How to setup Cisco VPN using VPNC in Ubuntu 9.10

Today, I was trying to setup the Cisco VPN client at home to connect to my office PC to check my emails. So, I began googling around for help… and, very quickly, I found this…

Following the steps written in the Ubuntu Community documentation has helped me setup almost 90% of it (The steps are quite short anyway). And then, I met a blocker. I am unable to decipher the IPSEC password needed in the VPNC. This password is actually located under enc_GroupPwd in the Cisco profile file (*.pcf).

The following steps are the funny method on how I retrieve IPSEC password from the Cisco profile (*.pcf):

You will need to have network-manager-vpnc and network-manager-vpnc-gnome installed to be able to connect to a Cicso VPN.

1. Click on the Ethernet/Wireless icon on the right side of the top panel.
2. Go to VPN Connections.
3. Select Configure VPN….
4. Select Import.
5. Choose the Cisco Profile (*.pcf) and click on Open button.
6. A dialog will open with all the setting filled.
7. Go to Group Passwords (This is the IPSEC password).
8. Check on the option, Show passwords.
9. The IPSEC password will be revealed.
10. Copy and paste the password in the /etc/vpnc/<vpn_file>.conf
11. Run the Terminal.
12. And, use the command, vpnc-connect <vpn_file>

Lastly, I am going to paste the steps from Ubuntu Community Documentation here for easy reference.

==== VPNC ====
The Cisco VPNC client is available in the vpnc package (SPM).

Configuration files are stored in /etc/vpnc, which was protected to root on my installation so you might need to use sudo for all commands here. Copy example.conf to myvpn.conf

sudo cp /etc/vpnc/example.conf /etc/vpnc/myvpn.conf

and edit the new file to look like this:

IPSec gateway <host>
IPSec ID <group username>
IPSec secret <group password>
Xauth username <username>
Xauth password <password>

IPSec gateway <host>

IPSec ID <group username>

IPSec secret <group password>

Xauth username <username>

Xauth password <password>

Note that you can leave out <password> if you want, and you will be prompted. Now, run vpnc-connect myvpn to start the connection – your output should look something like this:

> vpnc-connect myvpn
Connect Banner:
| Welcome to
|
|
| *** VPN Service ***
|
| Your connection is now secure

VPNC started in background (pid: 7885)…
> vpnc-disconnect
Terminating vpnc daemon (pid: 7885)

You can then connect/disconnect with the commands vpnc-connect myvpn and vpnc-disconnect myvpn.

Chrome OS… thinking…

Recently, I’ve started to switch my browser from Firefox to Chrome.. it works really well… so I began to think… what about Chrome OS? Will it be as great as the Chrome browser? Will it run on my old P4 at home? Hmmm…

I shall find some time to download the Virtual Machine and try…..

Ubuntu 9.10 finally launched!

After reading news about UEC and Ubuntu One, I have been waiting impatiently for it to be released to market…

Desktop edition is integrated to “Ubuntu One” technology which gives you 2 GB of online storage for FREE!!! Then, you can easily share files with anyone!!

In Server edition, I am interested in the private clouds, where you can host applications in the your own cloud, and again… it is FREE too!!

Haha.. I was surprised and disappointed yesterday (29′Oct) when I check the website and it wasn’t available yet online!! But hey… I am downloading them now!! Both editions!!! Can’t wait to use them immediately!!

Installing Alfresco Community on Ubuntu Server

Yesterday I installed Alfresco fairly easy on a Ubuntu Desktop, then I started to think, why not installing it in a dedicated Ubuntu Server x64 bit, since I intend to use it to manage my documents….

So, I went to download the Ubuntu Server 9.04 x64 and started the installation… The installation was fairly quick and easy; and because I was doing it in the VMware Workstation 6.5. With the “Easy Install” capability, it automatically install everything without the need to attend to it.

After the installation has completed, I did an update to all the packages that are already in my server, then I moved on to install Alfresco using the “Third Party Source”..

sudo apt-get install alfresco-community

and I was surprised when it didn’t work for me in the first place… I went search the forum, looking at the “Software Source”, and I discovered that I need to enable the third party vendors’ source. So, the following are the steps I did to install Alfresco Community

1. Install Ubuntu Server 9.04 x64
2. sudo apt-get update
3. sudo apt-get upgrade
4. cat /etc/apt/sources.list to check for enabled sources
5. sudo vim /etc/apt/sources.list to edit the sources
6. remove the comment (“#”) for the partner section
7. sudo apt-get update
8. sudo apt-get install alfresco-community

Show list of installed packages in Ubuntu

Another quick reference…. while working on installation of Alfresco Community on Ubuntu Server 9.04, I need to rely on dpkg commands to tell me what are the packages installed…

alex@ubuntu:~$ dpkg –get-selections | grep apt
apt install
apt-transport-https install
apt-utils install
apt-xapian-index install
aptitude install
apturl install
laptop-detect install
laptop-mode-tools install
python-apt install
synaptic install xserver-xorg-input-synaptics install

Using the command dpkg –get-selections, it will generate a list of packages that are currently installed in the Ubuntu system. I filtered the list of results by using the command grep.

And, dpkg -L <package name>, can be used to find the locations of the files of the package.

Lastly, dpkg -r <package name>, can be used to remove the package.