Network Manager Applet can't connect to VPN, but nmtui does

[jingles]

1) Ubuntu 17.10 Fresh install
2) network-manager-pptp/artful,now 1.2.4-4 amd64
VPN connection, created in network manager can't even turn on - slider goes back to off right after your click on it. Connect via "connect" does nothing too. I've tried to change option - store password/do not store password. No errors shown,except syslog:
Oct 20 03:13:27 sabertooth NetworkManager[824]: <info> [1508458407.5923] audit: op="connection-activate" uuid="709047eb-3254-419f-a152-0a8ff0c3a04b" name="Schastye" pid=1603 uid=1000 result="success"
Oct 20 03:13:27 sabertooth NetworkManager[824]: <info> [1508458407.5966] vpn-connection[0x55b89ac6b2c0,709047eb-3254-419f-a152-0a8ff0c3a04b,"Schastye",0]: Started the VPN service, PID 5992
Oct 20 03:13:27 sabertooth NetworkManager[824]: <info> [1508458407.6019] vpn-connection[0x55b89ac6b2c0,709047eb-3254-419f-a152-0a8ff0c3a04b,"Schastye",0]: Saw the service appear; activating connection
Oct 20 03:13:27 sabertooth gnome-shell[1603]: Invalid VPN service type (cannot find authentication binary)
Oct 20 03:13:27 sabertooth gnome-shell[1603]: Invalid VPN service type (cannot find authentication binary)
Oct 20 03:13:27 sabertooth NetworkManager[824]: <error> [1508458407.6336] vpn-connection[0x55b89ac6b2c0,709047eb-3254-419f-a152-0a8ff0c3a04b,"Schastye",0]: Failed to request VPN secrets #3: No agents were available for this request.
Oct 20 03:13:27 sabertooth NetworkManager[824]: <info> [1508458407.6347] vpn-connection[0x55b89ac6b2c0,709047eb-3254-419f-a152-0a8ff0c3a04b,"Schastye",0]: VPN plugin: state changed: stopped (6)

If i try to connect to VPN via nmtui - everything works fine.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[jingles (slk-novikov)]

Possible workaround - choose 'store password for all users' in password field.

[Luca Ponzano (lponzano)]

thanks jingles!!!

"save password for all users" in vpn settings

works fine for me!!!

[jingles (slk-novikov)]

You are welcome!

[snpz (emdzii)]

Thanks for workaround, but still - stupid bug that is not fixed yet! :(

[Samuel Rohr (samuel-scherrer)]

The problem is happening here too.
thanks jingles it worked

[John Manko (jmanko)]

Neither 'store password for all users' nor 'save password for all users' in found as an option in the VPN settings. There is 'Make available to other users' on the Details tab. Is that what you mean?

[jingles (slk-novikov)]

John, you need to click a black icon at the right corner on the second tab (identification in my language) right in the password field. I attached a screenshot.

[John Manko (jmanko)]

:thumbs_up:

:)

[kalyp (kalyp)]

Thanks for the workaround!!

[heytimc (heytimc)]

I have symptoms like these as well - I think these are the relevent syslog lines:

Oct 25 23:29:34 tim-573P pppd[25897]: LCP: timeout sending Config-Requests
Oct 25 23:29:34 tim-573P NetworkManager[23036]: LCP: timeout sending Config-Requests
Oct 25 23:29:34 tim-573P NetworkManager[23036]: Connection terminated.
Oct 25 23:29:34 tim-573P pppd[25897]: Connection terminated.
Oct 25 23:29:34 tim-573P NetworkManager[23036]: <info> [1508970574.5444] vpn-connection[0x556db598a6d0,fe39617c-d214-480d-a0f1-6344e6005878,"Manifest",0]: VPN service disappeared
Oct 25 23:29:34 tim-573P NetworkManager[23036]: <info> [1508970574.5475] devices removed (path: /sys/devices/virtual/net/ppp0, iface: ppp0)
Oct 25 23:29:34 tim-573P gnome-shell[4380]: Removing a network device that was not added
Oct 25 23:29:34 tim-573P gnome-shell[1815]: Removing a network device that was not added
Oct 25 23:29:34 tim-573P pppd[25897]: Terminating on signal 15
Oct 25 23:29:34 tim-573P NetworkManager[23036]: Terminating on signal 15
Oct 25 23:29:34 tim-573P NetworkManager[23036]: Child process /usr/sbin/pptp 77.44.84.210 --nolaunchpppd --loglevel 0 --logstring nm-pptp-service-25893 (pid 25900) terminated with signal 15
Oct 25 23:29:34 tim-573P NetworkManager[23036]: Modem hangup
Oct 25 23:29:34 tim-573P pppd[25897]: Child process /usr/sbin/pptp 77.44.84.210 --nolaunchpppd --loglevel 0 --logstring nm-pptp-service-25893 (pid 25900) terminated with signal 15
Oct 25 23:29:34 tim-573P pppd[25897]: Modem hangup
Oct 25 23:29:34 tim-573P pppd[25897]: Exit.
Oct 25 23:29:34 tim-573P zeal.desktop[14336]: "No such interface 'org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties' on object at path /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/ActiveConnection/14"
Oct 25 23:29:34 tim-573P gnome-shell[4380]: [AppIndicatorSupport-WARN] Attempting to re-register :1.74/org/ayatana/NotificationItem/multiload; resetting instead

