nm-applet dissapears after connecting to vpn

[Ryan]

Binary package hint: network-manager-vpnc

I have setup a new vpnc connection using an imported pcf file. When I use nm-applet to connect to the vpn server it asks for my password and group password. After entering the group password and clicking ok nm-applet disappears from the gnome panel. The process is still running however it is not visible from the panel or other means. In addition the vpn connection does not work.

The only message in my .xsession-errors is:

** Message: <information> Activating VPN connection 'sample user profile'.

Where 'sample user profile' is my imported vpn connection name.

[Soren Hansen (soren)]

Is this reproducible? Can you check if 'nm-applet' and 'NetworkManager' are still running?

[Ryan (crumley)]

This is reproducible. After connecting to the vpn nm-applet is still running however it is not visibile in the notification area. NetworkManager is no longer running.

Is there some logging I can enable to help determine the cause?

[Soren Hansen (soren)]

In a terminal, kill the running NetworkManager, and run a new one within gdb:
$ sudo killall NetworkManager
$ sudo gdb NetworkManager
(gdb) run

Now, connect to vpn and you should get the gdb prompt again when NetworkManager crashes.
(gdb) gcore
Saved corefile core.16883

(The number will most likely differ for you)

Attach the core file to this bug. That should be really helpful.

Thank you!

[Ryan (crumley)]

The program exited before I had the chance to do anything!

(gdb) run
Starting program: /usr/sbin/NetworkManager
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
[Thread debugging using libthread_db enabled]
[New Thread -1212012080 (LWP 12550)]
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)

Program exited normally.

[Soren Hansen (soren)]

On Wed, Mar 28, 2007 at 06:52:21PM -0000, Ryan wrote:
> The program exited before I had the chance to do anything!

> Program exited normally.

Wow. That was unexpected. :-)

Ok, we'll try something else:

$ sudo killall NetworkManager
$ sudo NetworkManager --no-daemon

And attach the output to this bug.

Thanks!

[Ryan (crumley)]

NetworkManager: <WARNING> nm_spawn_process (): nm_spawn_process('/usr/sbin/nscd -i hosts'): could not spawn process. (Failed to execute child process "/usr/sbin/nscd" (No such file or directory))

NetworkManager: <information> Activation (eth1) Finish handler scheduled.
NetworkManager: <information> Activation (eth1) Stage 5 of 5 (IP Configure Commit) complete.
NetworkManager: <information> Activation (eth1) successful, device activated.
NetworkManager: <information> Will activate VPN connection 'sample user profile', service 'org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.vpnc', user_name 'ryan', vpn_data 'IPSec gateway / xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx / IPSec ID / myipsecid / Xauth username / myusername', route ''.
NetworkManager: <information> VPN Activation (sample user profile) Stage 1 of 4 (Connection Prepare) scheduled...
NetworkManager: <information> VPN Activation (sample user profile) Stage 1 of 4 (Connection Prepare) ran VPN service daemon org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.vpnc (PID 15910)
NetworkManager: <information> VPN Activation (sample user profile) Stage 1 of 4 (Connection Prepare) complete.
NetworkManager: <information> VPN Activation (sample user profile) Stage 2 of 4 (Connection Prepare Wait) scheduled...
NetworkManager: <information> VPN Activation (sample user profile) Stage 2 of 4 (Connection Prepare Wait) waiting...
NetworkManager: <information> VPN Activation (sample user profile) Stage 2 of 4 (Connection Prepare Wait) scheduled...
NetworkManager: <information> VPN service 'org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.vpnc' signaled state change 1 -> 6.
NetworkManager: <information> VPN Activation (sample user profile) Stage 2 of 4 (Connection Prepare Wait) waiting...
NetworkManager: <information> VPN Activation (sample user profile) Stage 2 of 4 (Connection Prepare Wait) complete.
NetworkManager: <information> VPN Activation (sample user profile) Stage 3 of 4 (Connect) scheduled...
NetworkManager: <information> VPN Activation (sample user profile) Stage 3 of 4 (Connect) sending connect request.
NetworkManager: <information> VPN Activation (sample user profile) Stage 3 of 4 (Connect) request sent, waiting for reply...
NetworkManager: <information> VPN service 'org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.vpnc' signaled state change 6 -> 3.
** Message: <information> vpnc started with pid 15913

