Cisco VPN client setup on Sabayon linux 3.5

I have a Cisco VPN at work and CIsco provided VPN client won't install on my 64 bit windows Vista. Hence, i set it up on my Sabayon 3.5 mini linux box using 'vpnc' and 'rdesktop'. This is how you do it.

Install vpnc. 'vpnc' is the application that sets up a network connection with the VPN server by adding a rounter configuration.

Find the latest version of vpnc available to you by running


equo search vpnc



Install it



equo install net-misc/vpnc-0.5.2_pre20080509-r1



Next step is to create a vpnc configuration. If you have a 'pcf' file, you can do this by running the 'pcf2vpnc' utility. PCF is the CISCO client configuration file. Ask your network admin to procide you one. I am writing the configuration to vpnc's default configuration file so that i don't have to specify a configuration file when starting vpnc.


pcf2vpnc <pcf file> /etc/vpnc/default.config


Double check the configuration is intact. Also, if you are manually setting up configuration and not creating it from a pcf file, this is where you do it.


nano /etc/vpnc/default.config


## generated by pcf2vpnc
IPSec ID <connection_name>
IPSec gateway <vpn_ip>
IPSec secret <vpn_pwd>

Xauth username <domain name\username of the network you are connecting to> # domain\userId
Xauth password <domain password> #pwd
IKE Authmode <authmode> # Leave this to default


Start vpnc.


localhost pjames # vpnc
VPNC started in background (pid: 8138)...


If you get this message, we are good. vpnc deamon has started successfully.

Verify the connectivity. Check 'netstat -r' and make sure you see the new network connection to VPN server. Then, ping a machine in your VPN network.

So far, we have established a connection to the VPN. However, for a connection to the terminal desktop, you need a GUI tool - 'rdesktop'.

Install rdesktop.



equo install rdesktop



Now run rdesktop from console.


rdesktop -d <domain> -u <user> -p <pwd> <machine name>


You should get the target machine's desktop now. Disconnect from the machine and run rdesktop with '-f' flag for full screen.



rdesktop -f -d <domain> -u <user> -p <pwd> <machine name>


Now, let us add 'vpnc' as a start up service so that you don't have to do it manually every time.

rc-update add vpnc default


Last thing you may want to do is to create launcher for 'rdesktop' and place it as a short cut.

Thats it. I am one click away from my office machine now.



Update: The default conf file name for vpnc should be vpnc.conf (not default.conf) for the deamon to load it while start up.