VPN Service fails to start

[Chris621]

Hi,

Could someone assist with this problem, please?

I have just installed OpenVPN, network-manager-openvpn and network-manager-openvpn-gnome into Mint 17 using Synaptic. I have edited the client.conf file and transferred the appropriate keys to /etc/openvpn, correctly as far as I know, by following various tutorials on the internet.

When I click on the VPN item in Network Manager I get an almost instantaneous message saying that the VPN connection failed because the VPN service failed to start. In the box beside "VPN Connections" there is a 0 and if I change it to 1 it immediately returns to 0.

Could anyone suggest what I need to do in order to get the VPN service running?

[txba516]

Hi Chris!

If you will please open a Terminal window and type this

Code: Select all

service --status-all

It will list the installed services on your system. Look for the line for openvpn. In the bracket to the left there will be a +, -, or a ? symbol.
If it is currently a - symbol, that indicates the service is not started ( + means started ).

To start the service

Code: Select all

sudo service openvpn start

Cheers!

[Chris621]

Hi txba516,

thanks for your reply. Openvpn had a '-' in the brackets at the left so I did

sudo service openvpn start

and it said

Starting virtual private network daemon(s)
Autostarting VPN 'client'

but in spite of that, the box to the right of "VPN Connections" in the network icon still has a '0' in it and clicking on the VPN connection produces the message about the VPN service not starting. Is it likely that what I downloaded (openvpn, network-manager-openvpn and network-manager-openvpn-gnome) are not properly installed? How could I find out?

[txba516]

Ok, let's see if there are any error logs being generated.

Immediately after you try to enable the VPN connection from the Network-Manager applet, open a terminal window and type

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sudo tail -n 50 /var/log/syslog

[Chris621]

Here is the output from that command:

sudo tail -n 50 /var/log/syslog
[sudo] password for chris:
Jun 12 22:06:26 chris-PC2 colord: Profile added: icc-ea421e3a65cfa796e2732ce36086e327
Jun 12 22:06:26 chris-PC2 colord: Profile added: icc-a1d13bd5309e0f06ceda6f0d75367823
Jun 12 22:06:26 chris-PC2 colord: Profile added: icc-57f0d896250f6f98f77ca1b0d19019c0
Jun 12 22:06:26 chris-PC2 colord: Profile added: icc-df7c0067b1eb9bcc9fc9b33bc3a797eb
Jun 12 22:06:26 chris-PC2 colord: Profile added: icc-b0701c2ccf059287d0b067464df8bda9
Jun 12 22:06:26 chris-PC2 colord: Profile added: icc-6a245ab2d8892e2e56232af93cd48b81
Jun 12 22:06:26 chris-PC2 colord: Profile added: icc-6ad6d63767ce0393245528ada92f1cb2
Jun 12 22:06:26 chris-PC2 colord: Profile added: icc-2f1f11ecd613fe5551420fcaf5b11ff8
Jun 12 22:06:26 chris-PC2 colord: Profile added: icc-fb0ac62618f016ed9b92ce239258efa8
Jun 12 22:06:26 chris-PC2 colord: Profile added: icc-72f5b1cba915b68ea75cc843e270df5a
Jun 12 22:06:26 chris-PC2 colord: Profile added: icc-a10be98be58460669fcdc6946939b7cf
Jun 12 22:06:26 chris-PC2 colord: Profile added: icc-3bd2261b1125a0fd9ebf827a2d1bed84
Jun 12 22:06:26 chris-PC2 colord: Profile added: icc-c227f46f246694ba9971f270cb61a0c1
Jun 12 22:06:26 chris-PC2 colord: Profile added: icc-3a34aa6c3d1fb1ef63ff41e04ee00979
Jun 12 22:06:26 chris-PC2 colord: Profile added: icc-d6490883a866e4059370e1de1d840283
Jun 12 22:06:26 chris-PC2 colord: Profile added: icc-0720e7cdbc792b77c0740c39f325ef9e
Jun 12 22:06:26 chris-PC2 colord: Profile added: icc-d4a7a2bd8ddaacf10e275e3db31d72b8
Jun 12 22:06:26 chris-PC2 colord: Profile added: icc-c3e6382fa9b2d31b01b736f6f97aac3a
Jun 12 22:06:26 chris-PC2 colord: Profile added: icc-654b99c87e67edb1c1cfb0dcb7fa9d04
Jun 12 22:06:26 chris-PC2 colord: Profile added: icc-0383c34650771ce95ef93fe916867725
Jun 12 22:06:27 chris-PC2 rtkit-daemon[2084]: Successfully made thread 2324 of process 2082 (n/a) owned by '1000' RT at priority 5.
Jun 12 22:06:27 chris-PC2 rtkit-daemon[2084]: Supervising 3 threads of 1 processes of 1 users.
Jun 12 22:06:27 chris-PC2 rtkit-daemon[2084]: Successfully made thread 2325 of process 2082 (n/a) owned by '1000' RT at priority 5.
Jun 12 22:06:27 chris-PC2 rtkit-daemon[2084]: Supervising 4 threads of 1 processes of 1 users.
Jun 12 22:06:28 chris-PC2 bluetoothd[857]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.34 path=/MediaEndpoint/HFPAG
Jun 12 22:06:28 chris-PC2 bluetoothd[857]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.34 path=/MediaEndpoint/HFPHS
Jun 12 22:06:28 chris-PC2 bluetoothd[857]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.34 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSource
Jun 12 22:06:28 chris-PC2 bluetoothd[857]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.34 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSink
Jun 12 22:06:28 chris-PC2 rtkit-daemon[2084]: Successfully made thread 2327 of process 2327 (n/a) owned by '1000' high priority at nice level -11.
Jun 12 22:06:28 chris-PC2 rtkit-daemon[2084]: Supervising 5 threads of 2 processes of 1 users.
Jun 12 22:06:28 chris-PC2 pulseaudio[2327]: [pulseaudio] pid.c: Daemon already running.
Jun 12 22:06:28 chris-PC2 colord: Device added: xrandr-Dell Inc.-DELL E190S-J388N03C130I
Jun 12 22:06:28 chris-PC2 colord: Profile added: icc-1a252ce08426c7f9d9d20e5f3c3a60e5
Jun 12 22:06:29 chris-PC2 dbus[826]: [system] Activating service name='org.freedesktop.Accounts' (using servicehelper)
Jun 12 22:06:29 chris-PC2 accounts-daemon[2407]: started daemon version 0.6.35
Jun 12 22:06:29 chris-PC2 dbus[826]: [system] Successfully activated service 'org.freedesktop.Accounts'
Jun 12 22:06:33 chris-PC2 NetworkManager[930]: <info> (wlan0): IP6 addrconf timed out or failed.
Jun 12 22:06:33 chris-PC2 NetworkManager[930]: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 4 of 5 (IPv6 Configure Timeout) scheduled...
Jun 12 22:06:33 chris-PC2 NetworkManager[930]: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 4 of 5 (IPv6 Configure Timeout) started...
Jun 12 22:06:33 chris-PC2 NetworkManager[930]: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 4 of 5 (IPv6 Configure Timeout) complete.
Jun 12 22:06:35 chris-PC2 wpa_supplicant[1024]: wlan0: CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-STARTED
Jun 12 22:07:49 chris-PC2 NetworkManager[930]: <info> Starting VPN service 'pptp'...
Jun 12 22:07:49 chris-PC2 NetworkManager[930]: <info> VPN service 'pptp' started (org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.pptp), PID 2542
Jun 12 22:07:49 chris-PC2 NetworkManager[930]: <info> VPN service 'pptp' appeared; activating connections
Jun 12 22:07:49 chris-PC2 NetworkManager[930]: <info> VPN plugin state changed: starting (3)
Jun 12 22:07:49 chris-PC2 NetworkManager[930]: <info> VPN connection 'IDC' (Connect) reply received.
Jun 12 22:07:49 chris-PC2 NetworkManager[930]: <warn> VPN connection 'IDC' failed to connect: 'Invalid gateway 'gateway''.
Jun 12 22:07:49 chris-PC2 NetworkManager[930]: <info> Policy set 'Auto TECOM-0503F4' (wlan0) as default for IPv4 routing and DNS.
Jun 12 22:07:49 chris-PC2 NetworkManager[930]: <warn> error disconnecting VPN: Could not process the request because no VPN connection was active.
Jun 12 22:07:54 chris-PC2 NetworkManager[930]: <info> VPN service 'pptp' disappeared

