It wasn’t an easy task for me, so posting a solution here:

The Easy Part

Install latest network-manager l2tp package:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nm-l2tp/network-manager-l2tp
sudo apt update
sudo apt install network-manager-l2tp network-manager-l2tp-gnome

At the time of writing it was 1.20.4, useful resource is github repo – https://github.com/nm-l2tp/NetworkManager-l2tp. I suggest you go through reported issues and Wiki for Known Issues.

Go to Settings -> Network -> VPN -> Click a + sign -> L2TP:

Add VPN Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol L2TP

Type your gateway ip, username and password:

vpn details l2tp

Click on IPsec Settings and type your pre-shared key, don’t fill anything in Advanced, just click Apply, and Apply again.

ipsec properties vpn tunnel

As far as documentation I saw, that would be enough for connecting to the VPN. But nope, my VPN was constantly timeouting.

The Hard Part

Figuring out what went wrong, that was a pain.

I scanned the logs in syslog and journalctl -f , found an error like “EAP: unknown authentication type”.

If you get a similar error, solution would be to go to your VPN settings, then PPP settings, disable all authentication methods except one, like MSCHAP.

ppp settings mschap

Click Apply, try connecting to the VPN, and hopefully you’ll finally connect like I did.

Categories: System

Subscribe
Notify of
guest
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x