VPNC plugin on Ubuntu 8.04: disable DPD?

[Marc Luethi <netztier bluewin ch>]

Hi all!

First: If this is the wrong place to ask about the VPNC plugin, please
tell me to sod off and maybe leave a hint on where else to ask ;-)

After upgrading to Ubuntu 8.04, I am now using NetworkManager 0.6.6 with
nm-applet 0.6.6, and according to aptitude, I have 

network-manager-vpc 	0.6.4svn2422-0ubuntu5 
vpnc			0.5.1r275-1

I am running a Cisco PIX501 at home which does not support DPD (and
probably never will). Now I am affected by this problem:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/network-manager-vpnc/+bug/206000


The currently installed vpnc supports disabling of the DPD feature:

marc torch:~$ vpnc --long-help
[...]
  --dpd-idle <0,10-86400>
      Send DPD packet after not receiving anything for <idle> seconds.
      Use 0 to disable DPD completely (both ways).
    Default: 300
  conf-variable: DPD idle timeout (our side) <0,10-86400>
[...]

Assuming that network-manager-vpnc is "using" vpnc behind the scenes, is
there a way (a config file, perhaps?) to make the VPNC plugin set/unset
this parameter? (I am no programmer - just a user...)

I know that DPD configuration should be possible on a per-connection
basis, as some VPN configurations will require DPD to be active - while
others might not.

There have been suggestions to use older versions of
network-manager-vpnc or different versions of network-manager
altogether, which is not what I'd like to do.

For now, I'd be happy if I could enable/disable network-manager-vpnc's
DPD globally. 


Can this be done?

thanks & best regards


Marc