Help setting up VPN on Mageia.. (desperate)

[sada2012]

I've been testing various Distributions to deploy, and I absolutely love Mageia. However a major problem(for me) I am finding in comparison to other distributions is that it doesn't seem to offer the same PPTP network setup interface of the other distros which I am familiar with, and which make it exceptionally easy to setup the desktop VPNs. I am not very adept with Linux, so any help has to be on a pretty basic level so I don't mess something up. How do I go about setting up PPTP on Mageia in an 'easy' fashion?

I would greatly appreciate any help in this matter, especially with detailed instructions for the newb. (me)

Thanks in advance.

[doktor5000]

FWIW, how would you do the setup on other distros?

[wintpe]

I must say i dont find linux that daunting, but ipsec put me off the second i looked at it.

I opted for openvpn, (which is a point to point tunnelling protocol) but this is still not a breeze for someone who says "I am not very adept with Linux".

firstly you have to see if your destination device supports it, ie do you have a firewall/gateway that you want to connect into.

if not then you also need to set this up (this is the really hard part) as my firewall was crap when it came to supporting openvpn, i punched a whole into another server internally that was more adept at openvpn (centos 6).

I then had to sertup the openvpn server, which involves creating some self signing certificates, to be honest a huge amount of commands for something that seemed like should be simple.

openvpn like ssh (its based on the same idea) can have a public key/private key, you basically setup the server and then create a key for your workstation (openvpn client) and copy the key and a config file into a location in /etc.

service start openvpn on both ends and the connection is up.

you then find you have another device in your ifconfig -a listing, and this has a network address that is different from what you are using for your main network. for example you maybe connecting to the internet via 81.xxx.xxx.1 and your pptp connection has 10.0.0.1.

you now also have an additional route that routes any traffic for your destination network through this alternative connection.

This alternative connection goes via your internet connection to the base you are VPN connecting into as a secure tunnel, like an SSH tunnel.

except instead of port 22 it uses something like 1194 (you can specify what port as long as its setup at both ends to be the same.)

Im happy to try to put all the instructions and the reference i used (that i found via google if thats what you are looking for.) if you need server and client.

I use this on a daily basis to connect to my Lab from wherever i am in the world.

If the server is already setup for you there are several gui ways in mageia providing you have the cert and password and details of the server you are connecting to. Its all in the MCC control panel, under network and internet.

for that you just need to provide the details to those gui forms.

see if the connection comes up, when you start it, with ifconfig -a

see if you can ping the other end or any of the ipaddresses on the other end.

regards peter

[sada2012]

I've failed finding a solution..

Every other distribution, setting up a VPN is as simple as a right click, adding in a username/password, IP, and presto.. PPTP in about 5-10 seconds, up and running. Mageia has a hideous network app from what I can tell, totally different than other distros, and extremely difficult to work with. I think the issue for me is, every other distro uses Network Manager or whatever the more generic network one is, where it's basically 1-click to setup VPN's. Mageia doesn't even have built in PPTP in the network interface.

This is the only thing keeping me from a full switchover to this distro, and it's extremely frustrating. Right now I am on a Mint-Live CD boot, right click network icon, add, then VPN, select type, and its ready to go. Or download a config file from my VPN provider, select import, and it's ready to go. I am unsure why Mageia makes this overly complicated when every other distribution makes it a 10 second process. Any way to fix Mageia to make this process easy for me?

http://xoom.cc/images/2012/07/02/6QTE5.png

Above is the example from the mint-live i am booted on, 2 options, dropdown to select vpn type, good to go in seconds.

[doktor5000]

You can just use networkmanager on Mageia as on any other distro, what hinders you from doing so?

[sada2012]

As mostly a newbie to this, how would I change to the normal network manager in all of the other distros in Mageia?

I would need detailed instructions, as I am REALLY new to all of this, and simply want to migrate away from Windows as quickly as possible on my own machines, and eventually on client machines.

So any help/instructions would help - immensely.

[doktor5000]

Just install networkmanager and start using it?

BTW: it's not just some network manager, the exact package and program name is networkmanager.

[sada2012]

I guess I should be more specific;

1) How do I remove the default network icon and replace it with network manager, like the other KDE distros?
2) If I install BOTH, whatever the one mageia uses, and networkmanager, how do I avoid conflict?

I wonder why they use the one they use in mageia if it is such a pita? The default KDE one is more than adequate, and works for a wide variety of situations, and is easily setup and configured. Yet they have this one included that seems like such a headache, and it is really causing me trouble to try and get my PPTP to work on it.

[doktor5000]

You can remove the default one by right click -> settings -> always load on startup.
In drakconnect, if you mark an interface as "allow networkmanager to control this interface" in the summary screen for any network interface.

FWIW, i don't need to use PPTP, as as you can tell from the responses, seems noone else does, and for most users including me the default network tool works just fine.

[sada2012]

I will try that, but when I did before it still didn't work. =/

But yes, VPN's aren't all that common yet, but they will be as more of these ridiculous laws come into play that remove more privacy. I tend to be 100% on a VPN when I am not gaming on the Windows side otherwise.. So I need good VPN functionality in whatever OS I run for the simple fact I don't compromise my privacy. Man I really hope this works, I really hate using Windows for anything other than gaming to be honest, so I need Mageia to work on the VPN side so I can switch over. All of the other Distros work fine on this area, but all of those I have tested have other serious issues. Hehe.

