PPTP VPN, PPTP CONFIG

PPTP VPN, PPTP CONFIG

[tony.chamberlain]

I installed the PPTP VPN on a client to connect via pptpvpn to a server
which is running it. I used pptpconfig to config the network. When I
connect, the VPN runs fine. I looked in pptpconfig and saw it does a

usr sbin pppd call myserver logfd 1 updetach persist

(I used "myserver" in this mail instead of the actual name). So I made a file
etc init.d pptpvpn where under start) I do the above (along with some checking,
etc). This also works nicely, when I but (after chkconfig on) the VPN comes
up and I can connect.

Problem is, if somehow the pptp process dies, if it is in etc init.d it won't start up
automatically again (which I need), so instead I transfered to etc inittab:

 vp:35:respawn: usr sbin pppd call myserver logfd 1 updetach persist

A "kill -1 1" or reboot will start this, but a ps just shows two processes with that
but I can't ping. A few minutes later it shows two processes again but with new
PIDs. Then a few minutes later two new processes with the same parameters
(there are only 2 at a time). I can't ping anything on the VPN either (and I do
add the routes in ip-up.local so from the etc rc5.d script it starts up the route).

Anyway how can I either modify my script in etc init.d (linked to etc rc*.d) to respawn
in the (unlikely but possible) case the process dies, or modify etc inittab to work
correctly?

Thanks

Re: PPTP VPN, PPTP CONFIG

[James Cameron]

G'day Tony,

I'm the author of pptpconfig, and I am beginning to regret it.

You've done some interesting things with what you've learned from it.
You might not have known what the updetach option does ... check the
pppd man page for that.

Your final question was how to write a script to try the pppd command
repeatedly.  This is a shell question.  One simple method is to write a
shell loop, like this:

#!/bin/sh
while true; do
	pppd call myserver logfd 1 nodetach
done

The updetach is changed to nodetach, so that the pppd process does not
exit until the connection is closed.

If you used updetach in an inittab referenced script, you'd get too many
processes.  This is because init might start a new one since the process
that started pppd had terminated.

Have a look at my script
http://quozl.linux.org.au/darcs/eee-maxon-bp3/usr/sbin/bp3
where I use pppd in a similar way.

-- 
James Cameron                         http://quozl.netrek.org/
HP Open Source, Volunteer             http://opensource.hp.com/
PPTP Client Project, Release Engineer http://pptpclient.sourceforge.net/