Cisco VPNClient

[ektoric]

I have recently compiled and installed the `vpnclient-linux-4.8.00.0490-k9.tar.gz` on my Update 1 XO.

More than just the kernel headers, the cisco vpnclient is a kernel module that also needs the kernel sources to compile. These are provided in the `kernel-devel` package. The following are steps I did to compile the `vpnclient-linux-4.8.00.0490-k9.tar.gz` package. All of the instructions are done as root (`su -`)

1) Development Environment.
Make sure you have a development environment. This means being able to run make and gcc.

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yum install make gcc

1a) Note that it installs `kernel-headers-<some.kernel.version>`. Jot this down for later.

2) Verify the current running kernel

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uname -r

3) kernel-devel package
Install the right kernel-devel package for the running kernel. Normally, you would be able to just do

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yum install kernel-devel

But double check that you would be installing the same version as the running kernel. You may need to be more specific. Mine is 2.6.22, so:

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yum install kernel-devel-2.6.22

p.s. Depending on which OS version you have, this may be the most difficult step, or a trivial step.

4) Compile
In your vpnclient source directory, run

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make

4a) Troubleshooting
If the kernel headers installed in (1a) is not the same, then that is one potential for problems. You may need to uninstall it

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rpm -e kernel-headers

and manually get one that matches your running kernel.

5) Installing
In your source directory should be a `vpn_install` script.

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./vpn_install

6) Profile
Copy your company/school/org provided profile `Blarg.pcf` to the profiles directory

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cp Blarg.pcf /etc/opt/cisco-vpnclient/Profiles/

7) Start it up!
Start the service and connect

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/etc/init.d/vpnclient_init start
/opt/cisco-vpnclient/bin/vpnclient connect Blarg


You can optionally run that in the background and recover your shell prompt, but I personally like to keep that around so that I can just CTRL-C to "log off" my vpn.

7a) If during your `vpn_install` script you opted to have your service start every time, then the next time you reboot you will not need to `/etc/init.d/vpnclient_init start`.

[obc_spike]

Hello, and thanks for setting up this tutorial.

As you intimated, step 4 is a problem for me and I haven't seen details addressed in other OLPC + Cisco VPN threads. My setup goes like.

1. yum install make gcc (success, adds kernel-headers-2.6.23.1-21.fc7)
2. uname -r (success, 2.6.22-20071231.2.olpc.83e0631da83a269)
3. yum install kernel-devel
- if I don't add a version: "2.6.23.1-21.fc7 is already installed"
- if I add version like 2.6.22 or 2.6.22-20071231.2.olpc.83e0631da83a269: "No package kernel-headers-[version name]"
4. make (fails, "*** /lib/modules/2.6.22-20071231.2.olpc.83e0631da83a269/build: No such file or directory. Stop.")

The message from 3 and 4 don't clarify for me what's needed. Should I be trying to add 2.6.23 headers (as listed in the make and gcc install) instead of the active 2.6.22 version? If so...how?

[ektoric]

The only thing I can suggest is to upgrade your firmware. I know that when I first tried this at release 650, I had a lot more problems. I am currently on 703 (update.1) and was able to get the appropriate headers and devel packages just fine.

[obc_spike]

Thanks, I'll make the jump to 703 and give it a go.