VPN Not Connecting in Jaunty, but was in Intrepid

[LinuxLars]

I have been using VPN PPTP to connect to a domain through several Ubuntu releases, including Intepid.

For reasons I have not been able to determine, the VPN connection just fails, with the entire "not very helpful" message "VPN Connected failed".

Here's the entire transcript from messages:

Apr 16 10:50:56 squirrel pppd[4032]: Plugin /usr/lib/pppd/2.4.5//nm-pptp-pppd-plugin.so loaded.
Apr 16 10:50:56 squirrel pppd[4032]: pppd 2.4.5 started by root, uid 0
Apr 16 10:50:56 squirrel pppd[4032]: Using interface ppp0
Apr 16 10:50:56 squirrel pppd[4032]: Connect: ppp0 <--> /dev/pts/0
Apr 16 10:50:57 squirrel pppd[4032]: LCP terminated by peer (mM-+EM-^^@<M-Mt^@^@^BM-3)
Apr 16 10:51:00 squirrel pppd[4032]: Connection terminated.
Apr 16 10:51:00 squirrel pppd[4032]: Modem hangup
Apr 16 10:51:00 squirrel pppd[4032]: Exit.

And this from daemon.log:
Apr 16 11:06:34 squirrel NetworkManager: <info> Starting VPN service 'org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.pptp'...
Apr 16 11:06:34 squirrel NetworkManager: <info> VPN service 'org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.pptp' started (org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.pptp), PID 4498
Apr 16 11:06:34 squirrel NetworkManager: <info> VPN service 'org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.pptp' just appeared, activating connections
Apr 16 11:06:34 squirrel NetworkManager: <info> VPN plugin state changed: 3
Apr 16 11:06:34 squirrel NetworkManager: <info> VPN connection 'Terremark' (Connect) reply received.
Apr 16 11:06:34 squirrel pptp[4505]: nm-pptp-service-4498 log[main:pptp.c:314]: The synchronous pptp option is NOT activated
Apr 16 11:06:34 squirrel pptp[4513]: nm-pptp-service-4498 log[ctrlp_rep:pptp_ctrl.c:251]: Sent control packet type is 1 'Start-Control-Connection-Request'
Apr 16 11:06:34 squirrel pptp[4513]: nm-pptp-service-4498 log[ctrlp_disp:pptp_ctrl.c:739]: Received Start Control Connection Reply
Apr 16 11:06:34 squirrel pptp[4513]: nm-pptp-service-4498 log[ctrlp_disp:pptp_ctrl.c:773]: Client connection established.
Apr 16 11:06:35 squirrel pptp[4513]: nm-pptp-service-4498 log[ctrlp_rep:pptp_ctrl.c:251]: Sent control packet type is 7 'Outgoing-Call-Request'
Apr 16 11:06:35 squirrel pptp[4513]: nm-pptp-service-4498 log[ctrlp_disp:pptp_ctrl.c:858]: Received Outgoing Call Reply.
Apr 16 11:06:35 squirrel pptp[4513]: nm-pptp-service-4498 log[ctrlp_disp:pptp_ctrl.c:897]: Outgoing call established (call ID 0, peer's call ID 47662).
Apr 16 11:06:35 squirrel pptp[4513]: nm-pptp-service-4498 log[ctrlp_disp:pptp_ctrl.c:950]: PPTP_SET_LINK_INFO received from peer_callid 60006
Apr 16 11:06:35 squirrel pptp[4513]: nm-pptp-service-4498 log[ctrlp_disp:pptp_ctrl.c:953]: send_accm is 00000000, recv_accm is FFFFFFFF
Apr 16 11:06:35 squirrel pptp[4513]: nm-pptp-service-4498 warn[ctrlp_disp:pptp_ctrl.c:956]: Non-zero Async Control Character Maps are not supported!
Apr 16 11:06:35 squirrel pptp[4513]: nm-pptp-service-4498 log[ctrlp_disp:pptp_ctrl.c:950]: PPTP_SET_LINK_INFO received from peer_callid 60006
Apr 16 11:06:35 squirrel pptp[4513]: nm-pptp-service-4498 log[ctrlp_disp:pptp_ctrl.c:953]: send_accm is FFFFFFFF, recv_accm is FFFFFFFF
Apr 16 11:06:35 squirrel pptp[4513]: nm-pptp-service-4498 warn[ctrlp_disp:pptp_ctrl.c:956]: Non-zero Async Control Character Maps are not supported!
Apr 16 11:06:35 squirrel pptp[4513]: nm-pptp-service-4498 log[ctrlp_disp:pptp_ctrl.c:912]: Received Call Clear Request.
Apr 16 11:06:38 squirrel NetworkManager: <info> VPN plugin failed: 1
Apr 16 11:06:38 squirrel pptp[4505]: nm-pptp-service-4498 warn[decaps_hdlc:pptp_gre.c:204]: short read (-1): Input/output error
Apr 16 11:06:38 squirrel pptp[4505]: nm-pptp-service-4498 warn[decaps_hdlc:pptp_gre.c:216]: pppd may have shutdown, see pppd log
Apr 16 11:06:38 squirrel pptp[4513]: nm-pptp-service-4498 log[callmgr_main:pptp_callmgr.c:234]: Closing connection (unhandled)
Apr 16 11:06:38 squirrel pptp[4513]: nm-pptp-service-4498 log[ctrlp_rep:pptp_ctrl.c:251]: Sent control packet type is 12 'Call-Clear-Request'
Apr 16 11:06:38 squirrel pptp[4513]: nm-pptp-service-4498 log[call_callback:pptp_callmgr.c:79]: Closing connection (call state)
Apr 16 11:06:38 squirrel NetworkManager: <info> VPN plugin failed: 1
Apr 16 11:06:38 squirrel NetworkManager: <info> VPN plugin failed: 1
Apr 16 11:06:38 squirrel NetworkManager: <info> VPN plugin state changed: 6
Apr 16 11:06:38 squirrel NetworkManager: <info> VPN plugin state change reason: 0
Apr 16 11:06:38 squirrel NetworkManager: <WARN> connection_state_changed(): Could not process the request because no VPN connection was active.
Apr 16 11:06:38 squirrel NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): writing resolv.conf to /sbin/resolvconf
Apr 16 11:06:38 squirrel NetworkManager: <info> Policy set 'casacolonial' (wlan0) as default for routing and DNS.
Apr 16 11:06:51 squirrel NetworkManager: <debug> [1239898011.002564] ensure_killed(): waiting for vpn service pid 4498 to exit
Apr 16 11:06:51 squirrel NetworkManager: <debug> [1239898011.002724] ensure_killed(): vpn service pid 4498 cleaned up

