7

Just upgraded to Xubuntu 16.04, and wanting to set up my VPN. I'm trying to save my password in the network manager, but it refuses to save. Anytime I go back to it it's gone.

I can also see that I have the field 

[vpn-secrets]
password=my_secret_password

set in my connection details in /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections, but still nothing. Any other ideas I could try? Before my upgrade (actually a fresh install) this seemed to work perfectly fine in 14.04.

I've also issued the command 

sudo service network-manager restart

but that didnt fix it either. I'll also note that my 'VPN Connections' -> 'Configure VPN' option is grayed out. I had to add VPN information through the 'Edit Connections' menu. Perhaps this clue is useful.

gammapoint
  • 341

2 Answers2

18

In Ubuntu 18.04 and previously in 16, you can allow saving of the VPN password by clicking the question mark

ubuntu vpn settings

This lists your options including:

  • Store the password only for this user
  • Store the password for all users
  • Ask for the password every time
  • The password is not required

If you choose one of the first two it should save the password for you.

The changes will also show in: /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/{VPN Connection name} file

Chanoch
  • 380
8

I almost feel that this question should be deleted, since I was incorrect that I wasn't able to save VPN passwords in network-manager. In fact, what was happening was that the passwords were being saved (probably in my keyring), but that they just weren't being displayed back to me when I re-opened network manager. This makes sense from a security standpoint, but I just didn't realize that was the expected behavior. On top of this, I had an unrelated issue with actually connecting to the internet via my VPN, so that confounded this issue. Perhaps posting this will help someone else.

gammapoint
  • 341