How to install and set up forticlient IPSec VPN in Ubuntu 20.04?

Forticlient is not available through ubuntu repository. You can download (as of now 6.4 version) and install manually by executing below commands in terminal.

wget -c 'https://filestore.fortinet.com/forticlient/downloads/FortiClientFullVPNInstaller_6.4.0.0851.deb' 

sudo dpkg -i FortiClientFullVPNInstaller_6.4.0.0851.deb

Did you have problems using openfortivpn?

You can install it with:

sudo apt install openfortivpn

then run it from the terminal with:

sudo openfortivpn <host>:<port> -u<username>

I faced this problem recently. On Windows I used Fortinet VPN client but Ubuntu version of their client have no IPSec support (at time of writing this).

For those looking for Ubuntu/Linux Mint 20 VPN client to connect to FortiNET VPN using IPSec, IKEv1, PSK (pre-shared-key) and the extended authentication (XAUTH) with your account and password, I found vpnc the easiest to use via gnome gui. In my case strongswan gnome gui did not work. I think because it uses IKEv2 and I need IKEv1.

# install dependencies
sudo apt-get install vpnc vpnc-scripts network-manager-vpnc network-manager-vpnc-gnome

Note that in vpnc-gnome interface the group id is group name, pre-shared-key is group password. In the advanced tab, look in the windows version of (working) Fortinet VPN client what values are used for the encryption, NAT-traversal and DH group. The names are not identical but the values you should select are. In my case the default values from vpnc gui were not what I needed.

On Ubuntu 20.04 I found the best method has been the one I used on my previous answer

And for using with forticlient vpn ipsec I found this very useful:

Instructions for configuration for Forticlient vpn ipsec

Reading this topic, I was able to connect to the "standard Fortigate IKEv1 IPSEC VPN for Mobile client" .

It works with the following parameters if on the Fortigate, the VPN was created using the wizard (and no particular tuning had been done)

So, following this if you are under Linux make it easy to connect the standard IPSEC mobile VPN the Fortigate wizard create.

It can be use where Forticlient Linux is not usable (it do not have IPSEC tab to configure a mobile IPSEC access)

Thanks to Dusan Mijatovic for it previous post on this page.

Here is how to configure :

install network-manager-vpnc-gnome or network-manager-vpnc-kde or network-manager-vpnc depending on your desktop (use yum, apt or whatever packet manager of your distrib or build it from source)

• open your connection manager and add a new VPN connection
• Select VPNC for the type of the VPN connexion
• give a name to your connection
• fullfill gateway, user & password
• groupe name = "ipsec group id" = 0 (<= Here you need to put 0)
• groupe password = "ipsec psk" = yourpsk (<= Here put the PSK)
• in advanced tab :
  • set tunnel interface name = myvpn-ike
  • Cryptographic methode = Secure (default)
  • NAT-TRAVERSAL = NAT-T if availiable (default)
  • Group DH IKE = Group DH 5
  • PFS (Perfect Forward Secrecy) = Group DH 5
  • Local Port = 0
  • Select disable DPD (tic the box)
  • Let all others parameters empty or to their default values

Save the new connection and simply start it from your desktop connection manager.

You may find a handshake error in logs but it's not a real problem, the connection work.

The error is: "org.gnome.Shell.desktop[7849]: [1176:1192:1022/090523.496193:ERROR:ssl_client_socket_impl.cc(981)] handshake failed; returned -1, SSL error code 1, net_error -202"

Hope it will help Linux user to EASILY connecting FortiGate IPSEC mobile VPN which is automaticaly created by Fortigate wizard. (FortiGate support TAC do not help on this problem, they do not know that there are differences between FortiClientVPN Windows and FortiClientVPN Linux)

Regards

Sorry to post twice in the same day, but I think lots of people wants to help but do not have properly understand the issue we're disscuss here.

Sorry for everybody suggesting to install the official FortiClient but it DO NOT solve the problem here. Fortinet TAC support confirm it on case #5378335 which was closed by TAC on 2021-10-11 with no other solution that open an NFR (New Feature Request) at Fortinet's developpers team.

Forticlient Linux do not include the capability to connect a MOBILE IPSEC IKEv1 vpn endpoint with a username, a password and a PSK.

This type of VPN is automatically created when using FortiGate vpn wizard to create a vpn endpoint for mobile client. The wizard create a MOBILE IPSEC IKEv1 tunnel and Forticlient Linux do not provide an interface to connect an IPSEC VPN (But Forticlient Windows does).

Forticlient Linux is only design to connect Fortigate SSL VPN which is a "ppp" VPN using SSL.

So if you need to connect a FortiGate VPN with cerdential AND a psk, you're not connecting an SSL VPN but an IPSEC IKEv1 mobile VPN and so you cannot use Forticlient. If your in the case you need to connect such VPN, you can succeed easily using instruction I post earlier on this topic today.

Hope it could help people which cannot connect a FortiGate VPN using credential and a PSK.

Kind regards, nbanba

Here is the link of forticlient download page. downlaod from here. Download .deb package and install it using

sudo dpkg -i <debfile name>

There is detailed information here about how to add a repository so it can be installed with apt.

https://www.forticlient.com/repoinfo

Even though it says Ubuntu 18.04, I'd say it's 99% likely it will work on Ubuntu 20.04.

I've had success a while ago with StrongSWAN and these settings (replace the placeholders in double parentheses):

conn fortinet
    left=%any
    leftauth=psk
    leftid=""
    leftauth2=xauth
    xauth_identity="((your username))"
    leftsourceip=%config
    right=((gateway IP address))
    rightsubnet=((VPN subnet))
    rightauth=psk
    keyexchange=ikev1
    aggressive=yes
    ike=aes128-sha1-modp1536!
    esp=aes128-sha1-modp1536!
    auto=add

Before installing please run

sudo apt-get -f install

then install the forticlient package

sudo dpkg -i FortiClientFullVPNInstaller_6.4.0.0851.deb