[txba516]

Here is the output from that command:
Jun 12 22:07:49 chris-PC2 NetworkManager[930]: <info> Starting VPN service 'pptp'...
Jun 12 22:07:49 chris-PC2 NetworkManager[930]: <info> VPN service 'pptp' started (org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.pptp), PID 2542
Jun 12 22:07:49 chris-PC2 NetworkManager[930]: <info> VPN service 'pptp' appeared; activating connections
Jun 12 22:07:49 chris-PC2 NetworkManager[930]: <info> VPN plugin state changed: starting (3)
Jun 12 22:07:49 chris-PC2 NetworkManager[930]: <info> VPN connection 'IDC' (Connect) reply received.
Jun 12 22:07:49 chris-PC2 NetworkManager[930]: <warn> VPN connection 'IDC' failed to connect: 'Invalid gateway 'gateway''.
Jun 12 22:07:49 chris-PC2 NetworkManager[930]: <info> Policy set 'Auto TECOM-0503F4' (wlan0) as default for IPv4 routing and DNS.
Jun 12 22:07:49 chris-PC2 NetworkManager[930]: <warn> error disconnecting VPN: Could not process the request because no VPN connection was active.
Jun 12 22:07:54 chris-PC2 NetworkManager[930]: <info> VPN service 'pptp' disappeared

It looks like your VPN connection named IDC does not have the right information configured in the profile. It's trying to use the word 'gateway' as the remote VPN endpoint. This is usually an IP address or DNS name (i.e. vpn.mycompany.com). You may want to review your configured VPN connections for accuracy in the profile details (gateway, username, password, etc.).

Cheers!

[Chris621]

Hello again,
I have put the IP address in the "Gateway" box but it still does not work. Does the IP address need to go into 'client.conf' as well? I opened 'Network Settings', selected that 'IDC VPN' and changed the slider at the top right of that windows from off to on, then clicked on 'Configure' in the same window and entered the IP address and clicked on 'Save'. For good measure I entered

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sudo service openvpn start

then clicked on the network manager icon, when it said VPN was starting, and chose the VPN connection. The slider switch beside "VPN Connections" still registered 0 so I was not surprised when I clicked on my connection and got the error message that the VPN connection had failed to start

Any suggestion as to what to do next?

[duvel71]

I know what you can do next, although it only brought me a refreshing new error message. Here's the bug I suspect you're hitting: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... bug/664453

Go to your gateway, and trim both leading and trailing spaces. I had a space before my gateway, copied from the VPN service's website. Now my VPN does not instantly fail, but rather, hits a timeout. This is strangely encouraging, after weeks of periodic fiddling.