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Today I see that my "Configure VPN..." part is greyed out and I have been using several PPTP VPN connections so far and today suddenly this seems to be inactive.

I did the changes in the network manager policy, changes which are mentioned in: gray button for saving "editing VPN connection" in Ubuntu 12.04

I also tried:

sudo apt-get install network-manager-pptp
sudo network-manager restart

But the "Configure VPN..." is still greyed out so I cannot configure my existing VPNs.

I have Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. If I upgrade to 14.04, will it work again?

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  • I have just found a way to configure through clicking System Settings -> Network and then I am able to do. Maybe my Network Manager Icon has got a problem.
    – Honore De Balzac
    Feb 6, 2015 at 20:12

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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I'm hitting the same problem on 2 different 12.04 desktop machines. I'm pretty sure the problem got introduced with the following update that came in on 2/2/2015

https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/precise/+source/network-manager-applet

BTW, you can still access the configure side of the VPN by running the "nm-connection-editor" from terminal session.

I don't know why they killed the applet selections for "Configure" and "Disconnect" VPN in the latest update. The change log didn't say anything about that https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/precise/+source/network-manager-applet/+changelog

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  • Thanks, the hint about running nm-connection-edito on commandline is a real life saver!
    – kris
    Mar 16, 2015 at 19:14
  • I'd also like to thank for that hint. The good news is that this issue has been fixed too through one of the latest updates. Regards
    – Honore De Balzac
    Mar 26, 2015 at 15:02
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    20.04 desktop have the exact same problem. nm-connection-editor works!
    – Avec
    Oct 14, 2020 at 11:29
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Network Manager VPN support is based on a plug-in system.

The network-manager-pptp plugin is installed by default.

For OpenVPN, install these packages:

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

Then restart your network-manager:

sudo systemctl restart network-manager

Open the Network connections program. Click on Add. Select PPTP (or OpenVPN) under the VPN section. Fill in your settings and save.

Eventually, you should be able to select a VPN config in the previously greyed out zone.

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  • Restarting the network-manager was the key.
    – dkantowitz
    Aug 28, 2019 at 23:23
  • I know this is years later, but for me it's actually running sudo systemctl restart network-manager that made the "configure VPN" greyed out.
    – Gauthier
    Jun 27, 2022 at 11:31

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