This probably isn’t anything new since there are already a couple of guides out there. But hopefully this little how-to that is directed at 6.06 LTS will make things a little simpler.

Preamble

The official VPN client from Cisco only offers a command-line interface for Linux and Solaris systems so if you’re looking for a graphical interface you’ll probably have to settle for a Windows or Mac OS system.

Some how-to’s will tell you to patch the VPN client but do note that this is only for systems running the 2.6.19 kernel or newer. As far as I’m aware, Ubuntu 6.06 LTS uses 2.6.15 so you won’t have to patch. You can check your kernel version with the following command

uname -r

Preparing Your System

Compiling the VPN client will require the linux-headers to be on your system. On Ubuntu, this can be found in /usr/src so if the folder is completely empty or doesn’t include anything containing “linux-headers”, run the command

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-’uname -r’.

This will install the linux-headers for your particular kernel version.

Note: You may also need to install the build-essential package to compile the VPN client.

Getting the VPN Client

Officially, you can get the VPN client from the following url.

• http://www.cisco.com/public/sw-center/index.shtml

But as it usually is, downloading software from cisco.com requires a valid Smartnet support contract. Alternatively, you can download from this site at the following url. Do note however, that this software is provided on an as-is basis and you are responsible for ensuring the authenticity and integrity of any software that you install on your system.

• http://bangky.net/pub/software/vpnclient-linux-4.8.00.0490-k9.tar.gz

Installing the VPN Client

After downloading the VPN client, untar it with the following command

tar -zxvf vpnclient-linux-4.8.00.0490-k9.tar.gz

Enter the newly extracted folder and proceed to install the client by executing the vpn_install script with the command

./vpn_install

The installer will provide you with several install options. Since I am no Linux guru, I will skip the specifics of the options but do feel free to accept the default values. It should work. When the script completes executing, you can either reboot your system or you can manually start the vpn service with the command /etc/init.d/vpnclient_init start. For all subsequent system startups, the vpn service will be automatically started.

Test that the vpnclient binary is installed by simply executing the command vpnclient

Configuring VPN Connection Profiles

By default, connection profiles are stored in /etc/opt/cisco-vpnclient/Profiles.
I will not cover the configuration parameters here but you can refer to the official configuration guide on cisco.com at the following url.

• VPN Client User Guide for Linux and Solaris [ cisco.com ]

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1. chin kiat Says:
   February 16th, 2008 at 10:44 pm

   try vpnc. Link is a gentoo guide, but it’s really pretty generic.

   http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/vpnc-howto.xml

   It’s OSS. i don’t suppose the official client is OSS too?

   btw, are you sure it’s legal to post the file here? if it requires a contract, it might be distribution limited only…

2. bangky Says:
   February 17th, 2008 at 7:56 am

   Hi, thanks for the heads up on vpnc. Looks like a viable alternative.

   For the official client, installation involves compiling the client so yes, the download contains the source, not just a pre-compiled binary (though the end-user is legally not supposed to modify the source)

   As for distribution of the official vpn client, ignoring the legalese in the license, it’s available on quite a number of university ftp servers as well as other software mirrors. It’s all accessible via anonymous ftp so for now at least, I suppose it’s alright to distribute.

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