VPN connections from nm-applet won't start at all.

soulctcher · 2013-07-31 13:47:37

I've got nm-applet working with NetworkManager. I can connect wirelessly without issue.
I can add VPN profiles without a problem. I am trying to connect to one using networkmanager-openconnect.
I have the latest packages for everything as of the time of this post.

Essentially, what I see if I click on the VPN connection I've created is an almost instantaneous changing of the icon to something else, then back to the wireless icon. Nothing happens visually on my screen.

I'm not really sure where to begin on troubleshooting this one, as there's not even any output whatsoever.
Any hints would be great. I'm happy to supply any further information anyone needs.

Thanks in advance!

JailhouseJoe · 2013-07-31 15:27:10

Hi,

which desktop environment / windowmanager do you use? (e.g. problem in Gnome)
Which packages are installed for vpn integration in nm-applet?

soulctcher · 2013-07-31 15:37:53

JailhouseJoe wrote:

Hi,
which desktop environment / windowmanager do you use? (e.g. problem in Gnome)
Which packages are installed for vpn integration in nm-applet?

It's Cinnamon DE.

I've got networkmanager, network-manager-applet, & networkmanager-openconnect all version 0.9.8.2-1, as well as all of their deps.

JailhouseJoe · 2013-07-31 15:57:44

I don't know, but since Cinnamon is a fork of Gnome Shell it could be the Gnome-issue.
Maybe just try that workaround suggested there.

soulctcher · 2013-07-31 16:13:44

JailhouseJoe wrote:

I don't know, but since Cinnamon is a fork of Gnome Shell it could be the Gnome-issue.
Maybe just try that workaround suggested there.

Unfortunately, that doesn't change anything.

JailhouseJoe · 2013-07-31 16:28:07

Have you tried one of these plugins instead of openconnect already? (vpnc is mentioned in that Gnome-bug, too, btw)

Did you manage to establish that VPN connection on another system / with a different client before?

soulctcher · 2013-07-31 16:40:21

JailhouseJoe wrote:

Have you tried one of these plugins instead of openconnect already? (vpnc is mentioned in that Gnome-bug, too, btw)
Did you manage to establish that VPN connection on another system / with a different client before?

I can't use any of the other plugins because this is an AnyConnect ASA. I have used this computer with Mint 14/15 to connect to this VPN successfully in the past. I'm sure there's just something that I can't see or don't know how to get to.

There is no /var/logs/errors.log to cat, so that doesn't help. If I had some knowledge of where it is logging any errors, that would help, but I can't find anything.

JailhouseJoe · 2013-07-31 16:59:46

It should be somewhere in /var/log then, I think, or just in the output, if you start it from a terminal.
I'm sorry, I'm running out if ideas.

Maybe there is someone else with suggestions?

soulctcher · 2013-07-31 17:06:27

JailhouseJoe wrote:

It should be somewhere in /var/log then, I think, or just in the output, if you start it from a terminal.
I'm sorry, I'm running out if ideas.
Maybe there is someone else with suggestions?

I've looked through everything in /var/log and found zilch that would help. I don't know how I can start what needs to be started via a terminal for this plugin.
I very much appreciate your attempts here. Here's to hoping someone else can jump in with further ideas.

JailhouseJoe · 2013-07-31 17:13:13

How do you start nm-applet at the moment? I guess it's done from your DE automatically?

Then just kill it (e.g from terminal "killall nm-applet") and start it from terminal with "nm-applet".

soulctcher · 2013-07-31 17:39:28

JailhouseJoe wrote:

How do you start nm-applet at the moment? I guess it's done from your DE automatically?
Then just kill it (e.g from terminal "killall nm-applet") and start it from terminal with "nm-applet".

nm-applet is a piece of NetworkManager. In Arch, NetworkManager is systemctl controlled.
I'm still learning a bit about systemctl, but I do know how to enable/disable and start/stop services from systemctl.
That being said, I've tried to stop/start the service for NetworkManager, but to no avail.

