How to automatically connect to VPN with Network-Manager

The solution suggested by con-f-use should work but doesn't, due to a long-standing bug:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/network-manager/+bug/280571

There are workarounds though. For recent NetworkManager versions, there is a commandline utitility, nmcli, that can be edited and saved as something like /etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d/vpn-up:

#! /bin/bash

REQUIRED_CONNECTION_NAME="<name-of-connection>"
VPN_CONNECTION_NAME="<name-of-vpn-connection>"


activ_con=$(nmcli con status | grep "${REQUIRED_CONNECTION_NAME}")
activ_vpn=$(nmcli con status | grep "${VPN_CONNECTION_NAME}")
if [ "${activ_con}" -a ! "${activ_vpn}" ];
then
    nmcli con up id "${VPN_CONNECTION_NAME}"
fi

[I haven't tested this -- please feel free to test and edit according to results]

See: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/NetworkManager#Use_dispatcher_to_connect_to_a_VPN_after_a_network_connection_is_established has more info.

You can find VPN auto-connect option in the nm-connection-editor GUI in the individual saved Wi-Fi settings. In Ubuntu 14.04 you can find it under:

System settings -> Network -> Wi-Fi or Lan -> Settings (General tab) -> Auto connect to VPN...

(Since Gnome 42, this path leads to a new simplified menu, but the complete one can still be accessed through nm-connection-editor directly)

After saving, a secondaries= line is added in your configuration file in the [connection] section. It will contain a list of secondary connection UUIDs to be activated. The configuration file is usually /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/.

This information can be useful if you need to activate more than one secondary connection. You can add multiple connection UUIDs in the configuration file separated by ;, even though the GUI (at the moment: 2022) does not allow to select more than one entry.

I was able to get this working on Ubuntu 20.04 by using nm-connection-editor. For whatever reason, the option doesn't appear anymore in neither the Wifi/Ethernet nor the VPN config UIs.

1. Open a terminal

2. Type nm-connection-editor

3. Select the network connection you want to auto-connect

   

4. Click the gear icon to open settings for that connection

5. Go to the General tab

6. Enable the Automatically connect to VPN option and select the VPN in the dropdown menu to the right

   

7. Click Save

If I remember correctly it worked for a while and doesn't anymore.

• This might be obvious, but sometimes I don't think of it. Did you try reinstallation like:

  sudo apt-get purge network-manager-vpn sudo apt-get install network-manager-vpnc Then:

Now I want this VPN connection to automatically activate when I'm in a certain wireless network.

• There's a way to suppress the "couldn't connect"-type of messages when your users are in the wrong network, but can't remember how it went. I see no other way to automatically connect in a graphical way. Maybe you'll have to write a script doing the connecting when in said wlan-network.

Hope that helped.

I can confirm this following solution working for me. I am running Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.

I went to the shutdown icon and then system settings.

When the settings screen opens, I went to 'Network' and the WiFi network with which I was connected. There is a small arrow one one side of the name of the network.

Click that icon and you should see an option called "settings" or "options" (or something similar) here:

When the next window opens, simply go to the 'General' tab and you should see an option that gives you an option to Automatically connect to a VPN. Choose the VPN You'd like to connect when connected to this WiFi, and boom! Everytime you connect to this network, Ubuntu will also connect you to that VPN. :)

For me its working. I hope it works for everyone else too. Doesn't require any sort of text editor or code editor or anything..

If you prefer terminals, you can use nmcli, I did it using the following commands:

First, find and open the VPN connection you want to update

➜  ~ nmcli c show --active |grep vpn
MyVPN           115ae594-aa91-4d13-8c92-421af245f935  vpn     wlp61s0         
➜  ~ nmcli c edit MyVPN

This will open the nmcli prompt, from here you can query the values and set them, like this:

===| nmcli interactive connection editor |===
...
nmcli> print connection.autoconnect
connection.autoconnect: no
nmcli> set connection.autoconnect yes
nmcli> save persistent
Saving the connection with 'autoconnect=yes'. That might result in an immediate activation of the connection.
Do you still want to save? (yes/no) [yes] yes
Connection 'MyVPN' (115ae594-aa91-4d13-8c92-421af245f935) successfully updated.

And you should be done!

You don't need any dispatcher scripts any more ! In 14.04 (Trusty Tahr) you just have to take the following steps after setting the autoconnect option in the NetworkManager GUI.

Store the vpn-secrets plainly in the config file for the VPN-connection under /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/YourVPNConnectionName.

You can achieve this by setting IPSec secret-flags=0 and Xauth password-flags=0 in the config file. Then go to the NetworkManager GUI and save again you VPN-connection settings. Now a section called [vpn-secrets] should be present in the config file. Doublecheck it and autoconnection should be working now !

Even though the man page lists nmcli con status as a valid command, The above solution provided by Hugo Heden returns an error "Error: Object 'status' is unknown, try 'nmcli help'"

I'm using nmcli 1.2.2 (nmcli -v) and I've tested and modified the following for /etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d/vpn-up and it worked like a charm.

#! /bin/bash

REQUIRED_CONNECTION_NAME="<name-of-connection>"
VPN_CONNECTION_NAME="<name-of-vpn-connection>"


default_conn=$(nmcli con show --active | grep "${REQUIRED_CONNECTION_NAME}")
vpn_conn=$(nmcli con show id | grep "${VPN_CONNECTION_NAME}")
if [ "${default_conn}" -a ! "${vpn_conn}" ];
then
    nmcli con up id "${VPN_CONNECTION_NAME}"
fi

Note: You can use nmcli con show to see all connection names as they aren't always the same as what's listed in the Network Connections GUI

You can add the uuid of the VPN profile by using the "secondaries" field in your primary connection

For example, /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/Wired

[connection]
id=Wired
uuid=95ad54f8-9d72-3e65-a4a7-b106aa310eed
type=ethernet
secondaries=66ecf287-8b26-413b-86f2-caca7608bc67;

Reference https://developer.gnome.org/NetworkManager/stable/nm-settings.html

Use following Python script Gist #1547663.

First parameter to the script is VPN connection name in NetworkManager and the second is comma separated names of networks that should be ignored (e.g. using VPN connection at home is useless).

Example to install and let it run at boot time:

git clone git://gist.github.com/1547663.git /home/user/autovpn/
echo "python /home/user/autovpn/autovpn.py 'myvpn' 'Auto homenetwork,Auto worknetwork' > /var/log/autovpn.log&" > /etc/rc.local
/etc/rc.local

Now if you connect to a network (either wifi or ethernet), it will also try to setup VPN connection.