[wintpe]

As I stated before i knew wether you had a vpn provider (because again like so many who post assuming we are physic)

if you have a vpn server already go into MCC and into internet and settings , and choose setup a VPN.

what you have done however is assume that PPTP is a standard, its not its a method or a way to do VPN, and there are several implementations of PPTP, ie point to point tunnelling protocol.

even your example picture tells you that when it says PPTP, compatible with microsoft windows.

from wiki

The PPTP specification does not describe encryption or authentication features and relies on the PPP protocol being tunneled to implement security functionality. However the most common PPTP implementation, shipping with the Microsoft Windows product families, implements various levels of authentication and encryption natively as standard features of the Windows PPTP stack. The intended use of this protocol is to provide similar levels of security and remote access as typical VPN products.

You did not mention this in your initial request, so i had to make some guesses, in Linux land we would go for cisco vpn or openvpn or ipsec.

so since you want the windows version make sure the following package is installed.

pptp-linux

Code: Select all

[root@ossi5 ~]# urpmi pptp-linux


    $MIRRORLIST: media/core/release/pptp-linux-1.7.2-5.mga1.x86_64.rpm
installing pptp-linux-1.7.2-5.mga1.x86_64.rpm from /var/cache/urpmi/rpms
Preparing...                     ##############################################################################
      1/1: pptp-linux            ##############################################################################
[root@ossi5 ~]#



then run the following command to test

Code: Select all

pppd pty "pptp IP_OR_FQDN_VPN_SERVER --nolaunchpppd" file /etc/ppp/options.pptp user USERNAME password PASSWORD

but out of the box mageia gui tools seem geared more openvpn/cisco, that roadwarrier style vpn

regards peter

[sada2012]

I can't do this on the Live-CD apparently, and I am afraid to install Mageia again with the flaky network stuff. A quick internet search reveals a LOT of people can't or won't use Mageia simply because of Draknet. I cannot see why they use Draknet when NetworkManager has a proven track record, works for everyone, and is rock solid reliable.. WHY??

For example;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsNtgotnFXM
Do you know if there are any plans to use NetworkManager as default in Mageia? I had to laptops with Mandriva 2011 beta and they connected very fast to any Wifi that I used. And after rebooting the machine they got connected automatically very fast. But with draknet I still struggle to connect to some networks, sometimes I need to retry 3 times or more until I get connected.

viewtopic.php?f=25&t=685
Why are we not defaulting to network manager since it is, in my opinion, a much more elegant solution and there is a lot of developer momentum behind it?

https://www.mageia.org/pipermail/mageia ... 07157.html
I know it works fine for several people. Personally, I am often having issues because it's disconnects on it's own, and no longer sees any networks when it should. Then it has difficulty reconnecting.
Windows, Fedora and Ubuntu's wireless tools work absolutely smoothly at my school. And now, other people testing Mageia as school are having the same issues I have. This is frustrating and I can assure you these home-made network tools have to be improved and fixed.

https://www.mageia.org/pipermail/mageia ... 07427.html
So with all this in mind, I think the writing is very much on the wall > with regards to the future integration of NetworkManager into the > desktop. I believe we will be able to concentrate our resources better
> by going along with the rest of the world in this regard. I have > personally switched to it now (as I do not need advanced features of > draknetcenter et al) as a step towards this.

Plenty of other threads, videos, and other comments. Seems the general consensus of a lot of people is this Draknet is problematic. I simply cannot use it with my VPN provider regardless, and we've tried many different setups to get it to function. It's prohibiting a migration to Mageia for me and this frustrating because I love the distro otherwise. Mint for example, regardless of flavor, I can fire it up and VPN in a matter of seconds and have perfect functionality. Others seem to be having the same issue, and I have tried to resolve it for well over 2 weeks.

[doktor5000]

As I stated before i knew wether you had a vpn provider (because again like so many who post assuming we are physic)

I think you mean "psychic"

[wintpe]

yes spelling was never my strong point

However ive never had a problem with drakenet, it just works for me, as it does for loads of mageia users.

you want to see the hastle we had with network manager with redhat 6 when it first came out.

completly stuffed our automated build systems, and we had to write around it, and remove it, from the build

so dont go banging on about network manager as if it was all good.

at least in mageia i could setup active active bonding without the network manager constantly overwritting my setup.

perhaps this is just one of the reasons you will never see me using any debian based distro.

but as has been said on some other threads , you can install network manager in mageia if you choose.

perhaps for you that will be worth the investment in time.

regards peter

[neograven]

At present, Mageia does not support PPTP VPN that requires MPPE. Unfortunately, that is what many, many companies use (it's the M$ Exchange default).

You can (at your own risk) install the ppp packages from Mandriva and it will work (you can look up how to do this in the Mandriva forums, or Google it). There is a small bug when network state changes during the VPN connection, and it will stall out. That rarely happens though.

Also, check here: https://forums.mageia.org/en/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=2347&p=17866&hilit=vpn#p17866
Good luck.

[doktor5000]

Commented in the linked bug report.