[HOWTO] Use OPENVPN/IPSec on Nook Color - Nook Color Android Development

I have compiled tun.ko for the Nook color.
Here are the instructions to get OpenVPN up and running.
I dont have a fully working OpenVPN server to test this completely but I was able to connect and get authenticated. If someone can test this out and report whether this works that would be useful.
Download tun.ko module from here
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/16190398/tun.ko
Type the following from your windows or linux console
adb shell
#mount -o remount,rw /dev/block/mmcblk0p5 /system
#su
#cd /system/lib
#mkdir modules (if it doesnt exist)
#exit
#exit
Now you are back at your windows or linux prompt
adb push tun.ko /system/lib/modules
adb shell
#su
#insmod /system/lib/modules/tun.ko
If everything works fine you should see no errors
#lsmod
You should see something like this
tun 11416 0 - Live 0xbf153000
#exit
#exit
So far so good.
Now go to the Android Market and download
1. busybox (if not already installed)
2. OpenVPN Installer
3. OpenVPN Settings
Run the OpenVPN Installer first. It will detect that OpenVPN binary is not installed and ask permission to install. You can choose to install it in /system/xbin or /system/bin (I installed it under /system/bin).
OpenVPN also needs the path to ifconfig and route which is provided by busybox. It will ask for the path and create symlinks. I created mine under /system/xbin/bb.
Next copy your openvpn config files and .crt files under /sdcard/openvpn.
Finally, run OpenVPN settings. If you have a valid config file under /sdcard/openvpn you should see those connections listed.
From the advanced menu you can set the path to your tunnel module as /system/lib/modules/tun.ko and load the module using modprobe.
Set the path to your configuration files (default is /sdcard/openvpn).
If everything looks fine then go back to main screen and click the checkbox next to your listed connection.
You should get a login icon in the notification bar if your connection requires username/password.
Thats it. Browse your internal network to check if everything is working as desired.
I just had a baby a few weeks ago and dont have time to troubleshoot this.
If someone can take over and post better/detailed instructions on making this work that would be great.
---------- 05/06/2011 Update -------------
Updated version of tun.ko for the 1.2 update. This for for kernel version 2.6.32.9.
In order to connect to Cisco/Freeswan VPN concentrators you can download VPNconnections from here. The instructions are quite straightforward and listed on the project page. http://code.google.com/p/get-a-robot-vpnc/
You will need to load tun.ko for both openvpn and VPNConnections.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/16190398/Nook Color 1.2/tun.ko

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Thanks for the step-by-step guide on this, I can confirm that it does work as expected. I was able to connect to an OpenVPN server and route traffic properly over it. One more damn device that ties me to work now, wooh!

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At my work we use a Cisco VPN. On my phone I use an app called VPN Connections. I loaded the module and instead of using the open vpn I used the apk mentioned above. But it didn't work. Does the OpenVPN support Cisco vpns?

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has anyone gotten this to work with alwaysVPN??
after i enter my username and password
I get
connecting
Auth
get config
then a popup window saying
fatal: cannot allocate Tun/Tap dev dynamically

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iandixo said:
has anyone gotten this to work with alwaysVPN??
after i enter my username and password
I get
connecting
Auth
get config
then a popup window saying
fatal: cannot allocate Tun/Tap dev dynamically
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Probably your tun.ko module is not loaded.
Did you set the path to tun.ko from OpenVPN settings ?
Can you use adb shell and
type
#insmod /system/lib/modules/tun.ko
then
#lsmod
and report what you see.

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likearaptor said:
At my work we use a Cisco VPN. On my phone I use an app called VPN Connections. I loaded the module and instead of using the open vpn I used the apk mentioned above. But it didn't work. Does the OpenVPN support Cisco vpns?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OpenVPN client wont work with Cisco's VPN. They use different protocols.
However, VPN Connections is supposed to be compatible with Cisco/FreeSwan and other IPSec VPNs.
I havent used VPNConnections but if there is any option to load the tun module then you can try setting the path and loading the module.
I would suggest that you first try loading the tun.ko module manually using adb shell. Then run VPN Connections and maybe it will work

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dascud said:
Probably your tun.ko module is not loaded.
Did you set the path to tun.ko from OpenVPN settings ?
Can you use adb shell and
type
#insmod /system/lib/modules/tun.ko
then
#lsmod
and report what you see.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I get
tun 11416 0 - Live 0xbf113000
tiwlan_drv 862084 0 - Live 0xbf03b000
bc_example 6460 0 - Live 0xbf034000
omaplfb 16584 0 - Live 0xbf02a000
pvrsrvkm 150196 56 bc_example,omaplfb, Live 0xbf000000
and the path is set in settings
what should I see in /system/xbin/bb ?? as there is nothing there at all. Reason I asked is for some unknown reason and without me changing anything, the error has now changed to something about "ifconfig unable to load external program" it flashes to fast to read

