Hello everybody,

I used to log in to my office via PPTP VPN, but on last October 5th I updated my installed Debian Squeeze and it caused my VPN service (client-side) to fail. After this upgrade I'm unable to log in to the VPN server. Here follows the log:

#tail -f /var/log/messages
Plugin /usr/lib/pppd/2.4.5/nm-pptp-pppd-plugin.so loaded.
pppd 2.4.5 started by root, uid 0
Using interface ppp0
Connect: ppp0 <--> /dev/pts/2
LCP: timeout sending Config-Requests
Connection terminated.
Modem hangup.
Exit.

According to the log I saved I see the following packages were upgraded:

libnm-glib-vpn1
network-manager

as well as some others (including the Linux kernel).

I reset my VPN configuration via Gnome's Network Manager without satisfactory results.

The authentication method I use is CHAPv2.

Could you please give me a hand to solve my VPN connection issue?

First, try to establish if there's a physical connection at all. Find out what the IP address of your office machine is, then issue the ping command:
If this returns errors, your physical connection is broken. If the command comes back with a successful ping, the problem is in the configuration of the client. Make sure the client allows enough time to establish a connection, 300 seconds (that's 5 minutes) is the upper limit you can take it to.

Hi Dutch Master and thanks for replying. I checked by issuing ping an there is reply. Also, I noticed that immediately after trying to log in to the VPN my Debian system gets added the VPN's default route.

I am going to search for information in how to increase the time to establish the connection as you had suggested.

In others things (but a little bit related to the above paragraph), I ran a test to the VPN I want to log in by using Wind0ws. I noticed it delays to get connected to the VPN service. So, increasing the time to establish the connection in Debian might be a good starting point.

Finally, I want to share some findings I gathered when trying to log in to the VPN. Here they goes:

root@thunderbox:/home/thor# tail -f /var/log/messages
[
...
]
Oct 8 08:21:42 thunderbox pppd[3357]: Plugin /usr/lib/pppd/2.4.5/nm-pptp-pppd-plugin.so loaded.
Oct 8 08:21:42 thunderbox kernel: [ 244.066976] PPP generic driver version 2.4.2
Oct 8 08:21:42 thunderbox pppd[3357]: pppd 2.4.5 started by root, uid 0
Oct 8 08:21:42 thunderbox pppd[3357]: Using interface ppp0
Oct 8 08:21:42 thunderbox pppd[3357]: Connect: ppp0 <--> /dev/pts/2
Oct 8 08:21:45 thunderbox pppd[3357]: Connection terminated.
Oct 8 08:21:45 thunderbox pppd[3357]: Exit.


root@thunderbox:/home/thor# tail -f /var/log/debug
[
...
]
Oct 8 08:21:42 thunderbox modem-manager: (net/ppp0): could not get port's parent device

I think it is specially important this part: modem-manager: (net/ppp0): could not get port's parent device. This looks strange for me. However, I'd noticed this message appears when I open Virtual Box, look at this:

Oct 8 08:48:38 thunderbox modem-manager: (net/vboxnet0): could not get port's parent device

I don't want to deviate what I am looking to be solved, but I think the output above might be useful, too.

How to regain access to my VPN? Please suggest.

I still need to check in the advice of Dutch Master about increasing the time to establish the connection. By the way, can you suggest the command for this?

After running in many others tests, I think -as Dutch Master has suggested- my problem could related to the time to establish the connection. In other to test it, I installed openSuse in another computer, I set the VPN connection details in Network Manager, but again there was a failure into getting connected. According to the log below, it seems like the VPN server delays into passing "something" to the client machine. Please look at this:

