update to network-manager-openvpn 1.1.93-1ubuntu1.1

[dhdurgee]

I am running Linux Mint 18.3 x64 cinnamon and am impacted by a bug in the network-manager-openvpn 1.1.93-1ubuntu1.1 from the xenial-updates repository. This bug is:

https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=793746

Which has been fixed and committed here:

https://git.gnome.org/browse/network-ma ... 602d8ea126

What is needed to get this into Sylvia? Do you contact the ubuntu maintainers, as this comes from their repository? Do you move the module to a mint repository and post the update?

Dave

[catweazel]

What is needed to get this into Sylvia? Do you contact the ubuntu maintainers, as this comes from their repository?

Essentially, you wait and see but don't get your hopes up of Ubuntu moving the patch into the 16.04 base. You could try to download the source and see if you can build it. Alternatively, you can inspect this page to try and determine if the patch got into the 18.04 base. If it has then it'll be in Mint 19 when it's released shortly.

[dhdurgee]

What is needed to get this into Sylvia? Do you contact the ubuntu maintainers, as this comes from their repository?

Essentially, you wait and see but don't get your hopes up of Ubuntu moving the patch into the 16.04 base. You could try to download the source and see if you can build it. Alternatively, you can inspect this page to try and determine if the patch got into the 18.04 base. If it has then it'll be in Mint 19 when it's released shortly.

I took a quick look at this and it appears that the fix is in the 18.04 base and thus will be in Mint 19. Is Mint 19 also going to be an LTS version? How difficult will an upgrade from 18.3 Sylvia be? Alternatively, is it possible that the network-manager might be backported from 19 to 18.3 I am already running?

I am in contact with the developer who created the patch, so I might be able to build it myself. Unfortunately taking a quick look at it makes me suspect this might prove difficult as the ubuntu source looks to be based on a much earlier release.

Dave

[phd21]

Hi dhdurgee,

I just read your post and the good replies to it. Here are my thoughts on this as well.

Exactly how are you impacted by this "bug", please explain in detail. Who is your VPN provider, or is this your own VPN server?

Have you updated the openVPN software using their repository? The link below has instructions for both Linux Mint 17.x and 18.x
Is it possible to install the latest openvpn without breaking everything[SOLVED]
viewtopic.php?f=157&t=242583&hilit=openvpn


Hope this helps ...

[dhdurgee]

Hi dhdurgee,

I just read your post and the good replies to it. Here are my thoughts on this as well.

Exactly how are you impacted by this "bug", please explain in detail. Who is your VPN provider, or is this your own VPN server?

Have you updated the openVPN software using their repository? The link below has instructions for both Linux Mint 17.x and 18.x
Is it possible to install the latest openvpn without breaking everything[SOLVED]
viewtopic.php?f=157&t=242583&hilit=openvpn


Hope this helps ...

My problem is not with OpenVPN itself, but with the OpenVPN plugin for Network Manager. Specifically, I am using Private Tunnel and have an ovpn configuration file from them. I can use this configuration file directly on the command line, but attempting to import that configuration file to Network Manager fails either from the GUI or using the command line. As it turns out, the configuration includes a required extra certificate that the plugin cannot deal with.

I contacted the OpenVPN support team who helped me diagnose the problem and then added support to their version of the plugin. My problem is that the plugin included in the ubuntu xenial-updates does not have it and ubuntu is not interested in back-porting it. As ubuntu's version is based on an earlier release it might take some effort to apply the patch, or it might require re-working to match that release.

So given the circumstances, my best option might be to upgrade to 19 when it is available.

Dave

[phd21]

Hi dhdurgee (Dave),

My problem is not with OpenVPN itself, but with the OpenVPN plugin for Network Manager. Specifically, I am using Private Tunnel and have an ovpn configuration file from them. I can use this configuration file directly on the command line, but attempting to import that configuration file to Network Manager fails either from the GUI or using the command line. As it turns out, the configuration includes a required extra certificate that the plugin cannot deal with.

I contacted the OpenVPN support team who helped me diagnose the problem and then added support to their version of the plugin. My problem is that the plugin included in the ubuntu xenial-updates does not have it and ubuntu is not interested in back-porting it. As ubuntu's version is based on an earlier release it might take some effort to apply the patch, or it might require re-working to match that release.

So given the circumstances, my best option might be to upgrade to 19 when it is available. Dave

Okay, can you explain exactly what type of "extra certificate" that the Network Manager's (NM) OpenVPN plugin does not work with? The fact that you can use the console terminal to make a good connection with "Private Tunnel" VPN provider servers means that the openVPN software is functioning and this does allow you to use their VPN service. Are you using the updated openVPN software, what version are you running?