I'm sure there's a way to view the logs for systemctl services...I'm just still too new to Arch to know how to do so yet.
At the same time that we're going back and forth on this thread, I've been reading/researching, and will continue to do so.

Thank you again for your assistance.

opensrcrox · 2013-07-31 18:16:22

Well, that isn't too hard
Try (using NetworkManager as example):

 systemctl status NetworkManager

It will show you the status of the service and the last 10 log entries

You can also do :

 journalctl -b -u NetworkManager

... which will show you this boot's log entries for that service ...

Same applies to other services ...

soulctcher · 2013-07-31 18:20:15

opensrcrox wrote:

Well, that isn't too hard
Try (using NetworkManager as example):
 systemctl status NetworkManager
It will show you the status of the service and the last 10 log entries
You can also do :
 journalctl -b -u NetworkManager
... which will show you this boot's log entries for that service ...
Same applies to other services ...

I'm about 10 minutes ahead of you.

What I'm finding right now is similar to what some others have said about VPN, kind of pointing back to the original page that JailhouseJoe referenced.

The line in the journal that is interesting is this:

Jul 31 14:10:32 halberd NetworkManager[405]: <error> [1375294232.131453] [nm-vpn-connection.c:1374] get_secrets_cb(): Failed to request VPN secrets #2: (6) No agents were available for this request.

I've already tried the symlinks...and I NEVER get the authorization dialog like some folks do.
I did read somewhere that consolekit may be needed, so I'm trying to pull down the one from the AUR since I can't find one in the normal packages. Unfortunately, the git connection timed out, so I'm going to try again shortly.

soulctcher · 2013-07-31 18:23:38

So more reading says that I should scratch that since polkit requires NO consolekit. Back to trying other vectors.

JailhouseJoe · 2013-07-31 18:31:41

Regarding the symlinks: where did you put them? As you are using Cinnamon "/usr/lib/gnome-shell/ " will be the wrong location maybe (never used it, don't know how much of gnome-shell there is still and if that directory exists).

soulctcher · 2013-07-31 18:35:04

JailhouseJoe wrote:

Regarding the symlinks: where did you put them? As you are using Cinnamon "/usr/lib/gnome-shell/ " will be the wrong location maybe (never used it, don't know how much of gnome-shell there is still and if that directory exists).

I didn't really have anything to go on, so I created the directory and placed the symlinks...but you may be right that they shouldn't be there.
I've since removed them since they weren't doing anything for me anyways. Same error shows in journalctl.

JailhouseJoe · 2013-07-31 18:38:06

Ok, I guess then that it's just that error and you have to find out where to put the symlinks.
If there is something like "/usr/lib/cinnamon", I'd give that a try.

soulctcher · 2013-07-31 18:49:17

JailhouseJoe wrote:

Ok, I guess then that it's just that error and you have to find out where to put the symlinks.
If there is something like "/usr/lib/cinnamon", I'd give that a try.

Was a nice try, but that didn't work; thanks!

JailhouseJoe · 2013-07-31 19:02:52

Mhh, too bad. But does that directory exist?

soulctcher · 2013-07-31 19:06:16

JailhouseJoe wrote:

Mhh, too bad. But does that directory exist?

Yes, it does.

JailhouseJoe · 2013-07-31 19:14:44

Ok, I'm sorry, I don't have any idea where to put them then.
The only thing I find in relation to Cinnamon is this, but there is no reply whether that worked.

Last edited by JailhouseJoe (2013-07-31 19:15:34)

soulctcher · 2013-07-31 19:18:40

JailhouseJoe wrote:

Ok, I'm sorry, I don't have any idea where to put them then.
The only thing I find in relation to Cinnamon is this, but there is no reply whether that worked.

