Ubuntu
network-manager package

network-manager does not show vpn configuration menu if IP address is static

Asked by Andrew Senyshyn

Hello,
I have installed packages network-manager, network-manager-gnome, network-manager-pptp.
Now I want to configure my internet connection - I am connecting via VPN.
As is written in manual I try to click on network-manager icon in system tray, but there is no menu item for VPN - only "Manual configuration".
After few experiments with settings I found that if "routing" checkbox is checked in manual configuration menu for VPN appears in network manager, but
my network IP address in home LAN is static - that's why it is impossible for me to use it this way.

next what I tried - I searched menu editor and found editor for vpn settings in Applications->Itermet.
I worked. I configured my VPN connection, but unfortunately there is no way to start it.

Is it a bug? Why I cannot configure VPN when I use static IP address?

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Ubuntu network-manager Edit question
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Solved by:
François Tissandier
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Andrey Zaitsev (a-zaitsev) said : 		#1

As far as I know network manager doesn't deal with interfaces that have static IPs. You should configure PPTP by hand. If you have already installed network-manager-pptp pptp-linux should be installed either. Look at the docs on pptp-linux, there should be examples of how to configure it (mostly concerning /etc/network/interfaces file and chap-secrets).

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Andrew Senyshyn (asenyshyn) said : 		#2

I wonder why VPN depends of static IP or assigned by DHCP?
Well, I tried pptpconfig and it hangs with status "starting".
Then I installed package vpn-linux.deb that I found (http://airman.myphotos.cc/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/vpn-linux.deb) and it is working.
I just wonder why VPN configuration always is such a problem in Ubuntu? Lost of users connect to internet via VPN.
In OpenSUSE that I had as previous OS VPN was configured with dsl configuration in Yast. So why don't Ubuntu has not some GUI for VPN that does not depends on kind of your LAN IP.

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Best François Tissandier (baloo) said : 		#3

In fact, it comes from the fact that currently, when you want to use static IP, it's not Network manager which is managing the network access, so its VPN option can't work. It just falls back to the usual network tool. So I guess that with any other VPN software not relying on Network Manager, it should work. I used KDE VPN software before, and it was working fine.

When you are using DHCP, Network manager is used, so its VPN options should work.

I think that the next version of Network Manager should handle this better.

That's no excuse for Ubuntu, just a potential explanation for this problem.

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Andrew Senyshyn (asenyshyn) said : 		#4

Hope that next versions will do this better to.
Thank you for explanation

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Andrew Senyshyn (asenyshyn) said : 		#5

Thanks François Tissandier, that solved my question.