Cisco Anyconnect Linux Mint

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Cisco AnyConnect + DIR-655 router + Linux Mint failure « on: November 03, 2010, 03:58:58 PM » I recently upgraded my router from an old D-Link wireless G router (DI-524) to a D-Link wireless N (DIR-655). Jan 04, 2020 Connecting to VPN Server with Cisco AnyConnect from Linux Terminal. Run the given command to check the status of being installed Cisco AnyConnect from the previous guide. Cisco AnyConnect Alternatives for Linux. There are many alternatives to Cisco AnyConnect for Linux if you are looking to replace it. The most popular Linux alternative is OpenVPN, which is both free and Open Source. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 25 alternatives to Cisco AnyConnect and eight of them are available for. From the Cisco AnyConnect client (Mac and Android), I connect to a given VPN using only: Server Address Username Password How do I accomplish the same in Linux Mint 18.1 (based on Ubuntu 16.04 Xe.

William Cash and Keonwook Kang

  • 1How to set up the Cisco VPN client on a Linux computer
    • 1.3Installing the VPN client
      • 1.3.1If you're receiving errors during installation
    • 1.4Configuring the VPN Client
    • 1.5Connecting to the VPN Host
      • 1.5.2If you are unable to browse the internet, check email, etc. after connecting to the VPN


Updates

4/28/09 - This guide has been around in different forms for nearly two years and has generated a good deal of interest. The basic steps are still exactly the same, but many of the compilation errors listed in the subsections have been resolved in newer versions of the Cisco VPN client (v4.8.02.0030) and Linux kernel (2.6.28). I'm still actively updating this site for my own sake, so please contact me (William Cash) with any mistakes or suggestions.

4/29/09 - Added a section on vpnc in Ubuntu, because I now feel that it's integrated into the OS well-enough to be superior to the Cisco VPN client.

Introduction

Cisco VPN is required to connect to many of Stanford's computer resources because of some past security lapses. Unlike the Windows and Mac OS clients, Cisco's Linux VPN requires use of the terminal and comparatively little documentation from the company. This guide will show you how to install and use the Linux client. In addition, it addresses some of the most common problems encountered during this problem.

As an alternative to using the Cisco VPN client, vpnc is an open-source program available on many *NIX systems that is compatible with Cisco VPNs. A general guide for vpnc is not included here. However, instructions for using it with Ubuntu's Network Manager are discussed at the end of this document. This is a more elegant and useful way to connect to Cisco VPNs, and I encourage Ubuntu users to try this before they install the Cisco VPN client.

Installing the VPN client

Note: most of the following steps require superuser access.

  1. Download the v4.8 VPN client from http://vpn.stanford.edu.
  2. Extract the downloaded file.
  1. Install the VPN client
Cisco Anyconnect Linux Mint
  1. Answer the following questions during the installation (the defaults should be fine)
  1. Note that you need to reinstall the VPN client whenever your kernel is upgraded. Before reinstalling it, first run:
    to clean files and directories previously installed.

If you're receiving errors during installation

Install Cisco Anyconnect Linux Mint

Most common error

With the newer Linux kernels that are incompatible with the Cisco VPN you may receive an errors similiar to these:

This is a fairly well known problem with numerous websites and forum postings on the topic. The website http://projects.tuxx-home.at has been releasing patches for the installation files of the Cisco VPN client for all the latest Linux kernels.

Instead of using the VPN client provided by Stanford, download the latest one from there (currently v4.8.02.0030) and the patch file for the linux kernel you are running. Update: Stanford has finally decided to upgrade its download to v4.8.02.0030 , as well. If you aren't sure which you have run:

Assuming you've already performed steps 1-2 of installation procedure for the new client, you will now place your patch file in the vpnclient directory and patch the installation:

Then follow steps 3 and 4 as before.

64-bit operating system errors

If you are still receiving errors after using the previous patch and are using a 64-bit OS, you should also patch the installer with cisco_skbuff_offset.patch from http://projects.tuxx-home.at.

Then follow steps 3 and 4 as before.

CFLAGS / EXTRA_CFLAGS error

Finally, if you've tried the last two patches and are receiving the following error when compiling:

you need to do exactly what the compiler error is telling you and change CFLAGS to EXTRA_CFLAGS in the makefile. First, open the file Makefile in the installer directory with your preferred text editor.

Then, change CFLAGS to EXTRA_CFLAGS in line 15. The line should read:

Now try compiling once more.

Configuring the VPN Client

Note: As an alternative to the steps below, Stanford now provides a working configuration file that can simply be placed in the Profile directory (/etc/opt/cisco-vpnclient/Profiles). A line to store your user name can be added to the profile (see Step 2). This profile is not included in the supplied VPN client and must be downloaded separately from http://vpn.stanford.edu.