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iandixo said:
I get
tun 11416 0 - Live 0xbf113000
tiwlan_drv 862084 0 - Live 0xbf03b000
bc_example 6460 0 - Live 0xbf034000
omaplfb 16584 0 - Live 0xbf02a000
pvrsrvkm 150196 56 bc_example,omaplfb, Live 0xbf000000
and the path is set in settings
what should I see in /system/xbin/bb ?? as there is nothing there at all. Reason I asked is for some unknown reason and without me changing anything, the error has now changed to something about "ifconfig unable to load external program" it flashes to fast to read
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is good. Make sure that you set the path as the full path to the module as
/system/lib/modules/tun.ko in OpenVPN settings. (Yea path is a little misleading)
The error is due to openvpn not finding the path to ifconfig and route which is required to set the IP address for the tun device and push the default routes.
Did you install busybox ?. If not then you should install that.
If you already installed busybox then do this
adb shell
#mount -o remount,rw /dev/block/mmcblk0p5 /system
#su
#which busybox
This should return /system/bin/busybox
Under /system/bin you should also find ifconfig and route which are essentially symlinks to busybox
Now navigate to the /system/xbin directory
#cd /system/xbin
#mkdir bb (if it doesnt exist)
#cd /system/bin
#cp ifconfig /system/xbin/bb
#cp route /system/xbin/bb
#cd /system/xbin/bb
# ./ifconfig
This should return some details about the tiwlan0 interface.
#exit
#exit
Try again and see if this works. If not you can run the OpenVPN installer again.
Shouldnt matter if you already ran it once before.
Set the path for the openvpn binary as /system/bin &
the path for ifconfig as /system/xbin/bb
Hopefully this should do the trick.

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Hmm. I can't get this to work with VPN Connections either. lsmod says the module is loaded, but VPN Connections fails. I won't have time to look at this for a week or so, but if anyone has VPN Connections working with this tun.ko, that would be good to know.

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well I'm getting somewhere it now connects and it seems to be passing data ...but I'm only getting a connection of 0.09kBps up and 0.06kBps down

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FletchF said:
Hmm. I can't get this to work with VPN Connections either.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just to clarify, "VPN Connections" is an Android VPN client that can connect to a Cisco IPSEC VPN concentrator. It works well for me on my DROID.

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link down? -nm
Hi. This sounds awesome. I am trying to get vpn since i left my laptop at home and my captivate is too small to do basic work.
I can't seem to dload the above but no go for dolphin or google browser.
Can someone post a mirror?
Edit: got it... couldn't get w the browsers and rockplayer seemed to want to play it. Used ie and got it ok.

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I would love to hear if anyone else has had any success with alwaysVPN. I can connect but just can't seem to get any data ...

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iandixo said:
well I'm getting somewhere it now connects and it seems to be passing data ...but I'm only getting a connection of 0.09kBps up and 0.06kBps down
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I recall that I had the same issue initially. I was able to get connected but not browse the internal network. The monitor would show a connection of 0.09Kbps.
I think this means that the initial handshake went through but the server was not able to push the ip address or the default routes.
When you get connected you should see a status which progresses as
Auth - > Get Config -> and finally connected to "server IP" as "your new IP address". If you dont see your new IP address then the connection is not fully functional.
A rather unscientific method to fix it which worked for me was
1.) Uninstall busybox
2.) Reinstall busybox
3.) Run OpenVPN Installer again
set path to Openvpn binary as /system/bin
set path to ifconfig as /system/xbin/bb
adb to /system/xbin/bb and check if ifconfig and route exists.
Reboot, do a minor rain dance and pray to the God of your choice while the Nook is rebooting.

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So just to let everyone know I got VPN Connections working for my work's Cisco VPN. I did the steps outlined at first, downloaded the file, insmod the file, added openvpn and settings apps, then tried my vpn connections app but it wouldn't work. So I gave up. Two days later I tried it for fun after I had rebooted it many times and it worked! I haven't done a insmod command and I have uninstalled the two OpenVPN commands

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likearaptor said:
So just to let everyone know I got VPN Connections working for my work's Cisco VPN. I did the steps outlined at first, downloaded the file, insmod the file, added openvpn and settings apps, then tried my vpn connections app but it wouldn't work. So I gave up. Two days later I tried it for fun after I had rebooted it many times and it worked! I haven't done a insmod command and I have uninstalled the two OpenVPN commands
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was also able to get "VPN Connections" aka vpnc, working using this method.
Am now able to connect to my Cisco ASA, thanks for the great post.

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My NookColor has been all of the sudden playing a load static noise when it is off and the only way to stop it is to turn it off. So I reset everything back to stock 1.0.1 and I will wait and see if it does it without it being rooted. If so I will get a different unit. But in the next week or two I will root it again and see if I need to install OpenVPN or not.

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acomiskey said:
I was also able to get "VPN Connections" aka vpnc, working using this method.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm. Still trying here. How many reboots did it take?

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FletchF said:
Hmm. Still trying here. How many reboots did it take?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just one for me, I did a lot of little things trying to get it to work, once I re-root later this week or next week I will post step by step directions to get it to work unless someone else beats me to it

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FletchF said:
Hmm. Still trying here. How many reboots did it take?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think just 1.
I had "vpn connections" installed. I then follow the instructions at the beginning of this thread. I stopped at "Next copy your openvpn config files and .crt files under /sdcard/openvpn" since I wasn't interested in using openvpn.
I then rebooted, launched "vpn connections" and it connected.
I cannot however get the vpnc widget to work.