(I don't see any synchronous option in the configuration dialog).

Running 9.04 Beta (updated this morning), 64 bit, on a Lenovo X61s.

network-manager-pptp Installed: 0.7.1~rc4.20090316+bzr23-0ubuntu2
network-manager-dev Installed: 0.7.1~rc4.1.cf199a964-0ubuntu2
pptp-linux Installed: 1.7.2-1

I have also tried with:
network-manager-openvpn Installed: 0.7.1~rc4.1.20090323+bzr27-0ubuntu2

Any ideas?

[LinuxLars (lwilson-casadelnorte)]

The network-manager-pptp update today solved the issue for me.

Cheers!

[Kyle (kylejohnkroeger)]

I am having the exact same problem and I already installed that update. Any other thoughts?

[rachtw (mufenhsieh)]

I am having the same problem. I've tried to enabled MPPE. I also tried to uncomment "require-mppe-128" in /etc/ppp/options.pptp as mentioned in the post http://david-burger.blogspot.com/2009/05/vpn-fix-after-ubuntu-update-lcp.html . Nothing worked for me.

[rachtw (mufenhsieh)]

I guess I don't have the same problem. I found out I just didn't configure it correctly in Jaunty. I had to specifically enable MMPE 128 bit (but not in Intrepid) and disable CHAP and EAP in the configuration, and it worked.

[Shang Wu (shangwu)]

Using the following article to setup the windows 2003 VPN server:
http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-5805260.html

A fresh install Jaunty, network-manager-pptp plugin failed with the default setting. After

1. Disable(Uncheck) the EAP option
2. Enable (Check) the MPPE option
2a. Specify the security as 128-bit
2b. Enable(Check) Allow stateful encryption

The VPN connection works after that.

[Shang Wu (shangwu)]

Also added to the One Hundred Paper Cuts and see if changing to the above would be a better default settings for the network-manager-pptp plugin, as the current default settings can't connect in _some_ (if not all) situations.

[Shang Wu (shangwu)]

Correction, if we can simply disable EAP option, then VPN works...

[Vish (vish)]

Thank you for bringing this bug to our attention. However, a paper cut should be a small usability issue, in the default Ubuntu install, that affects many people and is quick and easy to fix. So this bug can't be addressed as part of this project.

- This is a bug , not a papercut.
For further information about papercuts criteria, please read https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PaperCut.

Don't worry though, this bug has been marked as "Invalid" only in the papercuts project.

[Lê Kiến Trúc (le-kien-truc)]

I can confirm this solution, I must to disable EAP option to connect to a VPN. I don't know what if it is a bug or not.

[Timothy Arceri (t-fridey)]

Marking as invalid as the original problem is solved. If you think the default values should be different please create a new bug report.