Zentraler Informatikdienst

Establishing and disconnecting a VPN connection in Linux

For:  students    employees

This user guide will help you establish and disconnect a VPN connection on your Linux device.

Requirements

Establishing VPN connection

1. Selecting connection option, entering access data

Two options are available for establishing a connection:

  • Route all traffic through the VPN tunnel by specifying port 8443 when connecting:
    f5fpc -s -t vpn.univie.ac.at:8443 -d /etc/ssl/certs/ -u u:account-UserID@
  • Only route data traffic to computers in the university’s data network through the VPN tunnel (split tunnel):
    f5fpc -s -t vpn.univie.ac.at -d /etc/ssl/certs/ -u u:account-UserID@

In the parameter -u type in your u:account UserID followed by an @ symbol and the one-time password:

  • With an authentication app on your smartphone: Open the app and enter the currently valid code immediately after the @ symbol, which is displayed in the app in the ZID Universität Wien account. Then, before the code expires, press Enter.
  • With YubiKey: Plug the YubiKey into a USB port on your device and then press the button on the YubiKey. The one-time password is entered automatically at the current position of the cursor (immediately after the @ symbol) and Enter is pressed automatically.

Typing in the directory the certificates are in is not always necessary and can be ignored (Option: -d /etc/ssl/certs/).

Type in your u:account password and click Enter.
The connection should be up and running.

2. Checking connection

You can check the connection status after waiting for 5 seconds and by using the command f5fpc --info. If the connection has been succesfull, it should look like the screenshot.

Error message when connecting: Manually installing Root certificate

If you receive the failure notice Server certificate verfication failed, do the following steps:

  1. Check which folder your distribution uses to store TLS certificates. These are usually located in /etc/ssl/certs (Ubuntu/Debian-like) or /etc/pki/tls/certs (Red Hat-like).
  2. Adjust the parameter -d accordingly and try again.

If it still does not work, install the root certificate as follows:


Debian-like:

wget https://repo.harica.gr/certs/HARICA-TLS-Root-2021-RSA.pem

sudo mv -f HARICA-TLS-Root-2021-RSA.pem /etc/ssl/certs/

sudo ln -s /etc/ssl/certs/HARICA-TLS-Root-2021-RSA.pem /etc/ssl/certs/9f727ac7.0


Red Hat-like:

wget https://repo.harica.gr/certs/HARICA-TLS-Root-2021-RSA.pem

sudo mv -f HARICA-TLS-Root-2021-RSA.pem /etc/pki/tls/certs/

sudo ln -s /etc/pki/tls/certs/HARICA-TLS-Root-2021-RSA.pem /etc/pki/tls/certs/9f727ac7.0


Repeat the connection establishment.

Disconnecting VPN connection

To disconnect, type in the following command:
f5fpc -o

To top