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I want to connect to my university's Cisco VPN from home, but it always fails. Today I took my laptop to university to see if the IT guys could help (they couldn't) and it worked there so the configuration is ok. The router is not blocking anything since it works in windows (I have linux installed alongside windows 7)

I followed this pdf guide from my university and installed vpnc and network-manager-vpnc-gnome for the setup.

After doing

$ less /var/log/syslog | grep NetworkManager

the results were

 NetworkManager[591]: <info> Starting VPN service 'vpnc'...
 NetworkManager[591]: <info> VPN service 'vpnc' started (org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.vpnc), PID 14877
 NetworkManager[591]: <info> VPN service 'vpnc' appeared; activating connections
 NetworkManager[591]: <info> VPN plugin state changed: init (1)
 NetworkManager[591]: <info> VPN plugin state changed: starting (3)
 NetworkManager[591]: <info> VPN connection 'TUDelft' (Connect) reply received.
 NetworkManager[591]:    SCPlugin-Ifupdown: devices added (path: /sys/devices/virtual/net/tun0, iface: tun0)
 NetworkManager[591]:    SCPlugin-Ifupdown: device added (path: /sys/devices/virtual/net/tun0, iface: tun0): no ifupdown configuration found.
 NetworkManager[591]:    SCPlugin-Ifupdown: devices removed (path: /sys/devices/virtual/net/tun0, iface: tun0)
 NetworkManager[591]: <warn> VPN plugin failed: 1
 NetworkManager[591]: <info> VPN plugin state changed: stopped (6)
 NetworkManager[591]: <info> VPN plugin state change reason: 0
 NetworkManager[591]: <warn> error disconnecting VPN: Could not process the request because no VPN connection was active.
 NetworkManager[591]: <info> Policy set 'PoptN164' (wlan0) as default for IPv4 routing and DNS.
 NetworkManager[591]: <info> VPN service 'vpnc' disappeared

I also have tried Kvpnc, and it still doesn't work. Kvpnc says: "error: Unable to find "vpnclient" at usr/local/bin/vpnclient"

I'm a newbie to Linux, so if you need any other information, please ask and I'll try to provide it.

I'm using ubuntu 12.04.

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5 Answers 5

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Here's how I got this working with Ubuntu 12.10:

First install the following

sudo apt-get install vpnc
sudo apt-get install network-manager-vpnc
sudo apt-get install network-manager-vpnc-gnome

Using the network-manager create a new VPN connection, set at least the following:

Gateway
User name
Group name

If the given group password is encrypted you can decrypt it here (ecrypted password probably will not work):
http://www.unix-ag.uni-kl.de/~massar/bin/cisco-decode

Once these are set if you still have problems connecting try setting the IP address instead of domain name to the Gateway (this is what fixed it for me).

nslookup vpn.provider.com
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I found that in my case the plugin was failing because vpnc was not happy about the encryption method

peer selected (single) DES as "encryption" method.
This algorithm is considered too weak today
If your vpn concentrator admin still insists on using DES
use the "--enable-1des" option.

This message could be only discovered by stracing the vpnc process.

In order to add --enable-1des option to vpnc command line I performed the following:

sudo -s

mv /usr/sbin/vpnc /usr/sbin/vpnc.real

cat <<EOF > /usr/sbin/vpnc
#!/bin/sh
exec /usr/sbin/vpnc.real --enable-1des $*
EOF

chmod +x /usr/sbin/vpnc

Basically I replaced the vpnc binary with a wrapper script that supplied the necessary parameter.

Now NetworkManager VPNC plugin can connect properly.

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  • Another way to do this is to add the line Enable Single DES in /etc/vpnc.conf
    – Ferruccio
    Jun 29, 2013 at 13:27
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I've just upgraded my system to Ubuntu 12.04 64-bit.

Here is my working solution, that does not need any command line magics. So you have to install some packages to work it correctly.

  1. vpnc
  2. network-manager-vpnc
  3. *network-manager-vpnc-gnome (if you're using gnome)

Now you can access VPN via clicking Network icon on Notification Area.

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  • OP says he already installed those.
    – djjeck
    Jan 3, 2015 at 21:52
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try to follow the information on this link: http://www.humans-enabled.com/2011/06/how-to-connect-ubuntu-linux-to-cisco.html You might be able to download the cisco profile file from your university and use the "import" button in the network-connection window.

or you could install vpnc with

sudo apt-get install vpnc

then create your own config file with some shortcutname of your uni (eg. ucla)

sudo touch /etc/vpnc/ucla.conf

then open an editor

sudo gedit /etc/vpnc/ucla.conf

and enter information in your ucal.conf file that looks more or less like this:

IPSec gateway vpn.ucla.com
IPSec ID some_id_from_your_uni
IPSec secret some_secret_from_your_uni
Xauth username your_username
Xauth password your_password #helpful incase you automate the vpnc via script
NAT Traversal Mode cisco-udp

You probably have to check the IT website of your uni to find out what gateway and the IPSec ID and secret are.

If you want to connect type in terminal:

sudo vpnc ucla
sudo vpnc-connect ucla #needed sometimes, try if the above does not work

to stop connection:

sudo vpnc-disconnect 

Good luck with it!

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  • Hi, the information on the link is what I already had done, so no luck there. I tried making my own config file, but when I ask to connect, it says: "vpnc: no response from target"
    – tripleM
    May 30, 2012 at 17:55
  • try adding NAT Traversal Mode cisco-udp at the bottom of the conf file. I added it in the example above
    – Philippe
    May 30, 2012 at 18:12
  • nope, still the same thing
    – tripleM
    May 30, 2012 at 18:19
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I had a similar problem with a boxpn account.
In my case, I realized that the downloaded config files were interpreted by openvpn as a VPNC, although my account only allows PPTP. Not sure why this happened.
I recreated the config through the network manager, manually entering account and gateway information, and it's all good now.

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