It could be that you might manually have to change (edit) some Advanced options to get it to work now through the current NM. What are their requirements and what do they provide you, like do they give you the certificates files and the key files(s), if so, what are they called?

I have done a lot of research into using VPNs and I would like to see one of their server location ".ovpn" files that you can get to work through the console terminal prompt, but cannot through the NM.

Regards,
Phil (phd21)

[phd21]

Hi dhdurgee,

Just for the sake of it, I downloaded "NetworkManager-openvpn-1.8.2.tar.xz" and tried to compile it in my Linux Mint 18.3 KDE system, but it got stuck on a dependency library, message below, and did not finish.

Package dependency requirement 'libnma >= 1.7.0' could not be satisfied.
Package 'libnma' has version '1.2.6', required version is '>= 1.7.0'

So, I thought I would download the Linux deb file for this from a newer Ubuntu (xx.04) version (Bionic 18.04) and see if it would install in my current Linux Mint 18.3 system, and it will. Now, whether or not this will provide what you need to get your VPN provider's VPN connections working through the Network Manager, I do not know, but you can try it and if it does not work, purge it and install the one from the Mint repos again.

network-manager-openvpn_1.8.2 download link
http://launchpadlibrarian.net/360522749 ... _amd64.deb


Hope this helps ...

[dhdurgee]

Hi dhdurgee,

Just for the sake of it, I downloaded "NetworkManager-openvpn-1.8.2.tar.xz" and tried to compile it in my Linux Mint 18.3 KDE system, but it got stuck on a dependency library, message below, and did not finish.

Package dependency requirement 'libnma >= 1.7.0' could not be satisfied.
Package 'libnma' has version '1.2.6', required version is '>= 1.7.0'

So, I thought I would download the Linux deb file for this from a newer Ubuntu (xx.04) version (Bionic 18.04) and see if it would install in my current Linux Mint 18.3 system, and it will. Now, whether or not this will provide what you need to get your VPN provider's VPN connections working through the Network Manager, I do not know, but you can try it and if it does not work, purge it and install the one from the Mint repos again.

network-manager-openvpn_1.8.2 download link
http://launchpadlibrarian.net/360522749 ... _amd64.deb


Hope this helps ...

Thank you for continuing to look into this problem. As you had already determined, it was possible to install this package. Unfortunately this also removed the current openvpn-gnome package and the one that this package needs will not install as two dependencies cannot be met, libnm0 and libnma0 are the packages.

I downloaded the two packages, but despite synaptic showing them as upgradable the update manager does not show them. I guess I could force the version in synaptic and see what happens, but I am afraid that forcing this might break other packages that depend upon the current level.

In terms of behavior, with the 1.8.2-1 version of the plugin I can start the import, but it fails as the gnome openvpn editor is not present. Perhaps this could be worked around by going back to the earlier version of the plugin and the gnome plugin long enough to import the edited configuration without the extra certificate. Assuming it is possible to manually edit the network manager configuration file to add the extra certificate, I could live without the gnime editor. At that point, either the configuration would work with the current plugin, or it should work with the new version of the plugin. The problem is getting the configuration file right.

I have asked the developer about manual editing of the configuration file. I will see what he says about this. Worst case I wait for version 19.

Dave

PS: I also just thought about the possibility of a CLI approach that would avoid the need for the gnome editor, will ask developer about that as well.

[phd21]

Hi dhdurgee,

You are welcome...

Please keep me posted on your progress with this.

[dhdurgee]

SUCCESS!

I remembered that at one point the maintainer had me run a command line import to get a more useful error message. I went back through my corespondence and tried this again:

dhdurgee@Z560 ~/Downloads $ nmcli connection import type openvpn file Ashburn.ovpn
Connection 'Ashburn' (caf9b566-4af4-4ac1-aa5c-28997d2cfa5c) successfully added.

This is with the 1.8.2-1 version of network-manager-openvpn installed, but no network-manager-openvpn-gnome installed. Without the gnome package I have no GUI access to the configuration, but the VPN connection can be enabled and disabled from the GUI.

So the solution to my problem was to install the new openvpn plugin including the extra-certificates support and live without the gnome GUI for openvpn.

Thanks for your assistance.

Dave

[phd21]

Hi dhdurgee,

You are welcome...

That is great you have this working for you.