Cisco Anyconnect Linux Client Certificate

  1. A sample configuration file is: /etc/opt/cisco-vpnclient/Profiles/sample.pcf.
  1. Copy and edit the configuration file.
    The edited configuration file should look similar to this:
  1. Start VPN service.
    Note that VPN service will be started automatically at boot time. If you want to stop VPN service, use the option stop instead. Also, You may use status, restart or reload in addition to start and stop.
  1. For a detailed description of each keyword in configuration file, refer to Cisco's guide.

VPN service still does not start automatically after rebooting

If you issued the previously mentioned command to start the VPN service at boot but are receiving the error message:

Cisco Anyconnect Linux Download

after rebooting, your operating system is not actually starting the service. A temporary, but somewhat annoying fix, is to continue issuing the command:

each time you reboot the system. To actually remedy the problem, you need to create symbolic links for the VPN client at different run-levels. The Cisco VPN client, only creates one in runlevel 4, but many Linux OS's don't run at this level. For example, Ubuntu commonly uses runlevel 2. To have the client start at boot for runlevel 2, issue the command:

To have the client run at a different runlevel boot simply replace rc2 in the previous command with the appropriate number. If you are unsure which runlevel to choose, you could place links in all seven.

Connecting to the VPN Host

  1. Once the VPN client service starts, you are ready to connect to the VPN Concentrator. Enter the group password and your SUNet ID/Pass to activate the connection. The group password is given in the file REAME-Stanford.Note: If you don't want to keep entering that terrible group password, you can store it under GroupPwd= in the configuration file. The first time the client connects with the host it will remove the plain-text password and replace it with an encrypted one under enc_GroupPwd=.
  1. Press ctrl + z and type bg to run vpnclient in the background. Now you can do ssh or scp to other machines.
  2. To disconnect, type:

If you are unable to connect without superuser privileges

When trying to connect to the VPN host as a regular user you may encounter the following error:

This is because you don't have the correct privileges to read the profile file.

To change its permissions run:

as the superuser.If you are still not able to use the VPN without being root, type:

If you are unable to browse the internet, check email, etc. after connecting to the VPN

Another common problem with the Cisco VPN client for linux is that it disables your local LAN access once you connect to the host, even if the host is not set to disable local LAN access. This can be remedied with the override-local-lan-access.diff patch from projects.tuxx-home.at. You will first have to uninstall your VPN client and move the patch to vpnclient source code directory. If you had to use the aforementioned kernel patch, apply that first. Then apply the LAN access patch and install as usual.

Additional LAN access issues due to Firestarter firewall

Cisco Anyconnect Linux Mint

Firestarter is a popular desktop firewall tool used by many Linux users. However, it can also restrict internet access when the Cisco VPN is active. A quick temporary fix is to open the Firestarter utility and simply stop the firewall. A safer and permanent fix is to add the following code to /etc/firestarter/user-pre (for many users this file will be empty beforehand):

Where xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is the IP address of the VPN server (you can find this from the Server Address given when starting the VPN), and cipsec0 is the common name for the VPN network device on your computer. Send to kindle for mac not working. You can verify if cipsec0 is the correct name by running:

Cisco Anyconnect Linux Client

Anyconnect

ifconfig will also display the names of your network and/or wireless cards.

For the changes to take effect, you will need to restart the firewall by running: Toon boom student version.

vpnc Integration with Network Manager in Ubuntu 9.04

Ubuntu's Network Manager is the way Ubuntu organizes all your wired and wireless networks. It's the icon in the task bar you're always clicking to view all the available wifi signals, because it always seems to connect to the wrong network. It used to suck (e.g. 7.04), but it has improved greatly in recent releases. In version 9.04, I finally feel that it is reliable enough to warrant a section in this guide - especially since more of us at Stanford seem to be using Ubuntu these days.

