Just so you know you're not the only one that needs more VPN acccess options... I could use an IPSEC VPN client for the n900.

OK, got it working to the point that pptp tunnel is up and i can ping the other end.

kernel modules : http://fanoush.wz.cz/maemo/modules-2...02-pptp.tar.gz
insmod order: slhc, ppp_generic, ppp_async, sha1_generic, ppp_mppe

pppd : http://fanoush.wz.cz/maemo/ppp_2.4.4...sso4_armel.deb
pptp-linux: http://fanoush.wz.cz/maemo/pptp-linux_1.7.2-1_armel.deb

Excellent, I'll give it a shot this weekend and let you know how it turns out.

I have used /usr/sbin/pptpsetup script to generate my configuration but had to edit it first and disable some checking inside (it is perl script) since there is no strings command and wc has no --lines argument. Also copying all modules to /lib/modules/2.6.28-omap1/ and running depmod -a helped with some check. Then "pppd call <nameofmytunnel>" worked for me. It also helped to try first with
"pppd call <nameofmytunnel> logfd 2 nodetach debug dump"
as per http://pptpclient.sourceforge.net/howto-diagnosis.phtml

I hope you don't mind my encroaching on your thread.

I tried to use these modules and pppd for connecting to a 3G phone as a modem.

I setup rfcomm correctly (running rfcomm connect and then communicating with the phone over /dev/rfcomm2 appears to work).

Then I set ppp configuration files as in 6.2 here: http://www.xs4all.nl/~ernstagn/GPRS-...S-HOWTO-6.html and ran

pppd call gprs nodetach debug

The N900 reboots with the last line from pppd being
Connect: ppp0 <--> /dev/rfcomm2

Any ideas what the problem might be, or how to debug it?

Just to let everyone know that this is now working perfectly for me after playing with a few settings. Getting the routing right without iproute installed was proving a bit tricky, but luckily Christoph has made it available (as described in this thread).

If anybody is having problems connecting to a similar VPN I'd be happy to make suggestions based on my adventures!

Thanks again Fanoush for all of your help.

Jan

I'm having problems to get it working.....
After installing pptp-linux and ppp I can't ssh to my device anymore. I can't even ping it although it still has a wifi connection and ip-adress (still can browse the web from the device).

after loading the modules I called 'pptpsetup' to set up a tunnel.
that gives me an error like 'mppe_compress not found' or something similar.

so could you be kind and provide a simple step-by-step guide to get everything working ?
I'd really appreciate this as I'm sort of desperate to have vpn to my network at work... ;-)

regards,chris

I can't help with your first problem as I never experienced it, but a more detailed step-by-step may help you anyway. Here goes!

First, download the kernel modules and debs from Fanoush in post 12.

Then in an xterm type the following commands ($ and # are the normal user and root prompts respectively, don't type them!):

Become root (you'll need rootsh installed from the extras repository):

Then install pptp_linux and ppp:

Extract the kernel modules from the tar.gz file downloaded from Fanoush:

This will create two directories called "drivers" and "crypto" which contain the loadable kernel modules (LKMs) you need to load. Copy these to the standard place that LKMs live (your path may vary slightly):

As a note you could achieve the same in one line with the following:

Change to this directory, update your module dependancy file, and load the modules in the order suggested by Fanoush:

You don't need to use pptpsetup to set up your tunnel, but it does make life easier. However, as Fanoush mentioned, it uses the strings command and the --lines argument for wc, which aren't available in perl on the N900. These are present in the sub which checks whether MPPE is enabled, which is on line 192 of the script. I just edited the script to remove the check, there's probably a more elegant solution, but there we go!

Open the file /usr/sbin/pptpsetup in your text editor of choice. Then you can either search for "strings", or go straight to line 192. There's a sub called Check_MPPE_in_pppd. I just commented out all the lines from the sub except for "return 1;". As I say, not the most elegant solution and one to bear in mind if you use pptpsetup in the future!

Here's how the sub looks after the edit:

That done, run pptpsetup with your settings. If you use a domain you need to make sure that you add two slashes after it (or two before your username). If you have previously set up a tunnel I would remove it and start again if you're having problems, or I imagine it would be enough to just set it up with a slightly different name.

pptpsetup sets up the files you require in /etc/ppp/ but doesn't attempt to start the tunnel unless you add the start option - don't do this yet!

You can start the vpn with:

Which gives you much more information. Hopefully this will report an established tunnel (although you probably won't be connected through it). If not you may need to play with your options.

For reference, here are all of my options, as found in my /etc/ppp/peers/<tunnelname> file (you can pass them on the command line every time you start the tunnel if you want, but that's obviously a bit more work!). Your server is probably set up differently so you may need to change these.

lock
noauth
nobsdcomp
nodeflate
name DOMAIN//username
require-mppe-128
noipdefault
usepeerdns
defaultroute
replacedefaultroute
persist

Assuming you have a connection, you now need to set up your routing to use it. This doesn't work by default because we are missing /sbin/ip. You could probably fix this with the "route" command, but the easiest way is to install iproute by following Christoph's instructions in this post.

And restart it. At this stage my VPN was working perfectly. Hopefully yours will be too!

Call it with just:

once it's working to avoid the log output. To stop the connection, use:

To check whether it's running or not, use:

which may also help you to troubleshoot your current connection issues.

This is probably unclear in many places so feel free to seek clarification!

Cheers,
Jan

Excellent, it's running now !!

Thank you very much for your help !

Regards,
Chris

Hi,

I don't know much about VPN but I was interested in this thread for my willing to connect to my laptop from my N900 using BT.

I created a rfcomm interface which seems ok to connect but I was missing pppd to create the IP link.

I followed your instructions but the connection vanishes just after I launch the two pppd instructions.

It was something like :

$ pppd /dev/rfcomm0 192.168.1.1:192.168.1.2 noauth # on PC
$ pppd /dev/rfcomm0 192.168.1.2:192.168.1.1 noauth # on N900

What's wrong ?

I'd rather not use the maemo-pc-connectivity package (I tried and it didn't work anyway).