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

[Jamie Jackson <myspamb8 gmail com>]

On Thu, Sep 10, 2009 at 4:52 PM, Dan Williams <dcbw redhat com> wrote:
> 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

Yes, that does help, thanks!!! Adding a description allows NM 0.7.1 to
import the PCF.

Okay, on to the next hurdle:

I've been able to use the CLI vpnc client to connect to this new
profile, but it took some research to get even that going. Here are
some options that I have to use beyond what pcf2vpnc provided:

sudo vpnc ./pcf2vpncGeneratedConfig.vpnc --local-port 0
--application-version "Cisco Systems VPN Client 0.3:WinNT"

Without those extra options provided to the vpnc client, connections
fail, so I'm going to have to figure out how to make the same tweaks
to NM-VPNC. Is there any way to get NM to use those same values that
I'm supplying to vpnc?

Thanks,
Jamie

>
> 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
>> >
>> >
>
>