[Tomas Angelo (tommyangelo)]

The workaround https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/network-manager-applet/+bug/1725062/comments/2 does not work for all.
For me the VPN PPTP stopped work since Ubuntu 16.04 please fix this issue. The settings I received from my organization are:

Typ VPN : Point to Point tunneling protocol (PPTP)
VPN server: example.server.net
TCP port: 1723
IP protocol: GRE (Generic Routing Encapsulation, IP protocol ID 47
PPTP Authentication: Microsoft CHAP version 2 (MS-CHAP v2)
PPP Encryption: MPPE

[jingles (slk-novikov)]

Heytimc, your problem looks like firewall block - the connection tries to establish, but it fails. You can check if you affected by this bug via terminal. Try to connect via terminal->type nmtui->choose connect->select your vpn connection. If connection fails - it some kind of network problem.

[jingles (slk-novikov)]

Tomas, I forgot to mention - workaround works for me only on saved connection. You need to create it first,save it and then choose 'save password for all users' option. If you change anything else after choosing 'save password..' option, the problem may be persist. Also i assume your problem is a little bit broader. If I right, and you need PPTP connection for RDP sessions - it won't work out of the box in Ubuntu. You need to upgrade remmina from ppa, and check 'send echo packets PPP' and check 'use these connection for these network resourses only'. Aslo i recommend to try to connect via 'nmtui' the way i mentioned above, if my workaround not working.

[Kai-Heng Feng (kaihengfeng)]

Anyone filed an upstream bug at https://bugzilla.gnome.org yet?

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. The issue you are reporting is an upstream one and it would be nice if somebody having it could send the bug to the developers of the software by following the instructions at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Upstream/GNOME. If you have done so, please tell us the number of the upstream bug (or the link), so we can add a bugwatch that will inform us about its status. Thanks in advance.

[jingles (slk-novikov)]

Thank you for response, here is the link:
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=789341

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

thanks for forwarding it upstream

[heytimc (heytimc)]

@jingles still suffering from this; even with my firewall disabled:

● ufw.service - Uncomplicated firewall
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/ufw.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: inactive (dead) since Sun 2017-10-29 23:35:18 GMT; 7min ago
     Docs: man:ufw(8)
  Process: 15919 ExecStop=/lib/ufw/ufw-init stop (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
  Process: 337 ExecStart=/lib/ufw/ufw-init start quiet (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 337 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)

Oct 29 23:35:18 tim-573P.m1.manifest.co.uk systemd[1]: Stopping Uncomplicated firewall...
Oct 29 23:35:18 tim-573P.m1.manifest.co.uk systemd[1]: Stopped Uncomplicated firewall.
Warning: Journal has been rotated since unit was started. Log output is incomplete or unavailable.

then syslog contains:

