HOWTO set up Juniper Network Connect VPN on Ubuntu Dapper

[poomalairaj]

recently posted an article about juniper on ubuntu 11.10.
Hope this helps http://blog.poomalairaj.com/juniper-...-ubuntu-11-10/

[david lang]

In Ubuntu 12.10 there are a couple of things that have happened that have broken dvo's fix.

1. due to a java vunerability that Oracle is not going to fix, they have removed the real sun java and only have openjdk

2. the mulitlib transition has eliminated the ia32-* packages

any ideas on how to get things working again?

[vivace]

I had it working in like 10.04 but then something happened and it stopped. According to the documentation i am reading the -nojava option should work but it doesnt i just get a prompt asking for my passcode and then immediately

VPN has exited successfully.

Would you like to restart the VPN connection?

i hate having to boot into windows to use remote desktop.

[ariva]

In Ubuntu 12.10 there are a couple of things that have happened that have broken dvo's fix.

1. due to a java vunerability that Oracle is not going to fix, they have removed the real sun java and only have openjdk

2. the mulitlib transition has eliminated the ia32-* packages

any ideas on how to get things working again?

I could install gcc-multilib even with ia32-libs package installed. Which package brokes the multilib transition?
As from PPA you can get old version (i don't remember exactly, but propably update 26), I have downloaded and installed latest java (update 32) manually (both 64 and 32bit) and put them in separate folders.
Then i just invoke update-alternatives for java binary and java plugin for mozilla.
Java 32bit: /usr/bin/java java /serwis/jre1.6.0_32_32bit/
Java 64bit: /usr/bin/java java /serwis/jre1.6.0_32/

sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/java java /serwis/jre1.6.0_32/bin/java 100
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libnpjp2.so mozilla_java_plugin /serwis/jre1.6.0_32/lib/amd64/libnpjp2.so 100

And then ive switched dvo's script with 64bit java binary:

#!/bin/bash
if [ $3x = "NCx" ]
then
/serwis/jre1.6.0_32_32bit/bin/java "$@"
else
/serwis/jre1.6.0_32/bin/java.orig "$@"
fi

Hope, that helps.
Thanks MadScientist and dvo for solution!

[ETecoli]

Hey everyone... I've been ghosting this thread for a while, trying to find a method to get Juniper's network connect to run on Ubuntu 10.11 (I shudder what will happen after I update to the LTS).

Anyway, my problem is that, unlike most of you, my employer's web page doesn't prompt me to install Juniper's software via a java prompt. Instead I just get directed to an internal web site after a login. So there's still the option of doing a manual install from Juniper's ncui RPM package. Though they don't support linux.

I'm trying to install network connect manually via alien and its even listed in the software manager. But, this doesn't create the ~/.juniper_networks/ directory. And I'm not sure how [or what] to execute. I feel like I'm missing some crucial component here.

Any tips for getting net connect to work without the browser?

Thanks!

[acardona]

I had it working in like 10.04 but then something happened and it stopped. According to the documentation i am reading the -nojava option should work but it doesnt i just get a prompt asking for my passcode and then immediately

VPN has exited successfully.

Would you like to restart the VPN connection?

i hate having to boot into windows to use remote desktop.

I have the same error that vivace sees, but in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS: the remote server logs me out immediately. Is there any known solution?

If the error is related to the resolv.conf being rewritten, does editing /etc/dhcp/dhclient.conf help, as described earlier in this thread but for dhcp3? Ubuntu has changed a bit its files under /etc. (EDIT: I tried removing the domain-name and the domain-name-servers, restarting the wireless, and it didn't work).

Thank you for any hints!

EDIT: found more info here:
http://holyarmy.org/2009/06/vpn-on-u...twork-connect/
... but now I get "Unable to connect to IVE". Any hint on what that means?

Apparently the -U "https://$HOST" has to be modified with a /launcher, but it is not clear to me where or how in the junipernc script. Help appreciated.

[madscientist]

If you are having failures connecting, look at the log file (~/.juniper_networks/network_connect/ncsvc.log) and see if anything interesting is there.

If you need a URL instead of a simple hostname, just type the full URL into the dialog box (that's why it asks for "URL or server", not just the server) starting with http...

[madscientist]

Sigh. After hours and hours of frustration I've figured out why my new installation on Ubuntu 12.04 was not working.

I've uploaded a new version (1.30) of the script to my website. In addition to some defensive programming to avoid the problem I had I've also added support for creating a new menu item to invoke Network Connect VPN in any desktop that supports the Freedesktop standard (which is pretty much all of them these days I believe). After you run the new version of the script for the first time you should see a new menu item under "Internet" or "Networking" or similar in your menu hierarchy. You can drag it to your Panel or Launcher etc. and use that to start your VPN.

There is also a new command-line option, --kill, which lets you bring down the VPN from the CLI. And, if your WM supports it, there's an alternate action on the menu item to stop the VPN.

Have fun, and let me know if I broke anything...

[netplumbers]

I'm having incredible difficulty getting the juniper client to run on one of my machines. It works fine on my laptop (also, fully up-to-date kubuntu precise 64 bit) but fails on my main desktop.

I'm using the current version of madscientist's script (Thank you). And have installed and configured to use the 32 bit java 7 jdk from oracle.

My network connect version is:

Juniper Network Connect Server for Linux.
Version : 6.5
Release Version : 6.5-0-Build15551
Build Date/time : Apr 10 2010 11:14:05
Copyright 2001-2008 Juniper Networks

In the ncsvc.log I see:

20120516153254.912380 ncsvc[p10000.t10000] dsclient.info state: kStateAuthenticated (dsclient.cpp:368)
20120516153254.912475 ncsvc[p10000.t10000] IpcConn.error bind failed to port 4242. Error 98 (ncipc.cpp:64)
20120516153254.914075 ncsvc[p10000.t10000] IpcConn.error recv failed with errno 98 (ncipc.cpp:259)

I've spent hours on this and I can't figure it out. Help!!
Thanks,
Jon

[madscientist]

Hm. I don't know what "Error 98" means.

Maybe that port is used by something else? Run:

sudo netstat -lntp | grep 4242

and see if some other program is bound to/listening on that port already.