Ubuntu – How To Debug and Fix PPTP/VPN Client Connection

12.04network-managervpn

I am asking a question, which has two sub-questions. Those are how can I get VPN to work on Ubuntu 12.04, either by getting the built-in pptp VPN to work or through manual configuration. Microsoft clients have no trouble creating VPN connections into the same system.

Here are the details:

I am running Ubuntu 12.04

Linux mrshighpants 3.2.0-40-generic-pae 
#64-Ubuntu SMP Mon Mar 25 21:44:41 
UTC 2013 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

For this version of Ubuntu and quite a few releases going back, I can configure VPN using Network Manager, but cannot get it to start. On 12.04, I get the service did not start for an error message.

1) What is the best way to debug this?

2) I would like to enhance this question by providing the necessary logs, but what data should I place in this question, other than tail syslog (shown below)?

3) Is there a way to get VPN configured manually?

Here is tail syslog

tail syslog

May 11 16:27:51 mrshighpants NetworkManager[868]: <info> Starting VPN service 'pptp'...
May 11 16:27:51 mrshighpants NetworkManager[868]: <info> VPN service 'pptp' started (org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.pptp), PID 3552
May 11 16:27:51 mrshighpants NetworkManager[868]: <info> VPN service 'pptp' appeared; activating connections
May 11 16:27:51 mrshighpants NetworkManager[868]: <info> VPN plugin state changed: init (1)
May 11 16:27:51 mrshighpants NetworkManager[868]: <info> VPN plugin state changed: starting (3)
May 11 16:27:51 mrshighpants NetworkManager[868]: <info> VPN connection 'townofsomethington' (Connect) reply received.
May 11 16:27:51 mrshighpants NetworkManager[868]: <warn> VPN connection 'townofsomethington' failed to connect: 'couldn't convert PPTP VPN gateway IP address '123.4.5.281' (0)'.
May 11 16:27:51 mrshighpants NetworkManager[868]: <warn> error disconnecting VPN: Could not process the request because no VPN connection was active.
May 11 16:27:51 mrshighpants NetworkManager[868]: <info> Policy set 'MtLaughmore' (wlan0) as default for IPv4 routing and DNS.
May 11 16:27:56 mrshighpants NetworkManager[868]: <info> VPN service 'pptp' disappeared

After Testing:

There were two problems, and now a successful connection. The IP address was interposed .281, instead of 218, and the password was wrong.

Best Answer

Check your settings with it.

VPN connection in Ubuntu

Go to network manager > VPN Connection > Configure VPN > Add VPN

enter image description here

  1. Name VPN Connection ( Any Name )

  2. Gateway : You ip address of pptp server Or FDDN ( Fully Qualified Domain Name )

  3. User Name

  4. Password

  5. Click on Advanced

enter image description here

Click on " Use point to point encryption " Click OK & Save

Now open terminal 

 tail -f /var/log/syslog

And just connect to VPN & check your logs.

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