  1. To allow Network Manager to manage your Cisco VPN connection you will first need to install the vpnc plugin. You will need to get the packages network-manager-vpnc and vpnc from the Ubuntu repositories using either the Synaptic Package Manager or apt-get. If this is over your head, you can also find it in Add/Remove Programs if you search for 'vpnc' in all available applications.
  2. Click the Network Manager icon in your task bar and there should now be an option labeled 'VPN Connections'. Expand this option and select Configure VPN, as shown below (my desktop and task bar probably look different than yours because I was on my netbook).
  3. The Network Connections window should open with the VPN tab selected. Choose the 'Add' option to create a new VPN connection, or you can import an existing .pcf configuration file using the 'Import' button. A window like the one below will open. Gateway is the URL or IP address of the VPN host (this is called 'Host' in the Cisco .pcf configuration file). Group name, user name, and their passwords are all self-explanatory and can be permanently stored if you prefer. These should be the only options most users should have to change.
  4. Apply the changes and now try to connect to the VPN by returning to Network Manager in the task bar and selecting your newly created VPN.Stanfprd _Public_VPN .pcf configuration file
  5. It may ask you for access to your network security key ring. You should select 'Always Allow' unless you want the window to continually pop up.
  6. If it successfully finds the server it will either ask or verify your passwords. Assuming these are correct you should receive a confirmation message such as the one below. I'm not sure if this message is specific to the Stanford VPN, but it asks you to click the 'Continue Button'. I have no idea where this so-called button is, but the VPN works fine anyway. You will know your VPN connection is active if there is a gold padlock on top of your Network Manager icon.
  7. Actually, Stanford offers a very convenient way to set the VPN parameter in Ubuntu. After installing the packages vpnc, network-manager-vpnc and network-manager-vpnc-gnome, you can directly download the Stanford _Public_VPN .pcf configuration file from https://itservices.stanford.edu/service/vpn/downloads. Next, you should select VPN Connections > Configure VPN from the GNOME notification area and import the .pcf file you have downloaded. Finally, you may edit this VPN connection configuration by entering your SUNet ID in the User name field and entering your SUNet password in the password field.

References

Retrieved from 'http://micro.stanford.edu/mediawiki/index.php?title=How_to_install_and_configure_the_Cisco_VPN_client_on_a_Linux_computer&oldid=5428'
Last night I decided to replace my Ubuntu 11.10 installation on my System76 Serval Pro with Linux Mint 12. I’ve used Linux Mint on and off since version 9, and Linux Mint 10 and 11 were my full-time OSes until I ran into some lockup issues with Mint 11 on my System76 Lemur Ultra-Thin, at which point I decided to give Ubuntu 11.10 with Unity a real shot.

Cisco Anyconnect Linux Mint 19

Not to get sidetracked on the real topic of this post, but Unity isn’t nearly as bad as many make it out to be. After using it for a week I actually started to like it and found myself quite productive with it. That said, since I’ve also always loved Mint I figured I better kick the tires on their latest release which is now the most popular GNU/Linux distribution, having recently bumped Ubuntu from the top spot.

If you’ve seen all my previous posts on getting Cisco AnyConnect running on GNU/Linux you’ll know that this is an ever-changing series of problems and fixes over the years, but with Ubuntu 11.10 and Cisco finally releasing a native 64-bit version of the AnyConnect client the steps were finally limited to simply install and launch.

For some reason that isn’t the case with Linux Mint 12 and as in the past the fixes that worked previously don’t seem to apply to Mint 12. Downloading and installing the client is the same as previously, and the installation works fine, but at least on my machine when I try to connect I get a different certificate-related error than I’ve received in the past and I haven’t yet determined how to resolve it.

Cisco Anyconnect Linux Mint

In the mean time, some folks commented on a previous post to try OpenConnect, which is an open source VPN client designed to work with Cisco hardware. I’d tried it in the past without success against my specific VPN server but since I wasn’t having much luck with AnyConnect (and to be fair, I probably only fought with it for about 30 minutes so there may well be a solution–if you know what it is I’d love to hear it!) I decided to try OpenConnect again. (An aside: my apologies for not responding to comments to that post. Posterous is having notification issues and I haven’t received comment notifications for a while.)

Installation of the client and the integration with the Mint network manager is easy enough:
sudo apt-get install openconnect network-manager-openconnect

After installation completes you go to Network Settings and configure your VPN connection, which basically just requires the host name of your VPN server. With that configured you can then click on the network connection icon on the top right of the screen and select your VPN connection from the VPN list, and in my case it connected fine.

I did try running OpenConnect from a terminal and even when starting with sudo (which you have to do in order for the tunnel to be created), I got the error “No –script argument provided; DNS and routing are not configured” so although it connected to the VPN server fine, I couldn’t do anything once I was connected. Using the network manager piece resolved that issue for some reason. The issue with running from a terminal is probably just a configuration thing but using the network manager is more convenient anyway, so I didn’t dig into that either.

So for now at least I’ll be using OpenConnect instead of AnyConnect, though if/when I install Mint 12 on one of my other machines I may try to figure out what’s wrong with AnyConnect to satisfy my curiosity if nothing else. For now I just had to get something working since tomorrow it’s back to work after the Thanksgiving holiday.

If anyone has AnyConnect running on Mint 12 and has ideas of what to try I’d be very interested to hear how you got things running, and I’ll do a follow-up post if I figure it out when I work on it on another machine.