Please add ability to import Microsoft VPN CMS files

[Martin Owens]

Binary package hint: network-manager

Currently it appears that Network Manager does not have the ability to import Microsoft's cms files. These are ini files with options on how to set up a vpn client for a configured network. see details here:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc939869.aspx

See example here:

http://pastebin.com/FmgkFBcS

Some users are attempting to connection to these networks and are finding they have issues as they can't manually map between the ini file and the network manager advanced settings. Although I would say that they shouldn't have to do it manually and importing of the file should work automatically.

[Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre (cyphermox)]

Wow, this format is evil ;)

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.

One problem I see is that the example you added looks more like a PPPoE connection than a VPN, since there seems to be no IP address for the endpoint. Could you confirm that this is indeed for a VPN and not an Internet connection using DSL or something?

It would also be really helpful if you could attach your example to the bug as a file, to avoid it expiring before the bug is fixed ;)

Thanks in advance!

[Martin Owens (doctormo)]

I couldn't actually find the network manager bugs page. So I reported it here. It's an off-the-cuff bug report based on an AskUbuntu question. If it seems important, please push the bug upstream.

[BehzadSh (behzadsh)]

Thanks Martin for reporting this in here :)

@Mathieu: Yes, this is VPN connection, and servers are save in another file named sv.txt.
I will attach the .exe file. the cms file is in exe file.

[Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre (cyphermox)]

Is this a self-extracting archive? The problem I see here is that importing the files will need to be done for each separate file (.cms, .ini), which means users will need to extract the .exe themselves. I'm don't think having NM handle .exe files directly is safe or even so feasible.

[Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre (cyphermox)]

For the benefit of everyone, I tried to add some more information on how to deal with this on the AskUbuntu question: http://askubuntu.com/questions/24290/how-to-connect-to-windows-pptp-vpn/24480

[BehzadSh (behzadsh)]

As I tested it on windows it will extract its self somewhere but I don't know exactly where.

[Martin Owens (doctormo)]

It's a standard cabinate exe file, see my results here:

doctormo@delen~/Desktop/$ cabextract 28_PPTP.exe
Extracting cabinet: 28_PPTP.exe
  extracting advpack.dll
  extracting w95inf16.dll
  extracting w95inf32.dll
  extracting cmstp.exe
  extracting 28p.inf
  extracting 28p.cmp
  extracting 28p.cms
  extracting Internet.ico
  extracting sv.txt

So it should be easy enough to make something which imports these exe files.

[BehzadSh (behzadsh)]

I think this will helpful http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc776184%28WS.10%29.aspx