Import VPN config files to NetworkManager from command line

Question

One can import .ovpn files to NetworkManager through GUI tool nm-connection-editor (right click on nm-applet and click on Edit connections): Add -> Import a saved VPN configuration....

My goal is to do same thing but via command line using tools like nm-cli. Is it possible somehow?

Answer 1

I'm using nmcli version 1.2.6 and I can use it to import openvpn configs.

nmcli connection import type openvpn file ~/myconfig.ovpn

From now on even in NetworkManager UI my vpn is visible.

To further configure the connection you can use the showcommand to find out the connection name and modify to change config values.

nmcli connection show
nmcli connection modify myvpnconnectionname +vpn.data username=myusername

Answer 2

A workaround I use to get past the lack of functionality that comes with nmcli on debian-based systems is to use commands to copy an existing VPN config file in the /etc/NetworkManager/system-settings folder to a new file (as root, of course) in the same folder and make string replacements to the permitted user, gateway, username and password values in the new copy. Then I restart network manager to apply the changes.

For example:

A typical config file in /etc/NetworkManager/system-settings folder might look as such:

[connection]
id=<<id>>
uuid=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxx
type=vpn
permissions=user:<<permissions_user>>:;
autoconnect=false

[vpn]
password-flags=0
service-type=org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.pptp
require-mppe-128=yes
mppe-stateful=yes
user=<<user>>
refuse-eap=yes
refuse-chap=yes
gateway=<<gateway>>
refuse-pap=yes

[vpn-secrets]
password=<<password>>

[ipv4]
method=auto

... so you can just create a new config file that looks similar to the one above...

cd /etc/NetworkManager/system-settings
cp "existing-working-vpn-config-file" "new-vpn-config-file"

...then replace the '<<>>' values above with your own VPN settings, eg:

sed -i "s/<<permissions_user>>/my_permissions_user/g" new-vpn-config-file
sed -i "s/<<user>>/my_user/g" new-vpn-config-file
sed -i "s/<<gateway>>/my_gateway/g" new-vpn-config-file
sed -i "s/<<password>>/my_password/g" new-vpn-config-file

... and then finally restart network manager via the following command:

service network-manager restart

Note: The UUID setting doesn't seem to matter, even if it's non-unique. No idea why. Stuff just works.

Also, If you are adding a new file rather than copying, make sure the permissions to the file are set to 600 (read and write), and the owner is root.

Give it a shot and tell me what you think. It works for me, all via command line.

Answer 3

I used this to run from root:

USER=japie
runuser -l $USER -c "sudo -S nmcli connection import type openvpn file ~/vpn_clients/flappie3-TO-IPFire.ovpn"

Connection 'flappie3-TO-IPFire' (26d0b28e-9212-4e71-90dc-3911ddf231e5) successfully added.