Re: How to convert Cisco VPN PCF to something network-manager-vpnc can use?

[Dan Williams <dcbw redhat com>]

On Thu, 2009-08-27 at 10:51 -0400, Jamie Jackson wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 7, 2009 at 6:04 PM, Dan Williams<dcbw redhat com> wrote:
> > On Thu, 2009-08-06 at 20:29 -0400, Jamie Jackson wrote:
> >> My corp is phasing out the old vpn server, and we've been given a new
> >> profile for the new server.
> >>
> >> For the old vpn server, I was able to use some info from the pcf
> >> profile file, and trial-and-error/guess the rest of the pieces, and
> >> was able to configure the VPN connection through the NM VPN
> >> configuration GUI.
> >
> > Recent versions of NetworkManager-vpnc (0.7.1) should be able to import
> > PCF files and get you most of the way there.  Is that not working for
> > some reason?  Updates after 0.7.1 will even decrypt the group secret for
> > you automatically.
> >
> > Dan
> 
> Hi Dan, thanks for the reply.
> 
> I've just installed network-manager-vpnc v:
> 0.7.1~rc4.20090316+bzr21-0ubuntu2 to try out your suggestion.
> 1. Through NM: "Configure VPN..."
> 2. Click "Import"
> 3. Select my PCF
> 4. Received the following:
> 
> "Cannot import VPN connection
> The file '.' could not be read or does not contain recognized VPN
> connection information
> Error: unknown PPTP file extension."

So that means that none of the VPN plugins recognized the file.  Does it
by chance not have a description?  There was a bug fixed long after the
version of NetworkManager-vpnc that you're apparently using (perhaps
Ubuntu should be more pro-active with updates) that would cause the
import to fail if no description was present.  It would be in the [main]
section like:

Description=My VPN Connection

Dan

> Renaming the file to remove spaces produces a more lucid error
> message, but still the same error:
> 
> "Cannot import VPN connection
> The file 'myprofile.pcf' could not be read or does not contain
> recognized VPN connection information
> Error: unknown PPTP file extension."
> 
> Do you see any problem with my procedure?
> 
> Thanks,
> Jamie
> 
> >
> >
> >> However, I haven't been so lucky with the current file, as the
> >> trial-and-error hasn't worked out so far.
> >>
> >> What's the best way to translate the PCF into something I can use in
> >> NM-vpnc? Some manual way to translate (I could type into the GUI), or
> >> some automated way to convert the file... either way would be fine, as
> >> long as the end result is working VPN through NM.
> >>
> >> (BTW, I can already decrypt Cisco VPN secrets, so that's not the
> >> issue, it's the other options that I think I'm having trouble with.)
> >>
> >> I've googled this, but it seems that the information is outdated, when
> >> it comes to newer versions of NM (at least that's how it seems).
> >>
> >> NetworkManager Applet 0.7.0.100
> >>
> >> Thanks,
> >> Jamie
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> NetworkManager-list mailing list
> >> NetworkManager-list gnome org
> >> http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/networkmanager-list
> >
> >