Can't Set Up PPTP VPN with NetworkManager [Solved] -ish

[AutoDMC]

Workaround available now, see viewtopic.php?f=52&t=21809#p123082

Hello. Trying to get a PPTP VPN to connect using NetworkManager; "The VPN connection fails" due to "invalid secrets." I've verified that the username and password I've provided are correct.

The Ubuntu help forums recommend unchecking "Available to all users" to get it to work... however this option is disabled-and-checked in my copy of NetworkManager.

I'm pretty sure the "invalid secrets" "error message" is a red herring, but I have no clue where to go from here.

[Fitzcarraldo]

Don't use VPN myself, so can only hazard a guess, but I've just searched the Gentoo Bugzilla and found Gentoo Bugzilla Bug Report No. 317085 which looks suspiciously like your problem. The Bugzilla report offers a patch to stop the plugin from "checking for secrets", so you could install the package in a local overlay. To do that, see the instructions below.

1. Make sure you have synchronised with the Portage repositories the ebuilds on your PC that are in the Portage tree:

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# emerge --sync

2. Make sure you have synchronised with the Sabayon overlay repository the ebuilds on your PC that are from the Sabayon overlay:

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# layman -S

3. Edit /etc/make.conf and make sure it has the following lines in it at the end of the file:

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PORTDIR_OVERLAY="${PORTDIR_OVERLAY} /usr/local/portage/"
ACCEPT_LICENSE="*"

(Delete the line PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage/" if you put that in the file before.)

4. Set up the directories for the local overlay:

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# mkdir -p /usr/local/portage/net-misc/networkmanager-openvpn/files

5. Stop Portage nagging about a missing name for your local overlay:

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# mkdir /usr/local/portage/profiles
# echo "local_overlay" > /usr/local/portage/profiles/repo_name

6. Go to Gentoo Bugzilla Bug Report No. 317085 and save the following files to your Desktop: networkmanager-openvpn-0.8-r1.ebuild and dont-check-secrets-for-tls-connection-type.patch.

7. Copy the files into the correct directories:

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# cd /usr/local/portage/net-misc/networkmanager-openvpn
# cp /home/fitzcarraldo/Desktop/networkmanager-openvpn-0.8-r1.ebuild .
# cp /home/fitzcarraldo/Desktop/dont-check-secrets-for-tls-connection-type.patch ./files/

(Obviously replace "fitzcarraldo" with your user name.)

8. Generate the manifest:

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# ebuild networkmanager-openvpn-0.8-r1.ebuild manifest

9. Merge (install) the package:

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# emerge -1v =networkmanager-openvpn-0.8-r1

BTW, I noticed Comment #4 in the bug report, so it could be that the gnome USE flag is off in the built package in the Entropy repository and that has an effect (I'm not on an SL PC at the moment, so can't check). Anyway, try the above.

[AutoDMC]

Thanks for your suggestion. I've attempted to build it according to your instructions, and I get just so far as for Portage to actually build the program when it falls flat on it's face.

First off, yes, in the use flags I have "-gnome". I should have said this, but didn't think of it... I'm using the XFCE version of Sabayon, hence the useflag above, I guess. However, with that said, package.use contains:

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# to make VPN working with networkmanager (nm-applet)                                 
net-misc/networkmanager-openvpn gnome                                   
net-misc/networkmanager-pptp gnome
## networkmanager-vpnc, someone make up their minds                                   
net-misc/networkmanager-vpnc -gnome gnome

(Not sure what's going on with that last line).

With that said, I still followed your procedure, but the build fails. The moneyfailure seems to be:

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Making all in auth-dialog
In file included from gnome-two-password-dialog.c:25:
gnome-two-password-dialog.h:30:21: error: gtk/gtk.h: No such file or directory


The entire gripe, and ebuild errors below. Forgive me, I have a cold AND a lack of experience with ebuilds, so I'm more lost that usual. Suggestions would be helpful, and thank you for your help so far.

emerge --info =net-misc/networkmanager-openvpn-0.8-r1:

