       valid_lft 85931sec preferred_lft 85931sec
    inet6 fe80::2268:9dff:fe2e:8726/64 scope link  
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
4: ppp0: <POINTOPOINT,MULTICAST,NOARP,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1400 qdisc pfifo_fast state UNKNOWN group default qlen 3
    link/ppp  
    inet 10.16.10.11 peer 10.1.1.1/32 scope global ppp0
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet 10.16.10.11/32 brd 10.16.10.11 scope global ppp0
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

[/FONT]

ip route:

[FONT=monospace]default via 192.168.1.1 dev wlan0  proto static  metric 1024  [/FONT][FONT=monospace]10.1.1.1 dev ppp0  proto kernel  scope link  src 10.16.10.11  
37.16.80.130 via 192.168.1.1 dev wlan0  src 192.168.1.173  
169.254.0.0/16 dev wlan0  scope link  metric 1000  
192.168.1.0/24 dev wlan0  proto kernel  scope link  src 192.168.1.173 

[/FONT]

the command was

[FONT=monospace]sudo route add -net 172.25.6.60 netmask 255.255.255.255 gw 10.16.10.6   
[/FONT]

[fearstaff]

Ok, I found the solution.

[FONT=monospace]~$ sudo route add 10.16.10.6 ppp0
~$ sudo route add -net 172.25.6.60 netmask 255.255.255.255 gw 10.16.10.6 ppp0
~$ sudo route add -net 172.25.6.231 netmask 255.255.255.255 gw 10.16.10.6 ppp0  [/FONT]

But how do I save those routes permanently so i won't have to add them after every reboot?
P.S. I don't know routing tables syntax

[SteveRiley]

Try this. Create a script in /etc/network/if-up.d. It should contain:

#!/bin/sh

if [ "$IFACE" = "ppp0" ]; then
    route add 10.16.10.6 ppp0
    route add -net 172.25.6.60 netmask 255.255.255.255 gw 10.16.10.6 ppp0
    route add -net 172.25.6.231 netmask 255.255.255.255 gw 10.16.10.6 ppp0
fi

Make it executable.

[fearstaff]

Works like a charm! Thanks a lot for your support, Steve! Can you recommend any dummy level manual for Linux networking?

[SteveRiley]

Glad it's working for you.

I'm not aware of any specific manual like you're asking about. Perhaps the Ubuntu wiki and official documentation pages would be good places to start.