UX: Client doesn't handle other configured VPNs correctly

[Lukas-UAUX]

Installation

How did you install the eduVPN client?

-> Via the repository

Version

What version of the client you are running? Try your package manager or otherwise $ eduvpn-client -v.

-> 2.2.1-1

OS/Distribution

What operating system/distribution and version you are running?

-> Ubuntu 20.04.4

Do you have a problem during connecting?

The gui can not differentiate between its own and another NetworkManager VPN. If any VPN is Connected the App shows a valid connection. The switch could be turned off resulting in a disconnected message bot obviously does nothing with the active connection.

When both Connections are active disconnecting doesn't work at all. I have to manually use the network settings to disconnect.

[alvra]

This should be improved with #466. Specifically, on startup, the network state was not specific to the connection managed by the app.

Does this solve your issue?

[martijnkruiten]

I'm going to piggyback on this issue, but I'll happily create a new issue if it's not relevant to this one.

When both Connections are active disconnecting doesn't work at all. I have to manually use the network settings to disconnect.

The client can't disconnect the connection even if the only active connection is the eduVPN connection, at least not on Fedora 35. That's especially bothersome if you have to renew your connection and the authentication server is included in the routes that are pushed by the VPN server, because then the authentication page won't load, unless you disconnect the VPN manually in the OS. I can imagine that this is also related to the client not being able to differentiate between VPN connections. I haven't tested #466 yet.

[martijnkruiten]

I've tested the latest commit from the wireguard branch and that doesn't fix both issues. It still says "connection active" when I connect another VPN and the client still can't disconnect its own VPN.

[martijnkruiten]

Possibly related:

2022-03-22 09:27:23,963 - run-periodically - WARNING - eduvpn.ui.stats - stats.py:108 - Network Stats: rx_bytes, failed to get interface
2022-03-22 09:27:23,964 - run-periodically - WARNING - eduvpn.ui.stats - stats.py:108 - Network Stats: tx_bytes, failed to get interface
Segmentation fault (core dumped)

[alvra]

I believe the cause for this issue is this call:

python-eduvpn-client/eduvpn/nm.py

Line 310 in e20c0da

con = client.get_primary_connection()

(and other calls to get_primary_connection() in this file).
which uses the primary connection instead of the one managed by the app, as I ran into similar problems working on wireguard. The PR I mentioned (#466) only solves the issue on startup, but not on disconnect.

@martijnkruiten Your last message seems like an unrelated bug to me. Feel free to open a separate issue for this.

[Lukas-UAUX]

Do I need to compile/build from source to test this change or are there automated builds somewhere I can download?

[gijzelaerr]

hi @Lukas-UAUX, you need to clone the repo, checkout the right branch and run make eduvpn-gui to test a pre-release or specific branch. Can you let us know if your issue is resolved?

[Lukas-UAUX]

I uninstalled eduvpn, checked out master and ran the make command. As far as I can tell the experience just got more weird. It now automatically stacks the eduvpn connection on top of the existing connection (which is good I think) but the disconnect still does not work, it stays connected - after a few seconds the indicator switches back to green. The taskbar applets of the NetworkManager just stop working (the indicators and controls behave completely erratic) and I need to use my DE's settings panel to stop the connections.

[gijzelaerr]

Thank you for checking. can you remove the config (rm -rf ~/.config/eduvpn) and manually remove the VPN connections from network manager and try again?

[Lukas-UAUX]

With the newest master of today and now Ubuntu 22.04 it seems to work much more stable, connecting and disconnecting on top of my other VPN connection now works fine. The other way around though doesn't - the client instantly reconnects the eduVPN connection so it keeps being the only active connection although this scenario is much, much less likely to be actually used...

[jwijenbergh]

Could you test #495? Should be much better now

[jwijenbergh]

This issue should be fixed, if it's not let us know @Lukas-UAUX