** (process:15910): CRITICAL **: nm_vpnc_config_write: assertion `num_passwords == 2' failed
NetworkManager: <information> VPN service 'org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.vpnc' signaled state change 3 -> 6.
NetworkManager: <information> VPN Activation (sample user profile) Stage 3 of 4 (Connect) reply received.
NetworkManager: <WARNING> nm_vpn_service_stage3_connect_cb (): (VPN Service org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.vpnc): could not start the VPN 'sample user profile'. dbus says: '(null)' 'Invalid VPN options.'.
NetworkManager: <information> VPN Activation (sample user profile) failed.
NetworkManager: file nm-vpn-manager.c: line 447 (nm_vpn_manager_vpn_connection_died): assertion failed: (manager)

** (process:15801): WARNING (recursed) **: <WARNING> nm_signal_handler (): Caught signal 6. Generating backtrace...

aborting...
...

[Soren Hansen (soren)]

On Wed, Mar 28, 2007 at 07:57:35PM -0000, Ryan wrote:
> NetworkManager: <information> Will activate VPN connection 'sample
> user profile', service 'org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.vpnc',
> user_name 'ryan', vpn_data 'IPSec gateway / xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx / IPSec ID
> / myipsecid / Xauth username / myusername', route ''.

Did you filter out the IP adress, or does it actually say
"xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx" in the config?

[Ryan (crumley)]

I blanked it out.

[Soren Hansen (soren)]

On Wed, Mar 28, 2007 at 07:57:35PM -0000, Ryan wrote:
>>> NetworkManager: <information> Will activate VPN connection 'sample
>>> user profile', service 'org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.vpnc',
>>> user_name 'ryan', vpn_data 'IPSec gateway / xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx / IPSec
>>> ID / myipsecid / Xauth username / myusername', route ''.
>> Did you filter out the IP adress, or does it actually say
>> "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx" in the config?
> I blanked it out.

I see. This just suggested otherwise:

> aborting...
> /usr/sbin/vpnc: missing IPSec gatway address

Could you export the configuration and attach it? (Feel free to blank
out the gateway, of course)

[Ryan (crumley)]

Attached is my sample configuration. Once I tell it to connect I only enter the group password (as my user password is not required)

[Soren Hansen (soren)]

On Wed, Mar 28, 2007 at 10:28:15PM -0000, Ryan wrote:
> Attached is my sample configuration.

Thank you.

> Once I tell it to connect I only enter the group password (as my user
> password is not required)

Ah, valuable info. That might very well be the problem. I'll look at it
later today.

[Soren Hansen (soren)]

You say:
> (as my user password is not required)

Would your connection fail if you added a password anyway? If not, could you try that at see if that fixes it?

[Brad (brad-lackey)]

Something very similar happens if you input the user password, but leave the group password blank.

In my case, I entered my user password, and accidentally hit enter instead of tab, and the NM Applet disappears just like above.

I think that the above might be crashing for a similar reason as he doesn't input a username field, only the group password.

[Ryan (crumley)]

That appears to be the cause. If I enter both user password and group password the connection continues as expected.

[Marc Nieper-Wißkirchen (marc-nieper-wisskirchen)]

I do have the same problem here (Ubuntu 7.04). The nm-applet "dies" whenever I don't enter both a user and a group password.

[jerkface (robin-edgesol)]

I can confirm I am getting the same error.
When you do not enter a group password the applet crashes.

[chantra (chantra)]

I can confirm this here as well.
In my case, I supply my user password but not my group password as I dont need any.

ALSO, it is not nm-applet that crashes, but only NetworkMamager.

running ps aux | grep nm-applet

after a crash shows that nm-applet is still alive, but as it can't connect to NetworkManager, it disappears.
If needed, I have dumps . But they are similar to Ryan's

[chantra (chantra)]

Well, people, I did an attempt to override this missing password assert.

I attach both the debdiff and a new .deb.

I sorted out my issue as I actually needed a group password (silly me :p ) so I can't tell if this will work, but at least, the script will attempt to carry on even though you supply only one password.
Hope this helps,

[Tom (tom-ranson)]

I confirm the same issue, even when entering both a user and group password. Ubuntu 7.04 2.6.20-15-generic.

However, prior to trying "network-manager-vpnc" I did experience this bug https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/vpnc/+bug/93413 (See comment #26). Consequently, I compiled and installed a new network-manager-vpnc .deb (as per comment '26) to work-around the dead peer detection issue.

I have not yet tried you new .deb; I'm guessing that its going to break my dead peer detection issue again though :S

[Tom (tom-ranson)]

Hi chantra; I just installed your new .deb and its all looking good :)

I imported a .pcf file and then attempted to connect, only supplying a group password- connected within 2 seconds and hasn't dropped yet (5 mins so far)- so it would appear that my dead-peer-detection issue is also worked-around in your .deb- is this so?

