Cisco VPN client on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

I was using the Cisco AnyConnect Client for Linux during the last months, which was in general working, but had a few major bugs. Most important: whenever you disconnected (also by just switching to another network), you would have to completely restart the computer to make the VPN work again.

I now switched to the open source client called OpenConnect, which is compatible with Cisco's AnyConnect SSL VPN but just works a lot more reliable. To install and enable the VPN, have a look at this: https://people.eng.unimelb.edu.au/lucasjb/oc.html

Edit: just saw that OpenConnect was already proposed in a comment. Leave this answer here as it provides some additional information and a step-by-step manual


OpenConnect offers an opensource command line alternative to Cisco's GUI:

echo "password" | sudo openconnect server --user=username --passwd-on-stdin

See here for more details/source I blatantly stole this answer from: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1043024/how-to-run-openconnect-with-username-and-password-in-a-line-in-the-terminal

Install info here: http://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/2014/11/connect-cisco-anyconnect-vpn-ubuntu/

  1. First run command below to active the TUN module (I didn't need this in Ubuntu 18.04.3 LTS):

sudo /sbin/modprobe tun

  1. Install OpenConnect:

sudo apt-get install openconnect

  1. Run command above or:

sudo openconnect SERVERADDR


Run

sudo apt-get install network-manager-vpnc network-manager-vpnc-gnome

Then open network manager and add a new VPN, it should show Cisco Compatible VPN in your list now.