I just saw that a couple of minutes ago, but I the context of the reply isn't helping me at all. I'm looking around for what they're talking about there still...if I can find it, I will try the change they're discussing.

soulctcher · 2013-07-31 19:25:49

soulctcher wrote:

JailhouseJoe wrote:
Ok, I'm sorry, I don't have any idea where to put them then.
The only thing I find in relation to Cinnamon is this, but there is no reply whether that worked.
I just saw that a couple of minutes ago, but I the context of the reply isn't helping me at all. I'm looking around for what they're talking about there still...if I can find it, I will try the change they're discussing.

Upon further inspection, that's specific to KDE, not Cinnamon.

Oh well...more attempts for this tomorrow.
Thank you all for your help. I'll check back in on this tomorrow.

JailhouseJoe · 2013-07-31 19:31:32

Oh, you are right. I did not see the subforum path, I'm sorry.
I'm out of ideas now really. I hope here's some Cinnamon user around who can help.

ropnop · 2013-08-26 19:31:21

I know this thread is a few weeks old, but I'm having the same issue and haven't been able to find a resolution yet. I'm running Cinnamon and the NetworkManager applet shows in my systray and works fine for wired and wireless connections. It will show my saved VPN connections, but when I hit the button to turn it "On", the applet disappears and nothing happens. If I go into network settings and switch the VPN connection to "On", it will say On but nothing happens and when I close the window it goes back to being "Off".

It is definitely a problem with the Applet, but I can't figure it out. I can connect to the VPN fine through the command line with nmcli, and the applet icon will even notify me that it is connected and working. I would prefer to do it through the applet, however. Does anyone have any ideas?

Arch Linux

#1 2013-07-31 13:47:37

VPN connections from nm-applet won't start at all.

#2 2013-07-31 15:27:10

Re: VPN connections from nm-applet won't start at all.

#3 2013-07-31 15:37:53

Re: VPN connections from nm-applet won't start at all.

#4 2013-07-31 15:57:44

Re: VPN connections from nm-applet won't start at all.

#5 2013-07-31 16:13:44

Re: VPN connections from nm-applet won't start at all.

#6 2013-07-31 16:28:07

Re: VPN connections from nm-applet won't start at all.

#7 2013-07-31 16:40:21

Re: VPN connections from nm-applet won't start at all.

#8 2013-07-31 16:59:46

Re: VPN connections from nm-applet won't start at all.

#9 2013-07-31 17:06:27

Re: VPN connections from nm-applet won't start at all.

#10 2013-07-31 17:13:13

Re: VPN connections from nm-applet won't start at all.

#11 2013-07-31 17:39:28

Re: VPN connections from nm-applet won't start at all.

#12 2013-07-31 18:16:22

Re: VPN connections from nm-applet won't start at all.

#13 2013-07-31 18:20:15

Re: VPN connections from nm-applet won't start at all.

#14 2013-07-31 18:23:38

Re: VPN connections from nm-applet won't start at all.

#15 2013-07-31 18:31:41

Re: VPN connections from nm-applet won't start at all.

#16 2013-07-31 18:35:04

Re: VPN connections from nm-applet won't start at all.

#17 2013-07-31 18:38:06

Re: VPN connections from nm-applet won't start at all.

#18 2013-07-31 18:49:17

Re: VPN connections from nm-applet won't start at all.

#19 2013-07-31 19:02:52

Re: VPN connections from nm-applet won't start at all.

#20 2013-07-31 19:06:16

Re: VPN connections from nm-applet won't start at all.

#21 2013-07-31 19:14:44

Re: VPN connections from nm-applet won't start at all.

#22 2013-07-31 19:18:40

Re: VPN connections from nm-applet won't start at all.

#23 2013-07-31 19:25:49

Re: VPN connections from nm-applet won't start at all.

#24 2013-07-31 19:31:32

Re: VPN connections from nm-applet won't start at all.

#25 2013-08-26 19:31:21

Re: VPN connections from nm-applet won't start at all.

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