NetworkManager + vpnc doesn't work if user password is set to 'Not Required'

[Thomas Novin]

Binary package hint: network-manager-vpnc

If I try to connect to my VPN connection that uses VPNC with group name, group password and user name but NOT user password this connection fails.

Started NM from CLI and got this on my console:

NetworkManager: <info> (eth0): device state change: 7 -> 8 (reason 0)
NetworkManager: <info> (eth0): writing resolv.conf to /sbin/resolvconf
NetworkManager: <info> Policy set 'Auto eth0' (eth0) as default for routing and DNS.
NetworkManager: <info> Activation (eth0) successful, device activated.
NetworkManager: <info> Activation (eth0) Stage 5 of 5 (IP Configure Commit) complete.
NetworkManager: Tried to set deprecated property gsm/band
NetworkManager: Tried to set deprecated property gsm/band
NetworkManager: <info> Starting VPN service 'org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.vpnc'...
NetworkManager: <info> VPN service 'org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.vpnc' started (org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.vpnc), PID 3944
NetworkManager: <info> VPN service 'org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.vpnc' just appeared, activating connections
NetworkManager: <info> VPN plugin state changed: 1
NetworkManager: <info> VPN plugin state changed: 3
** Message: <info> vpnc started with pid 3951

/usr/sbin/vpnc: missing Xauth password
NetworkManager: <info> VPN connection 'X-sam' (Connect) reply received.

** (process:3944): WARNING **: <WARN> vpnc_watch_cb(): vpnc exited with error code 1

NetworkManager: <info> VPN plugin failed: 1
NetworkManager: <info> VPN plugin state changed: 6
NetworkManager: <info> VPN plugin state change reason: 0
NetworkManager: <WARN> connection_state_changed(): Could not process the request because no VPN connection was active.
NetworkManager: <info> (eth0): writing resolv.conf to /sbin/resolvconf
NetworkManager: <info> Policy set 'Auto eth0' (eth0) as default for routing and DNS.

So I guess it's related to the user password being blank.

It works fine if I run vpnc from cli instead.

thonov@thonov-ubuntu:~$ apt-cache policy network-manager-vpnc
network-manager-vpnc:
  Installed: 0.8~a~git.20091008t124012.f5b95a2-0ubuntu1
  Candidate: 0.8~a~git.20091008t124012.f5b95a2-0ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 0.8~a~git.20091008t124012.f5b95a2-0ubuntu1 0
        500 http://se.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/universe Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

[Ed Adasiewicz (edadasiewicz)]

I am experiencing similar results. In my case there is no username or password. If I create a .conf file for vpnc and run it from the command line the connection succeeds.

[Boynas (garyflores)]

This is affecting me too, confirmed in karmic and lucid final.

My connection works fine from CLI if I enable Single DES, but my VPN server does not require username and pass, only Group.

If I use a conf file for vpnc with the "enable single DES" or I start it with --enable-1des it works.

Unfortunately, from network-manager I am having problems because I don't have username and/or because it is not supporting single DES. I tried with "weak (not recommended)" but is still failing.

I can't install from PPA because there is no repo available for Lucid yet.

[Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre (cyphermox)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. The issue that you reported is one that should be reproducible with the live environment of the Desktop CD of the development release - Oneiric Ocelot. It would help us greatly if you could test with it so we can work on getting it fixed in the next release of Ubuntu. You can find out more about the development release at http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/ . Thanks again and we appreciate your help.

[Ed Adasiewicz (edadasiewicz)]

I upgraded one of my 11.04 to 11.10 and tried the same test with a blank User name and User Password set to Not Required. When I select it from the Network Manager it fails immediately with "... there were no valid VPN secrets." I then rebooted the machine (twice) and both time ended up with 2 vpn connections with the same name - one still had the Not Required selected and the other had Always Ask selected. Neither connection would work and each asked me for a password -- entering nothing (blank) would cause it to try and connect, and I eventually had to stop the connection process by disconnecting.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for network-manager-vpnc (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]