[chantra (chantra)]

Hi Tom,

The only thing I did was to comment out the bit of code that check that both a user password and a group password were given.

I believe 99.9% of people might be using both password, but for some specific cases, network-manager-vpnc should accept that one of the password is not informed... or even both.

I will try to get this patch uploaded upstream.

[Tom (tom-ranson)]

Hi chantra,

Please ignore my previous comment "so it would appear that my dead-peer-detection issue is also worked-around in your .deb- is this so?" - I only just realised that here we're dealing with package "network-manager-vpnc", and the dead-peer-detection issue I was refering to was present in package "vpnc".

Good work with the password issue- I can now successfully use network-manager-vpnc as a front end :)

[chantra (chantra)]

@Tom:
I have submitted a bug upstream and added ubuntu-universe-sponsor to this bug so hopefully it should be included in the officials repositories

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

What's the status on this bug in Ubuntu gutsy?

[Soren Hansen (soren)]

> What's the status on this bug in Ubuntu gutsy?

Unchanged. I have an entry near the top of my todo list about going through these bugs, apply patches, and have a new version uploaded to Debian and have that trickle back down to us. It's definitely on my radar, I'm just swamped with work these days.

[Daniel Holbach (dholbach)]

As it's assigned to Søren, I'll unsubscribe ubuntu-universe-sponsors for now.

[Scott Wegner (swegner)]

I'm having very similar issues to Ryan above. Has the patched .deb worked for people? If so, do you think somebody could create an x64 version? I don't know enough about deb's to apply the debdiff posted up there. :) Thanks

[Matthias Mailänder (mailaender)]

The 0.6.4svn2422 worked well. NM-applet automatically restarted and put out an connection-error message instead of crashing and disappearing. I think it has something to do with my university having set a group password which is saved encrypted in the .pcf file which is not imported by the VPNC plugin. In the configuration file the entry is

GroupPwd=

!enc_GroupPwd=A REALLY LONG HEXADECIMAL STRING

[Matthias Mailänder (mailaender)]

Workaround: You can decode it yourself manually at http://www.unix-ag.uni-kl.de/~massar/bin/cisco-decode

[John Bradley Bulsterbaum (infinitelink)]

I would just like to report that I get this same problem: I connect to my university's VPN and enter the password in the group password...and nm-applet dissapears, isn't running, and the VPN doesn't work. We're running Cisco system's VPNs and I use VPNC too.

I'd think this would be a semi-major problem...especially when it's college students that are most ready to up-take linux: I've "converted" several in the last few weeks alone. : ) Anyways, if I might post anything that could help, let me know...system logs/etc...just give me the commands and it'll be done.

[Robert (robrwo)]

I also confirm this with Hardy.

[dmuir (dmuir)]

Also confirming with Hardy.
Why does it take so long for these bugs to get fixed?
Chantra fixed this a year ago, and the bug is still in the official repos.

[KarlHM76 (karlhm76)]

VPN on gutsy with the patch applied works great except my update manager constantly wants to overwrite the package with the one from the repo, even though they seem to have the same version number.

I just want to make the same observation as dmuir; its poor form from an outstanding distro to have a working fix for a very annoying and highly visible, yet small bug such as this, and not have it officially recognised.

[chantra (chantra)]

Hi guys, I have pinged http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=436382 , so hopefully, it will make it upstream.
Maybe it is the place to add comments so it gets more visibility upstream.

[Benjamin Prosnitz (aetherane)]

I still have this problem with Hardy.

[Benjamin Prosnitz (aetherane)]