23:46:57 tim-573P gnome-shell[2404]: [AppIndicatorSupport-WARN] Attempting to re-register :1.65/org/ayatana/NotificationItem/multiload; resetting instead
Oct 29 23:47:00 tim-573P gnome-shell[2404]: message repeated 7 times: [ [AppIndicatorSupport-WARN] Attempting to re-register :1.65/org/ayatana/NotificationItem/multiload; resetting instead]
Oct 29 23:47:01 tim-573P gnome-shell[2404]: [AppIndicatorSupport-WARN] Attempting to re-register :1.65/org/ayatana/NotificationItem/multiload; resetting instead
Oct 29 23:47:13 tim-573P gnome-shell[2404]: message repeated 25 times: [ [AppIndicatorSupport-WARN] Attempting to re-register :1.65/org/ayatana/NotificationItem/multiload; resetting instead]
Oct 29 23:47:13 tim-573P NetworkManager[1318]: <info> [1509320833.9569] audit: op="connection-activate" uuid="a3732481-3cb7-4d38-8742-f63da6e56544" name="Manifest" pid=16231 uid=1000 result="success"
Oct 29 23:47:13 tim-573P NetworkManager[1318]: <info> [1509320833.9657] vpn-connection[0x563edd4c62d0,a3732481-3cb7-4d38-8742-f63da6e56544,"Manifest",0]: Started the VPN service, PID 16479
Oct 29 23:47:13 tim-573P NetworkManager[1318]: <info> [1509320833.9748] vpn-connection[0x563edd4c62d0,a3732481-3cb7-4d38-8742-f63da6e56544,"Manifest",0]: Saw the service appear; activating connection
Oct 29 23:47:14 tim-573P NetworkManager[1318]: <info> [1509320834.0030] vpn-connection[0x563edd4c62d0,a3732481-3cb7-4d38-8742-f63da6e56544,"Manifest",0]: VPN connection: (ConnectInteractive) reply received
Oct 29 23:47:14 tim-573P NetworkManager[1318]: <info> [1509320834.0098] vpn-connection[0x563edd4c62d0,a3732481-3cb7-4d38-8742-f63da6e56544,"Manifest",0]: VPN plugin: state changed: starting (3)
Oct 29 23:47:14 tim-573P pppd[16483]: Plugin /usr/lib/pppd/2.4.7/nm-pptp-pppd-plugin.so loaded.
Oct 29 23:47:14 tim-573P NetworkManager[1318]: Plugin /usr/lib/pppd/2.4.7/nm-pptp-pppd-plugin.so loaded.
Oct 29 23:47:14 tim-573P pppd[16483]: pppd 2.4.7 started by root, uid 0
Oct 29 23:47:14 tim-573P NetworkManager[1318]: ((src/devices/nm-device.c:1452)): assertion '<dropped>' failed
Oct 29 23:47:14 tim-573P pptp[16488]: nm-pptp-service-16479 log[main:pptp.c:353]: The synchronous pptp option is NOT activated
Oct 29 23:47:14 tim-573P systemd-udevd[16487]: link_config: autonegotiation is unset or enabled, the speed and duplex are not writable.
Oct 29 23:47:14 tim-573P NetworkManager[1318]: <info> [150932...

[jingles (slk-novikov)]

heytimc, i blocked pptp connection on my router and got the same syslog errors.
So your problem is some kind of network issue. It could be your router firewall, or ISP firewall or maybe your IT department changed something or blocking it. I can only quess.
As a confirmation of my words - open gnome-terminal, type nmtui, choose connect and select your VPN connect - if will fail too, so it means it's a network issue.

[KrosseKrabbe (krossekrabbe)]

> John, you need to click a black icon at the right corner on the second tab (identification in my language) right in the password field. I attached a screenshot.

That's horrible UX btw. I'm working as a dev since 10+ years and not even I could figure out why that input field is disabled and that more options are hidden behind that question mark symbol.

[Muelli (ubuntu-bugs-auftrags-killer)]

I also cannot connect to a VPN:

