Created PPTP connection does not appear in VPN connect menu

[Igor Karatayev]

Binary package hint: network-manager-pptp

Fresh sinstalled Ubuntu Feisty.
downloaded and installed network-manger-pptp and network-manager-vpnc.
Now when I create PPTP connection it does not appear in NetworkManager VPN connect menu. I can view and edit newconnection in VPN Configure dialog, but can't connect.
VPNC connections does not produce such behaviour.

[Craig Box (craig.box)]

Can you please test this package and see if the behaviour is still there? http://craig.dubculture.co.nz/blog/2007/05/13/new-networkmanager-pptp-package-fixes-amd64-crashes/

[Igor Karatayev (yatagarasu)]

This version works properly/

[Alexander B. (sysctl)]

Still persists in Feisty i386.

[Alexander B. (sysctl)]

Actually it appears after reboot. Still not exactly the desired behavior.

[Craig Box (craig.box)]

Do you have any other connections with the same name (check gconf-editor, system/network/vpn_connections)?

Does running gconftool --shutdown cause the connection to appear without needing to reboot?

[BenSimpson (csu16451)]

"Do you have any other connections with the same name (check gconf-editor, system/network/vpn_connections)?

Does running gconftool --shutdown cause the connection to appear without needing to reboot?"

I have no other connections with the same name (or other connections at all). System/Networking/vpn_connections/CSU reports the following information:

name : CSU
routes : []
service_name : org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.ppp_starter
vpn_date : []

I ran gconftool --shutdown from a terminal and received no output. This did not resolve the issue.

[BenSimpson (csu16451)]

Restarting the machine did allow the connection I created to be displayed. However, no that it is available to connect to, it has disappeared from the list of connections to manage. I revisited the gconf path: System/Networking/vpn_connections/CSU

It now contains the following:

last_attempt_success : false
name : CSU
routes : []
service_name : org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.ppp_starter
vpn_date : []

gconftool --shutdown does not change anything.
sudo NetworkManager restart does not change anything either.

I unset the new key last_attempt_success with no change.

I can create a new VPN connection, and it is shown in the list of VPNs to connect to, as well as in the list of VPNs to manage. At this point, the second VPN connection (the one just created) has all of its edit options grayed out. Even after deletion of the second VPN connection, the first connection is still not listed in the management window.

[BenSimpson (csu16451)]

An update again:

I restarted the machine after adding connection #2 from above with no change. However, when Ubuntu came back up, I added connection #3. This one showed in the list of connections to connect to, as well as the list of connections to manage. I then looked at the difference in gconf for the working connection, and the missing connection. I discovered that the key "vpn_date" was empty in the broken connection (#1). I populated it with the option "ppp-connection-type", and instantly it showed up in the list of connections to manage.

So voila, it looks like you just have to pass that key a parameter each time a connection is created.

[Craig Box (craig.box)]

Thank you for your debugging!

The old version of the plugin package can let you set up a connection without a PPP connection type. This is fixed in the newer version - there is always a default, so you can't ever create new connections that are unset. As gconf is a per-user system, I'm not sure if there is a good way of having, for example, the post-install script of the package set the ppp-connection-type for connections that don't have one already?

What version are you running, and if not the most recent package, are you able to test (links to edgy/feisty packages are listed earlier in this bug report) and see if the behaviour remains?

[Craig Box (craig.box)]

If no-one confirms this on the current Gutsy package, I will close this bug...

[Dappie (douwehilverda)]

Seen this bug on the machine of my colleague. After a restart of the NetworkManager the connection appeared on the VPN list.