My message is slightly different:
Jul 21 15:24:52 flint-laptop NetworkManager: <info> Will activate VPN connection 'Northwestern VPN', service 'org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.vpnc', user_name 'flint', vpn_data 'IPSec gateway / vpn-public.vpn.northwestern.edu / IPSec ID / NUIT / Xauth username / bjp600', route ''.
Jul 21 15:24:52 flint-laptop NetworkManager: <info> VPN Activation (Northwestern VPN) Stage 1 of 4 (Connection Prepare) scheduled...
Jul 21 15:24:52 flint-laptop NetworkManager: <info> VPN Activation (Northwestern VPN) Stage 1 of 4 (Connection Prepare) ran VPN service daemon org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.vpnc (PID 23362)
Jul 21 15:24:52 flint-laptop NetworkManager: <info> VPN Activation (Northwestern VPN) Stage 1 of 4 (Connection Prepare) complete.
Jul 21 15:24:52 flint-laptop NetworkManager: <info> VPN Activation (Northwestern VPN) Stage 2 of 4 (Connection Prepare Wait) scheduled...
Jul 21 15:24:52 flint-laptop kernel: [82478.171236] tun: Universal TUN/TAP device driver, 1.6
Jul 21 15:24:52 flint-laptop kernel: [82478.171241] tun: (C) 1999-2004 Max Krasnyansky <email address hidden>
Jul 21 15:24:52 flint-laptop NetworkManager: <info> VPN service 'org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.vpnc' signaled state change 1 -> 6.
Jul 21 15:24:52 flint-laptop NetworkManager: <info> VPN Activation (Northwestern VPN) Stage 2 of 4 (Connection Prepare Wait) waiting...
Jul 21 15:24:52 flint-laptop NetworkManager: <info> VPN Activation (Northwestern VPN) Stage 2 of 4 (Connection Prepare Wait) complete.
Jul 21 15:24:52 flint-laptop NetworkManager: <info> VPN Activation (Northwestern VPN) Stage 3 of 4 (Connect) scheduled...
Jul 21 15:24:52 flint-laptop NetworkManager: <info> VPN Activation (Northwestern VPN) Stage 3 of 4 (Connect) sending connect request.
Jul 21 15:24:52 flint-laptop NetworkManager: <info> VPN Activation (Northwestern VPN) Stage 3 of 4 (Connect) request sent, waiting for reply...
Jul 21 15:24:52 flint-laptop NetworkManager: <info> VPN service 'org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.vpnc' signaled state change 6 -> 3.
Jul 21 15:24:52 flint-laptop NetworkManager: <info> VPN service 'org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.vpnc' signaled state change 3 -> 6.
Jul 21 15:24:52 flint-laptop NetworkManager: <WARN> nm_vpn_service_stop_connection(): (VPN Service org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.vpnc): could not stop connection 'Northwestern VPN' because service was 6.
Jul 21 15:24:52 flint-laptop NetworkManager: <WARN> nm_signal_handler(): Caught signal 6. Generating backtrace...
Jul 21 15:24:52 flint-laptop NetworkManager: ******************* START **********************************
Jul 21 15:24:52 flint-laptop NetworkManager: (no debugging symbols found)
Jul 21 15:24:53 flint-laptop last message repeated 11 times
Jul 21 15:24:53 flint-laptop NetworkManager: [Thread debugging using libthread_db enabled]
Jul 21 15:24:53 flint-laptop NetworkManager: [New Thread 0x7ff645554780 (LWP 5741)]
Jul 21 15:24:53 flint-laptop NetworkManager: [New Thread 0x42a97950 (LWP 8599)]
Jul 21 15:24:53 flint-laptop NetworkManager: [New Thread 0x42296950 (LWP 6228)]
Jul 21 15:24:53 flint-laptop NetworkManager: [New Thread 0x41a95950 (LWP 6225)]
Jul 21 15:24:53 flin...

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

Lets take a closer look at the crash. The issue about nm requiring two passwords is already dealt with upstream (well, they say its not possible to fix that now).

So please install network-manager-dbgsym, libnm-util0-dbgsym and libnm-glib0-dbgsym as well as network-manager-vpnc-dbgsym package and reproduce the crash. You syslog should then contain the backtrace. please post that.

Also if you want to be brave please test the latest vpnc plugin for NM 0.7 (which will be default in intrepid). We have hardy packages for NM 0.7 and -vpnc in https://edge.launchpad.net/~network-manager/+archive PPA.

Thanks.

[Julius Schwartzenberg (jschwart)]

I have the same problem with Kubuntu Hardy. I tried to install those dbgsym packages, but they don't seem to be in my repositories. How can I get those?

I did try the newer 0.7 version, but in KNetworkManager, I couldn't get it to connect to the VPN at all. It only prints "NetworkMenuItem::slotActivate()" to stdout.

I also tried the Gnome Network Manager applet, but I can't even figure out how to connect with it.

If you could provide me with the dbgsym packages, I could downgrade my NetworkManager again & give the stacktrace. The newer version doesn't seem to work well at this moment.

[Brian Teague (bteague)]

In my instance, NM 0.7 (from the PPA in comment #38 on top of the Hardy UNR) did not crash, but instead (properly) failed to connect. When given the proper password, NM completes the VPN connection.

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

this does not happen in jaunty anymore.