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Enrique Moreno Tent
Asked: 2018-10-26 08:35:35 +0800 CST

Ubuntu 18.04 - "Activation of network connection failed Ubuntu"

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I have IPVanish as my VPN provider, and usually I could connect without problem to almost all of their servers with Ubuntu 18.04.

But since a couple weeks, every time I try to log into their VPN, I get the following notification:

Activation of network connection failed Ubuntu

I am quite unsure as what do to from this point, since as you see there is not a lot of feedback from the system.

Does anyone has an idea what could I do to solve it?

Footnote: I know I do not provided much info, but it is all I got. If you need any additional information to debug this case, please add it on the comments and I will dump the terminal output right away.

Update 1: I already tried contacting the provider. They keep sending me emails, but they seem quite lost.

Update 2: The configuration of the VPNs is done automatically by importing a .ovpn file. I tried deleting all the existing ones, and reset them from scratch, and it did not help.

Update 3: They use OpenVPN.

networking vpn 18.04

8 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    I found the solution looking at the syslog

    sudo tail -f /var/log/syslog

    Apparently the .crt file with the certificate was inside a folder with spaces in the name, and that was causing the error. The moment I removed the spaces from the path to the file, it worked on the first try.

    Weird bug, but it solved it.

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  2. In my case, I had many Wi-Fi configured that were not available at time hence showing error, just disabled the Wi-Fi and open Wi-Fi at the use of time. Problem solved.

    • 4

  3. In my case the password was changed (expired) and I had to update user password in the NetworkManager

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  4. Expanding on Enrique's answer: after consulting var/log/syslog I discovered that problem was that I'd configured serveral bluetooth devices ... none of which were available. The "network connection failed" message was triggered every time network manager attempted to connect to one of these devices.

    Solution: any one of these:

    • Turn off bluetooth on your computer
    • Remove the bluetooth config for the non-responsive device
    • Reconnect the bluetooth device which was failing
    • 1

  5. I came to this question due to the title. My problem was not the OP's (I got this error with no VPN), but I will log my solution in case others come here like me.

    I found my network card was correctly connected to a nearby switch (both ends showing the "link light")... however that switch itself was not connected to the upstream switch.

    I surmise this error was being raise because the DHCP server could not be reached.

    Good luck!

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  6. In my case, after a power restored after an outage, my switch rebooted before my router. So I needed to restart my switch after router rebooted.

    PC <--> switch <--> router <--> internet

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  7. I was on a corporate network with a static connection and proxy. Running sudo /var/log/syslog showed dhcp4 (eno1): request timed out

    Fixed by setting IPv4 settings below on Wired network connection (Network → Wired → Gear Icon → IPv4 → Manual → Addresses)

    Address: XX.XX.XXX.XXX
    Netmask: XXX.XXX.XXX.X
    Gateway: XX.XX.XXX.X
    DNS: XX.XX.XXX.XXX, XX.XX.XXX.XXX

    enter image description here

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  8. If you are using a .conf file with the VPN settings and maybe certificates and keys then don't delete those files after you set it up. They are looked up every time you connect.

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