VPN auto-connect is not working

[Mathieu Tarral]

Hi,

This is a duplicate of bug:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/network-manager/+bug/1718931

It is marked as fixed, but the feature is still broken for me.

I configured my Wifi connection to automatically connect to a VPN, but it only works if I manually
connect to the Wifi via NetworkManager.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 19.10
Package: network-manager 1.20.4-2ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.3.0-19.20-generic 5.3.1
Uname: Linux 5.3.0-19-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia_modeset nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu8.1
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Tue Nov 5 04:07:00 2019
IfupdownConfig:
 # interfaces(5) file used by ifup(8) and ifdown(8)
 auto lo
 iface lo inet loopback
InstallationDate: Installed on 2019-09-26 (39 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 19.04 "Disco Dingo" - Release amd64 (20190416)
SourcePackage: network-manager
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
nmcli-nm:
 RUNNING VERSION STATE STARTUP CONNECTIVITY NETWORKING WIFI-HW WIFI WWAN-HW WWAN
 running 1.20.4 connected started full enabled enabled enabled enabled enabled

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for your bug report. What VPN type/plugin are you using?
Could you add your 'journalctl -b 0' log after getting the issue?

[Mathieu Tarral (mathieu-tarral)]

Hi Sebastien,

I'm using an the OpenVPN plugin.
I'm imported an .ovpn config file into NetworkManager and filled my credentials.

I found some interesting log messages in journalctl:

nov. 05 21:00:58 xxxx gnome-shell[2760]: Invalid connection type: vpn
nov. 05 21:00:58 xxxx gnome-shell[2760]: Invalid connection type: vpn
nov. 05 21:00:58 xxxx NetworkManager[1485]: <error> [1572984058.4210] vpn-connection[0x55e68ff9c730,50d6326e-03bc-49a9-9f04-40c353cf55b3,"protonvpn.udp.com",0]: Failed to request VPN secrets #3: No agents were available for this request.
nov. 05 21:00:58 xxxx NetworkManager[1485]: <info> [1572984058.4212] device (wlo1): state change: secondaries -> failed (reason 'secondary-connection-failed', sys-iface-state: 'managed')

The error seems to be the "agent"
--> Failed to request VPN secrets #3: No agents were available for this request.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

The issue seems to be on the gnome-shell side then, which is supposed also to be the agent
gnome-shell[2760]: Invalid connection type: vpn

Could you report the issue upstream on https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/issues ?

[Mathieu Tarral (mathieu-tarral)]

I would rather not getting involved into too many bugtrackers, and as a Ubuntu user, remain on Launchpad and provide the required information to let you investigate.

Also, as you are a member of Ubuntu teams, you have more authority/credibility than me, so that bug can be taken seriously by Gnome-shell teams.

Thanks Sebastien.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Upstream bug trackers require bugs to be opened by the people affected so that the developers there can communicate directly with those people.

Also we don't have time to try and reproduce every bug report, sorry.

[Mathieu Tarral (mathieu-tarral)]

@Daniel bug reported upstream:
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/issues/2008

It seems that today, even manually triggering the VPN connection doesn't work anymore.
If you don't set "store password for all users" for the VPN credentials, the connection will fails.