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Portage 2.2_rc77 (default/linux/amd64/10.0/desktop, gcc-4.4.2, glibc-2.10.1-r0, 2.6.34-sabayon x86_64)
=================================================================
                        System Settings
=================================================================
System uname: Linux-2.6.34-sabayon-x86_64-AMD_Athlon-tm-_II_X4_640_Processor-with-gentoo-2.0.1
Timestamp of tree: Sat, 25 Sep 2010 19:45:01 +0000
app-shells/bash:     4.1_p7
dev-lang/python:     2.6.5-r2
sys-apps/baselayout: 2.0.1
sys-apps/openrc:     0.6.3::sabayon
sys-apps/sandbox:    2.3-r1
sys-devel/autoconf:  2.65
sys-devel/automake:  1.10.2
sys-devel/binutils:  2.20.1-r1
sys-devel/gcc:       4.4.2
sys-devel/gcc-config: 1.4.1
sys-devel/libtool:   2.2.6b
sys-devel/make:      3.81
virtual/os-headers:  2.6.34 (sys-kernel/linux-headers)
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="amd64 ~amd64"
ACCEPT_LICENSE="*"
CBUILD="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"
CFLAGS="-O2 -march=x86-64 -pipe"
CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"
CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /etc/entropy /usr/share/X11/xkb /usr/share/config/kdm"
CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/ca-certificates.conf /etc/env.d /etc/fonts/fonts.conf /etc/gconf /etc/gentoo-release /etc/portage /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/sandbox.d /etc/skel /etc/splash /etc/terminfo"
CXXFLAGS="-O2 -march=x86-64 -pipe"
DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"
FEATURES="assume-digests collision-protect distlocks fixlafiles fixpackages news parallel-fetch preserve-libs protect-owned sandbox sfperms strict unknown-features-warn unmerge-logs unmerge-orphans userfetch"
GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://ftp.snt.utwente.nl/pub/os/linux/gentoo/ ftp://sunsite.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/pub/Linux/gentoo ftp://212.219.56.139/sites/www.ibiblio.org/gentoo/"
LANG="en_US.UTF-8"
LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1,--as-needed"
LINGUAS="en en_US af ar az bg bn br bs ca cs cy da de el en_GB eo es et eu fa fi fr fy ga gl he hi hr hu is it ja kk km ko lt lv mk mn ms nb nds nl nn pa pl pt pt_BR ro ru rw se sk sl sr sr@Latn ss sv ta tg tr uk uz vi zh_CN zh_TW es_AR es_ES fy_NL ga_IE gu gu_IN nb_NO nn_NO pt_PT sv_SE zh"
MAKEOPTS="-j6 -s"
PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"
PORTAGE_CONFIGROOT="/"
PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages"
PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"
PORTDIR="/usr/portage"
PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage"
SYNC="rsync://rsync.europe.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"