[Dappie (douwehilverda)]

Excuse me, this is on a Gutsy install

[csantiago (santiago-carlos)]

I confirm the bug on Gutsy

[csantiago (santiago-carlos)]

As I said before, I confirm the bug on gutsy. Here is my kernel version: 2.6.22-14-generic
and gnome version: 2.20.1

[Paul Collins (paul-collins-iii)]

I can also confirm this bug on Gutsy

[MrHaroldA (mrharolda)]

Also confirming this bug on Gutsy/AMD64

[Dana_r (danarea)]

This behaviour has been reported for Hardy also:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/network-manager-pptp/+bug/200304

[rusivi2 (rusivi2-deactivatedaccount)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. I noticed the package your bugging is updated in Maverick. Does this occur in it? If so, please feel free to mark this bug as new. Thanks in advance!

[Brinley Ang (brinley)]

Just encountered this on natty/amd64, needed to restart network-manager to make the new connection appear.

[maxim (maximn)]

I've seen this manifest itself in two ways on my Xubuntu 12.04.1 installation after a boot, and login to XFCE.

The first is as described in this bug where the VPN connection isn't listed on the "VPN Connections" branch of the menu.

The second is when clicking the network-manager icon in the notification area, the "Wired Network", "Wireless Networks", and "VPN Connections" are completely missing, leaving only "(checked) Enable Networking", "(unchecked) Enable Wireless", "Connection Information", and "Edit Connections..."

Using workaround in comment #19, everything goes back to normal, menu appears as it should with all items visible.

Command is:
sudo /etc/init.d/network-manager restart

[Joseph Maillardet (jokx)]

Fresh install of Ubuntu-Gnome 14.10 (with ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3)

package network-manager-pptp and network-manager-pptp-gnome installed

When trying to add a VPN connexion the VPN submenu of gnome-control-center/network/+ only display « vpnc » or « import from file » option.

Impossible to add a PPTP connexion.

[Joseph Maillardet (jokx)]

When launching gnome-control-center from terminal I get :

LANG=C gnome-control-center

** (gnome-control-center.real:8525): WARNING **: Ignoring launcher gufw (missing desktop file)

** (gnome-control-center.real:8525): WARNING **: Ignoring launcher landscape-client-settings (missing desktop file)

** (gnome-control-center.real:8525): WARNING **: Ignoring launcher language-selector (missing desktop file)

** (gnome-control-center.real:8525): WARNING **: Ignoring launcher ubuntuone-installer (missing desktop file)

(gnome-control-center.real:8525): GLib-WARNING **: GError set over the top of a previous GError or uninitialized memory.
This indicates a bug in someone's code. You must ensure an error is NULL before it's set.
The overwriting error message was: Cannot load the VPN plugin which provides the service 'org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.openconnect'.

(gnome-control-center.real:8525): GLib-WARNING **: GError set over the top of a previous GError or uninitialized memory.
This indicates a bug in someone's code. You must ensure an error is NULL before it's set.
The overwriting error message was: Cannot load the VPN plugin which provides the service 'org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.iodine'.

(gnome-control-center.real:8525): GLib-WARNING **: GError set over the top of a previous GError or uninitialized memory.
This indicates a bug in someone's code. You must ensure an error is NULL before it's set.
The overwriting error message was: Cannot load the VPN plugin which provides the service 'org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.pptp'.

(gnome-control-center.real:8525): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: /build/buildd/glib2.0-2.42.0/./gobject/gsignal.c:3101: signal id '381' is invalid for instance '0x492f640'

(gnome-control-center.real:8525): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: /build/buildd/glib2.0-2.42.0/./gobject/gsignal.c:3101: signal id '381' is invalid for instance '0x492f640'

(gnome-control-center.real:8525): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: /build/buildd/glib2.0-2.42.0/./gobject/gsignal.c:3101: signal id '381' is invalid for instance '0x492f640'

(gnome-control-center.real:8525): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: /build/buildd/glib2.0-2.42.0/./gobject/gsignal.c:3101: signal id '381' is invalid for instance '0x492f640'

(gnome-control-center.real:8525): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: /build/buildd/glib2.0-2.42.0/./gobject/gsignal.c:3101: signal id '381' is invalid for instance '0x492f640'