# cat /var/log/messages
Oct 10 14:17:25 thunderbox pppd[2215]: Plugin /usr/lib/pppd/2.4.5/nm-pptp-pppd-plugin.so loaded.
Oct 10 14:17:25 thunderbox pppd[2215]: pppd 2.4.5 started by root, uid 0
Oct 10 14:17:25 thunderbox pppd[2215]: Using interface ppp0
Oct 10 14:17:25 thunderbox pppd[2215]: Connect: ppp0 <--> /dev/pts/3
Oct 10 14:17:25 thunderbox pptp[2217]: nm-pptp-service-2214 log[main:pptp.c:314]: The synchronous pptp option is NOT activated
Oct 10 14:17:25 thunderbox pptp[2223]: nm-pptp-service-2214 log[ctrlp_rep:pptp_ctrl.c:251]: Sent control packet type is 1 'Start-Control-Connection-Request'
Oct 10 14:17:25 thunderbox pptp[2223]: nm-pptp-service-2214 log[ctrlp_disp:pptp_ctrl.c:739]: Received Start Control Connection Reply
Oct 10 14:17:25 thunderbox pptp[2223]: nm-pptp-service-2214 log[ctrlp_disp:pptp_ctrl.c:773]: Client connection established.
Oct 10 14:17:26 thunderbox pptp[2223]: nm-pptp-service-2214 log[ctrlp_rep:pptp_ctrl.c:251]: Sent control packet type is 7 'Outgoing-Call-Request'
Oct 10 14:17:26 thunderbox pptp[2223]: nm-pptp-service-2214 log[ctrlp_disp:pptp_ctrl.c:858]: Received Outgoing Call Reply.
Oct 10 14:17:26 thunderbox pptp[2223]: nm-pptp-service-2214 log[ctrlp_disp:pptp_ctrl.c:897]: Outgoing call established (call ID 0, peer's call ID 36444).
Oct 10 14:18:05 thunderbox pppd[2215]: Terminating on signal 15
Oct 10 14:18:05 thunderbox pppd[2215]: Script /usr/sbin/pptp x.x.x.x --nolaunchpppd --loglevel 0 --logstring nm-pptp-service-2214 finished (pid 2217), status = 0x0
Oct 10 14:18:05 thunderbox pppd[2215]: Modem hangup
Oct 10 14:18:05 thunderbox pppd[2215]: Connection terminated.
Oct 10 14:18:05 thunderbox avahi-daemon[473]: Withdrawing workstation service for ppp0.
Oct 10 14:18:05 thunderbox dbus[502]: [system] Rejected send message, 2 matched rules; type="error", sender=":1.111" (uid=0 pid=2214 comm="/usr/lib/nm-pptp-service ") interface="(unset)" member="(unset)" error name="org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.UnknownMethod" requested_reply="0" destination=":1.112" (uid=0 pid=2215 comm="/usr/sbin/pppd pty /usr/sbin/pptp x.x.x.x -")
Oct 10 14:18:05 thunderbox dbus[502]: [system] Rejected send message, 2 matched rules; type="error", sender=":1.111" (uid=0 pid=2214 comm="/usr/lib/nm-pptp-service ") interface="(unset)" member="(unset)" error name="org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.UnknownMethod" requested_reply="0" destination=":1.112" (uid=0 pid=2215 comm="/usr/sbin/pppd pty /usr/sbin/pptp x.x.x.x -")
Oct 10 14:18:05 thunderbox pptp[2223]: nm-pptp-service-2214 log[callmgr_main:pptp_callmgr.c:234]: Closing connection (unhandled)
Oct 10 14:18:05 thunderbox pptp[2223]: nm-pptp-service-2214 log[ctrlp_rep:pptp_ctrl.c:251]: Sent control packet type is 12 'Call-Clear-Request'
Oct 10 14:18:05 thunderbox pptp[2223]: nm-pptp-service-2214 log[call_callback:pptp_callmgr.c:79]: Closing connection (call state)
Oct 10 14:18:05 thunderbox pppd[2215]: Exit.
Oct 10 14:18:05 thunderbox dbus-daemon[502]: dbus[502]: [system] Rejected send message, 2 matched rules; type="error", sender=":1.111" (uid=0 pid=2214 comm="/usr/lib/nm-pptp-service ") interface="(unset)" member="(unset)" error name="org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.UnknownMethod" requested_reply="0" destination=":1.112" (uid=0 pid=2215 comm="/usr/sbin/pppd pty /usr/sbin/pptp x.x.x.x -")