VPN Connection not added...

I'd like to confirm this bug. I've tried many times to configure a VPN through this "wizard" supplied by network-manager-gnome, but it always disappears when you return to the "VPN Connections" window.

I am running Kubuntu Feisty with network-manager, network-manager-gnome, and network-manager-pptp all loaded and at their most recent versions as of this writing (2007-05-13).

Another odd fact is that in the "Create VPN Connection - 2 of 2" window, "Requires existing network connection" is always greyed out, and the "Type" selector is blank until you pick something (in my case " Windows VPN" - note leading space character). At the end, in the "finish creating" window, there is often nothing listed unless I go back through the windows again, re-select " Windows VPN" and undo a bunch of wrong settings that have suddenly appeared. In no case does whatever I've configured end up listed in the VPN Connections window.

Presently I'm using kvpnc, because it actually works for me, but I had to go out and find it via "Google". The method of configuring VPN supplied by default in Feisty really needs to be functional.

I have a new package which defaults to actually having a type selected, which should fix this bug. Please test it: http://craig.dubculture.co.nz/blog/2007/05/13/new-networkmanager-pptp-package-fixes-amd64-crashes/

Hi Craig,

Unfortunately I think that's the version I tried yesterday, with no success.
I tried again today by explicitly removing network-manager-pptp with apt-get,
and then using dpkg -i to install your version, and the behavior is the same
as before.

Is there some debugging flag I can turn on to give you more information? I am
comfortable with tweaking code too.

Thanks and regards,
Jeff Trull

On Monday 14 May 2007 01:39:40 Craig Box wrote:
> I have a new package which defaults to actually having a type selected,
> which should fix this bug. Please test it:
> http://craig.dubculture.co.nz/blog/2007/05/13/new-networkmanager-pptp-
> package-fixes-amd64-crashes/
>
> ** Changed in: network-manager-pptp (Ubuntu)
> Sourcepackagename: network-manager => network-manager-pptp
> Assignee: (unassigned) => Craig Box

To clarify, does this work if you add it with the GNOME network manager?

Unfortunately no, it behaves identically. I also observe a lot of these
messages at the beginning:

** (nm-vpn-properties:5945): CRITICAL **: vpnui_opt_connect_signals: assertion
`opt->widget!=NULL' failed

plus many of these:

/bin/sh: /usr/bin/esd: not found

these messages appear in the terminal from which I ran nm-applet.

Regards,
Jeff

On Monday 14 May 2007 14:09:12 Craig Box wrote:
> To clarify, does this work if you add it with the GNOME network manager?
>
> ** Changed in: network-manager-pptp (Ubuntu)
> Status: Unconfirmed => Needs Info

New package to test:

http://www.wlug.org.nz/~crb/nm/feisty/network-manager-pptp_0.6.4+pptp0.6.5-0crb2_i386.deb

This one will hopefully fix the "possible to select nothing" bug that you describe above.

"Possible to select nothing" is gone, but whatever I configure still does not
stick - after going through the wizard, the "VPN Connections" ("Manage
Virtual Private Network Connections") window shows nothing in its list.

Nevertheless this is an improvement and I appreciate your efforts. Can I
provide more data, or do some experiments for you?

Best Regards,
Jeff Trull

On Friday 25 May 2007 17:31:26 Craig Box wrote:
> http://www.wlug.org.nz/~crb/nm/feisty/network-manager-
> pptp_0.6.4+pptp0.6.5-0crb2_i386.deb

What is the name of the connection you're creating? I'm led to believe that a name with two or more spaces may not appear.

network-manager-pptp (0.6.4+svn2574-0ubuntu1) gutsy; urgency=low

  * New upstream release (fixes LP: #67881, LP: #80541).
  * Fix properties dialog so an option is always selected. (fixes LP: #89120)
  * Set NoDisplay=true in the .desktop file to hide spurious menu item
    (fixes LP: #109856).
  * Bump Standards-version to 3.7.2 and fix Maintainer: field in
    debian/control.

 -- Craig Box <email address hidden> Sun, 4 Jun 2007 11:18:03 +1200

Hi Craig! Sorry for the delay. I did some more experiments, and vpn config works beautifully if I choose any other name than the one I was using, which does not contain any spaces. I happen to have this same connection configured through a different vpn tool (kvpnc), so I suspect network-manager-pptp detects the name conflict and silently refuses to install it?

At any rate, I successfully connected using a different connection name (with a "2" appended to the end) and it works fine. Thanks for your recent updates.

Regards,
Jeff

I encountered this bug also in Kubuntu 7.04. Here's my story...

1) I created a bad pptp connection profile because I didn't select the type. If you do that, it actually creates a file for it in ~/.gconf/system/networking/vpn_connections/profile_name_here which then won't allow you to reuse 'profile_name_here' when trying to create a new profile.

2) I deleted ~/.gconf/system/networking/vpn_connections/profile_name_here and tried to remake the profile via the gui, again using 'profile_name_here' as my profile name. Still no joy.

3) I figure what the hell, 'rm -rf .gconf .gconfd', still no joy.

4) Hrm, gconfd must be the settings for a daemon of some sort... instead of figuring out how to restart it, I'll just reboot. Finally, I'm able to make a pptp connection profile using 'profile_name_here' (and selecting the type this time around of course).

I hope my post help some people, especially less experienced Linux users who are more liable to just give up.

Excellent work Christopher - thanks very much. I will ensure this is documented wider. I should point out two important things:

1. You can edit gconf keys on the disk, as you say, but you shouldn't. Use gconf-editor (GUI) or gconftool:

gconftool --all-dirs /system/networking/vpn_connections will list the connections
gconftool --recursive-unset /system/networking/vpn_connections/Connection@32@Name will remove a connection.

2. If you remove from the disk (bad), you can shutdown gconfd with gconftool --shutdown - it should restart itself.

(If gconftool doesn't work, use gconftool-2 instead. On most systems one is an alias to the other through the alternatives system).

Christopher's fix worked for me! After deleting the problem directory and rebooting, I can now configure a connection with the desired name.

Perhaps the config wizard can detect this situation and report it (instead of silently failing)? Or at least give some message when it doesn't add the connection to the list, whatever the reason...

It appears to me that I can't hit the "next" button in the VPN dialog
with a connection name that already exists. This could be a problem in
the old version, so I've added a note to
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/VPNClient.