Cisco VPN once again
 

I know this program is very hard to install, but I have to use for my university
(please dont say: install vpnc, because I tried that many times already)

This is my problem: The VPN client seems to be installed properly, it compiles fine, and the module loads perfectly, but as soon as I try to connect, nothing happens, I just wait and wait and wait, and finally, after about 10 minutes it says:

initialization failed
The application was unable to communicate with the VPN sub-system

Did anybody experience this behaviour before? and how did you fix it? I get the same results in version 4.6, 4.7 and the latest 4.8...

running archlinux, custom kernel 2.6.16.5, gcc 3.4

Yes, I did.

I am using Debian 2.6.10 and 2.6.15.6 gcc 3.3.5

Actually, I do not know how I fixed. I kept compliing everything (modules and kernels) again. then it works now. (4.6 4.7.4.8)

Although I did not use, ipseclog is supposed to be useful.
http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/...ser_gd/cli.htm

http://www.cdg.chalmers.se/VPN/Linux.en.html

Hmm,I tried several times already, GCC 4, GCC 3.4, GCC 3.3 and no results whatsoever...

Whenever you changed version of vpn package, (or gcc ....), did you "make clean"?

yes I did... very strange

Are you wired? or wireless?

Well, according to the error you are not hitting the VPN system. Can you ping the IP?

I am on wireless...
ping which IP? The IP I am supposed to get when I connect to the university network?

#1, About onelung02's comment. vpnserver's IP, which is on pcf file. I think ping works.

#2, some wireless drivers may not like whatever protocol vpn uses. Try different one, if available. (make sure you "make clean").

#3, Try wherever wireless connection is good.

#4, With me, vpn screws up filesystem every once in a while. run fsck and see filesystem is OK. I do not know why, but when filesystem is broken, vpn does not work.

VPN Subsystem
 

I had this as well and it turned out that the VPN backend hadn't fired up on boot although I'm sure I'd told it to during the install.

su into a terminal as root and type:

/etc/init.d/vpnclient_init status

You should get something like this:


Module Size Used by
cisco_ipsec 552156 0

cipsec0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0B:FC:F8:01:8F
inet6 addr: fe80::20b:fcff:fef8:18f/64 Scope:Link
UP RUNNING NOARP MTU:1356 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:8 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

If not type:

/etc/init.d/vpnclient_init start


then try the status line again.

Also make sure that if Openswan was installed at any point that it isn't running and make sure that a program called racoon isn't either. Use kpm (in KDE) or ps -A (in a terminal) to check for these.

Good luck,

Jools