Arch Linux

ddrizn

Member

Registered: 2006-09-08

Posts: 10

VPN Client

I am a recent convert to Arch linux, most recently from Gentoo. In fact I've only been using it for 1 day, and I must say I really like it. But, there is one issue that if I don't resolve it, I will have to go to another distro. I have been using the Cisco VPN client to connect to our company network for the last 6 years, through Red Hat, Fedora, SUSE, Ubuntu, Gentoo, and have never had any significant problems, until now. In trying to install the cisco vpn client I get the infamous interceptor error. Now in the past, I've had to occasionally patch the client before the install would work, but the patch I've always used does not work, and when I try to start the service  I get an error inserting the module. In reading posts on this forum, I see the same argument against using the Cisco client, that it's no good so I went ahead and installed vpnc, and then kvpnc. However, when I try to import one of my cisco profiles into kvpnc it successfully imports but when the configure window opens, everything is greyed out. I can make no modifications and when I try to connect, using the imported connection, the application crashes. As I said, I must find a solution to this problem, or I will have to move on to another distro. I am willing to try anything. Please help.

ddrizn

Member

Registered: 2006-09-08

Posts: 10

Re: VPN Client

One additional note, it looks like I screwed up the kvpnc install because I can't configure it at all. I followed the guidelines here when installing an AUR package. http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php? … ght=yaourt

Sigi

Member

From: Thurgau, Switzerland

Registered: 2005-09-22

Posts: 1,131

Re: VPN Client

One additional note, it looks like I screwed up the kvpnc install because I can't configure it at all. I followed the guidelines here when installing an AUR package. http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php? … ght=yaourt

So you are having problems to install kvpnc from AUR? Could you please describe your problem?

Can I assume you followed these steps:

Anyway, run following commands in a terminal:

cd /var/abs/local
wget http://aur.archlinux.org/packages/lives/lives.tar.gz
tar zxf lives.tar.gz && rm lives.tar.gz
cd lives
makepkg
pacman -A lives-0.9.7_pre1-1.tar.gz

just instead for the kvpnc package?

---

Haven't been here in a while. Still rocking Arch.

ddrizn

Member

Registered: 2006-09-08

Posts: 10

Re: VPN Client

Yes, I followed those instructions. I created a user to perform the make and gave them rights to the /var/abs/local as instructed. The install went just fine, but like I said when I open kvpnc, I cannot configure it in any way. Everything is greyed out.

ddrizn

Member

Registered: 2006-09-08

Posts: 10

Re: VPN Client

One more note. It's not crucial that I use kvpnc. I'll be perfectly happy with a CLI as long as it works. I just picked kvpnc because I knew it could import cisco profiles.

jochen

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2004-06-01

Posts: 102

Re: VPN Client

This link shows you how to create a vpnc.conf from your .pcf-profile:
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/draft/vpnc … #doc_chap5

Then you can simply execute

sudo vpnc /path/to/vpnc.conf

ddrizn

Member

Registered: 2006-09-08

Posts: 10

Re: VPN Client

I think I'm almost there. I'm going to try a dirfferent profile. I've got 13 of them. Or might there be another reason for the error below?

[bruce@doctor4 ~]$ sudo vpnc /etc/vpnc.conf
vpnc: hash comparison failed: AUTHENTICATION_FAILED
check group password!

jochen

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2004-06-01

Posts: 102

Re: VPN Client

Did you decode the group password? http://www.unix-ag.uni-kl.de/~massar/bin/cisco-decode

ddrizn

Member

Registered: 2006-09-08

Posts: 10

Re: VPN Client

I have now but I still get the same error.

ddrizn

Member

Registered: 2006-09-08

Posts: 10

Re: VPN Client

OK, I had an extra space after the password. Now the vpnc.conf has my username and network password in it so I assume that the password that the command  sudo vpnc /etc/vpnc.conf is asking for is my local user password. However, when I use that ige this error.

[bruce@doctor4 ~]$ sudo vpnc /etc/vpnc.conf
vpnc: authentication unsuccessful

ddrizn

Member

Registered: 2006-09-08

Posts: 10

Re: VPN Client

Another silly mistake, another empty space behind my network password. I was able to connect and check my email. If I'd only known it was this easy I would have switched long ago. One last question. After you're finished how do you terminate the vpn connection. I tried vpnc-disconnect but it tells me
VPNC started in background (pid: 4830)...
[bruce@doctor4 ~]$ vpnc-disconnect
no vpnc found running
[bruce@doctor4 ~]$
Thank you very much for all the help. I'm sticking with Arch Linux.

jochen

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2004-06-01

Posts: 102

Re: VPN Client

I do usually finish my connection with:

sudo killall vpnc