Nov 23 23:44:10 hostname NetworkManager[932]: <info> [1511477050.1357] audit: op="connection-activate" uuid="6efe21fb-3251-41d3-936d-7f1ee0e3ca9d" name="VPN" pid=1776 uid=1000 result="success"
Nov 23 23:44:10 hostname NetworkManager[932]: <info> [1511477050.1855] vpn-connection[0x560ddf83c0e0,6efe21fb-3251-41d3-936d-7f1ee0e3ca9d,"VPN",0]: Started the VPN service, PID 31904
Nov 23 23:44:10 hostname NetworkManager[932]: <info> [1511477050.1958] vpn-connection[0x560ddf83c0e0,6efe21fb-3251-41d3-936d-7f1ee0e3ca9d,"VPN",0]: Saw the service appear; activating connection
Nov 23 23:44:10 hostname gnome-shell[1776]: Invalid VPN service type (cannot find authentication binary)
Nov 23 23:44:10 hostname gnome-shell[1776]: Invalid VPN service type (cannot find authentication binary)
Nov 23 23:44:10 hostname NetworkManager[932]: <error> [1511477050.3692] vpn-connection[0x560ddf83c0e0,6efe21fb-3251-41d3-936d-7f1ee0e3ca9d,"VPN",0]: Failed to request VPN secrets #3: No agents were availabl
Nov 23 23:44:10 hostname NetworkManager[932]: <info> [1511477050.3712] vpn-connection[0x560ddf83c0e0,6efe21fb-3251-41d3-936d-7f1ee0e3ca9d,"VPN",0]: VPN plugin: state changed: stopped (6)
Nov 23 23:44:18 hostname NetworkManager[932]: <info> [1511477058.5777] audit: op="connection-activate" uuid="6efe21fb-3251-41d3-936d-7f1ee0e3ca9d" name="VPN" pid=31913 uid=1000 result="success"
Nov 23 23:44:18 hostname NetworkManager[932]: <info> [1511477058.6045] vpn-connection[0x560ddf83c2d0,6efe21fb-3251-41d3-936d-7f1ee0e3ca9d,"VPN",0]: Started the VPN service, PID 31921
Nov 23 23:44:18 hostname NetworkManager[932]: <info> [1511477058.6195] vpn-connection[0x560ddf83c2d0,6efe21fb-3251-41d3-936d-7f1ee0e3ca9d,"VPN",0]: Saw the service appear; activating connection
Nov 23 23:44:18 hostname gnome-shell[1776]: Invalid VPN service type (cannot find authentication binary)
Nov 23 23:44:18 hostname gnome-shell[1776]: Invalid VPN service type (cannot find authentication binary)
Nov 23 23:44:18 hostname NetworkManager[932]: <error> [1511477058.6728] vpn-connection[0x560ddf83c2d0,6efe21fb-3251-41d3-936d-7f1ee0e3ca9d,"VPN",0]: Failed to request VPN secrets #3: No agents were availabl
Nov 23 23:44:18 hostname NetworkManager[932]: <info> [1511477058.6930] vpn-connection[0x560ddf83c2d0,6efe21fb-3251-41d3-936d-7f1ee0e3ca9d,"VPN",0]: VPN service disappeared

However, manually starting the VPN, i.e.

    nmcli --ask connection up VPN

works.

If I don't provide the --ask, I get:

    $ nmcli connection up VPN
    A password is required to connect to 'VPN'.
    Warning: password for 'vpn.secrets.password' not given in 'passwd-file' and nmcli cannot ask without '--ask' option.
    Error: Connection activation failed: No valid secrets

This seems to be similar to https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1394977

[SchizoDuckie (schizoduckie-t)]

Same problem here after upgrading.
The "indicator" thingie worked, as in, i can reconnect to my vpn again but now there's new behavior when I come back in the settings screen.

As soon as i change the setting to "store for all users" it displays a new utf8 question mark icon and jumps to "always ask"

I have to agree with @KrosseKrabbe: this is horrible UX and can benefit from a simple redesign. Just make it a button. Buttons indicate something clickable. Icons embedded in a text field annotate the purpose of the field. I assumed this icon indicated that the password would be stored in the keyring and it'd never have occured to me to click on it without the clear instructions in text in this thread.

[SchizoDuckie (schizoduckie-t)]

update:
Storing the password for all users works only once.

After that I have to go back into the settings dialog, re-set the password, connect immediately and then I have a connection once. There never is any UI that asks for a password even when I choose that setting.

Also syslog is spammed with these 2 messages about 6 times per second.

Dec 4 22:58:44 Schizo-Laptop gnome-shell[5522]: [AppIndicatorSupport-WARN] Item :1.66/org/ayatana/NotificationItem/multiload is already registered
Dec 4 22:58:44 Schizo-Laptop gnome-shell[5522]: [AppIndicatorSupport-WARN] Attempting to re-register :1.66/org/ayatana/NotificationItem/multiload; resetting instead

[r2sol (suntower)]

Jan 30
Hi to all I' new to ubuntu and linux and I dont know more than any of you guys
I just upgraded from 17.4 to 17.10 before yesterday and I had all kind of issues trying to make the
VPN to work using the Network Manager Applet and the orange on slider button won't stay on,reading all over I did found you guys, this is what I did to make it work
1- Right click on top of the 3 computers icon
2- Click the arrow next to the VPN to open the VPN settings
3- On the VPN click the + icon
4- on the identity tab Create the new connection adding the gateway
5- add the user name and the password and click the black icon on the right
   change it to use the password for all the users
6- Click advance uncheck the the 2 first and the last box
7- On security and compression I check all the box except for the last one use custom unit numbers
8-on the details tab and the others tab I left all the same it was
and turn the vpn settings on the router off,has bee on for more than an hour
IP address secure
No WebRTC leak detected
No DNS leaks detected
using express VPN
if you believe this have not cense, this is the way work for me,hope work for you
thanks

[r2sol (suntower)]

Still working but get disconnected when restart or go to sleep mode,and I able to connected back again from the icon on the top of the screen without do anything on the settings,this is a system issue no network issue