USE="X a52 aac accessibility acl acpi aiglx aim alsa amd64 artswrappersuid audiofile avahi bash-completion berkdb bidi bluetooth bzip2 cairo cdda cddb cdr cjk cli consolekit cpudetection cracklib crypt cups cxx dbus dga dri dts dv dvb dvd dvdr dvdread dvi emboss encode exif fam fame fat ffmpeg firefox flac foomatic-db fortran freetype gcj gdbm gif gimpprint gmp gnutls gphoto2 gpm gsm gtk hal hfs iconv icq ieee1394 imap inotify ipod ipv6 irc irda jabber jack jfs joystick jpeg kdehiddenvisibility kerberos lame lcd lcms ldap libnotify live lm_sensors lzo mad mail matroska mikmod mjpeg mmx mng modules mozdevelop mp3 mp3rtp mp4 mpeg msn mudflap multilib musepack musicbrainz ncurses network nls nptl nptlonly nsplugin ntfs ogg openal openexr opengl openmp pam pango pcmcia pcre pda pdf perl png policykit ppds pppd pulseaudio python qt3support qt4 rar rdesktop readline reflection reiserfs rss scanner sdl session slp speex spell sse sse2 ssl startup-notification stream svg sysfs tcpd theora tiff truetype udev unicode usb v4l v4l2 visualization vorbis wifi wmf x264 xcb xfs xine xinerama xml xorg xpm xprint xulrunner xv xvid xvmc yahoo zeroconf zlib" ALSA_CARDS="emu10k1x darla20 darla24 emu10k1 gina20 gina24 hdsp hdspm ice1712 indigo indigoio layla20 layla24 mia mixart mona pcxhr rme32 rme96 sb16 sbawe sscape usbusx2y vx222 usb-usx2y" ALSA_PCM_PLUGINS="adpcm alaw asym copy dmix dshare dsnoop empty extplug file hooks iec958 ioplug ladspa lfloat linear meter mmap_emul mulaw multi null plug rate route share shm softvol" APACHE2_MODULES="actions alias auth_basic authn_alias authn_anon authn_dbm authn_default authn_file authz_dbm authz_default authz_groupfile authz_host authz_owner authz_user autoindex cache cgi cgid dav dav_fs dav_lock deflate dir disk_cache env expires ext_filter file_cache filter headers include info log_config logio mem_cache mime mime_magic negotiation rewrite setenvif speling status unique_id userdir usertrack vhost_alias" APACHE2_MPMS="prefork" CAMERAS="agfa_cl20 casio_qv dimagev dimera3500 kodak_dc120 kodak_dc210 kodak_dc240 kodak_dc3200 kodak_ez200 konica_qm150 panasonic_coolshot panasonic_dc1000 panasonic_dc1580 panasonic_l859 polaroid_pdc320 polaroid_pdc640 polaroid_pdc700 ricoh_g3 sipix_blink sipix_blink2 sipix_web2 sony_dscf1 sony_dscf55 toshiba_pdrm11 adc65 aox barbie canon clicksmart310 digigr8 digita directory enigma13 fuji gsmart300 hp215 iclick jamcam jd11 konica largan lg_gsm mars mustek pccam300 pccam600 ptp2 ricoh samsung sierra smal sonix soundvision spca50x sq905 stv0674 stv0680 sx330z template" ELIBC="glibc" INPUT_DEVICES="evdev keyboard mouse void" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz cfontz633 glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb ncurses text" LINGUAS="en en_US af ar az bg bn br bs ca cs cy da de el en_GB eo es et eu fa fi fr fy ga gl he hi hr hu is it ja kk km ko lt lv mk mn ms nb nds nl nn pa pl pt pt_BR ro ru rw se sk sl sr sr@Latn ss sv ta tg tr uk uz vi zh_CN zh_TW es_AR es_ES fy_NL ga_IE gu gu_IN nb_NO nn_NO pt_PT sv_SE zh" LIRC_DEVICES="audio audio_alsa serial" RUBY_TARGETS="ruby18" USERLAND="GNU" VIDEO_CARDS="fbdev vesa radeonhd" XTABLES_ADDONS="quota2 psd pknock lscan length2 ipv4options ipset ipp2p iface geoip fuzzy condition tee tarpit sysrq steal rawnat logmark ipmark dhcpmac delude chaos account"
Unset:  CPPFLAGS, CTARGET, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, FFLAGS, INSTALL_MASK, LC_ALL, PORTAGE_BUNZIP2_COMMAND, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS

Error messages at end of emake:

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Making all in auth-dialog
In file included from gnome-two-password-dialog.c:25:
gnome-two-password-dialog.h:30:21: error: gtk/gtk.h: No such file or directory
In file included from gnome-two-password-dialog.c:25:
gnome-two-password-dialog.h:40: error: expected ‘=’, ‘,’, ‘;’, ‘asm’ or ‘__attribute__’ before ‘typedef’
gnome-two-password-dialog.h:46: error: expected specifier-qualifier-list before ‘GtkDialog’
gnome-two-password-dialog.h:53: error: expected specifier-qualifier-list before ‘GtkDialogClass’
gnome-two-password-dialog.h:63: error: expected ‘=’, ‘,’, ‘;’, ‘asm’ or ‘__attribute__’ before ‘gnome_two_password_dialog_get_type’
gnome-two-password-dialog.h:64: error: expected ‘=’, ‘,’, ‘;’, ‘asm’ or ‘__attribute__’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.h:70: error: expected ‘=’, ‘,’, ‘;’, ‘asm’ or ‘__attribute__’ before ‘gnome_two_password_dialog_run_and_block’
gnome-two-password-dialog.h:73: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.h:75: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.h:77: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.h:79: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.h:81: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.h:83: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.h:85: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.h:87: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.h:89: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.h:91: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.h:94: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.h:96: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.h:99: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.h:101: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.h:103: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.h:104: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.h:108: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.h:109: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.h:110: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.h:111: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.h:113: error: expected ‘=’, ‘,’, ‘;’, ‘asm’ or ‘__attribute__’ before ‘gnome_two_password_dialog_anon_selected’
In file included from /usr/include/glib-2.0/glib/gmacros.h:40,
                 from /usr/lib64/glib-2.0/include/glibconfig.h:9,
                 from /usr/include/glib-2.0/glib/gtypes.h:34,
                 from /usr/include/glib-2.0/glib/galloca.h:34,
                 from /usr/include/glib-2.0/glib.h:32,
                 from /usr/include/glib-2.0/glib/gi18n.h:23,
                 from gnome-two-password-dialog.c:27:
/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/4.4.2/include/stddef.h:149: error: expected ‘=’, ‘,’, ‘;’, ‘asm’ or ‘__attribute__’ before ‘typedef’
gnome-two-password-dialog.c:47: error: expected specifier-qualifier-list before ‘GtkWidget’
gnome-two-password-dialog.c:74: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.c:77: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.c:81: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.c:83: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.c:89: error: expected ‘=’, ‘,’, ‘;’, ‘asm’ or ‘__attribute__’ before ‘gnome_two_password_dialog_get_type’
gnome-two-password-dialog.c: In function ‘gnome_two_password_dialog_class_init’:
gnome-two-password-dialog.c:118: error: invalid type argument of ‘->’ (have ‘int’)
gnome-two-password-dialog.c:118: error: ‘gnome_two_password_dialog_finalize’ undeclared (first use in this function)
gnome-two-password-dialog.c:118: error: (Each undeclared identifier is reported only once
gnome-two-password-dialog.c:118: error: for each function it appears in.)
gnome-two-password-dialog.c: At top level:
gnome-two-password-dialog.c:122: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.c:136: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.c:160: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.c:180: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.c:186: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.c:203: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.c:219: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.c:225: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.c:262: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.c:280: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.c:296: error: expected ‘=’, ‘,’, ‘;’, ‘asm’ or ‘__attribute__’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.c:474: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.c:488: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.c:499: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.c:509: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.c:519: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.c:531: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.c:545: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.c:559: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.c:573: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.c:587: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.c:600: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.c:613: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.c:621: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.c:629: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.c:637: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.c:645: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.c:668: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.c:677: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.c:690: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.c:709: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.c:723: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
gnome-two-password-dialog.c:735: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
make[2]: *** [nm_openvpn_auth_dialog-gnome-two-password-dialog.o] Error 1
main.c:32:21: make[2]: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....
error: gtk/gtk.h: No such file or directory
In file included from main.c:40:
gnome-two-password-dialog.h:46: error: expected specifier-qualifier-list before ‘GtkDialog’
gnome-two-password-dialog.h:53: error: expected specifier-qualifier-list before ‘GtkDialogClass’
gnome-two-password-dialog.h:64: error: expected ‘=’, ‘,’, ‘;’, ‘asm’ or ‘__attribute__’ before ‘*’ token
main.c: In function ‘get_secrets’:
main.c:128: warning: cast to pointer from integer of different size
main.c: In function ‘main’:
main.c:342: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function ‘fprintf’
main.c:342: error: ‘stderr’ undeclared (first use in this function)
main.c:342: error: (Each undeclared identifier is reported only once
main.c:342: error: for each function it appears in.)
main.c:347: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function ‘fprintf’
main.c:356: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function ‘fprintf’
main.c:361: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function ‘printf’
main.c:367: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function ‘printf’
main.c:371: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function ‘printf’
main.c:376: error: ‘stdout’ undeclared (first use in this function)
main.c:379: error: ‘stdin’ undeclared (first use in this function)
make[2]: *** [nm_openvpn_auth_dialog-main.o] Error 1
make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
make: *** [all] Error 2
emake failed

[Fitzcarraldo]

Please use the Code button rather than the Quote button for long console output; it's a drag having to scroll the screen up and down for lengthy output. I've changed it for you.

That package.use line is odd. Having "-gnome" and "gnome" USE flags for the same package is wrong.

Don't use Xfce myself, but perhaps it doesn't matter if you build NetworkManager and the NetworkManager VPNC plug-in with the gnome USE flag. If I were you I'd try deleting the "-gnome" from that last line and try again to see what happens.

[AutoDMC]

Terribly sorry; I'm not used to this forum software; most of the fora I participate on, the "code" tag doesn't do proper wrapping, and long lines of code go flying off into nowhere land, so I've picked up the "bad" habit of using quote tags for longs bits of code. I'll keep it in mind.

As for the solution, I'm closer. It appears that XFCE is starting NetworkManager as root, and that is the root of all my problems. How did I find this out? By accidentally killing the nm-applet, and restarting it as my regular user... and the VPN works exactly as expected now.

So I guess this has morphed from a "network" problem to an XFCE problem. Now I need to figure out how to get nm-applet to start as "me" instead of "root," and the problem goes away. Right now I've got a launcher I can click to start it as "me" so that's a neat workaround solution, but it'd be nice to get it to start as "me" by default.

Thanks, Fitz, for your help. As long as my workaround works, I'll use it instead of fiddling with Portage. Not that I have anything against Portage (my first distro was Gentoo, after all), but I'd rather not "accidentally" break the sabayon manager.

[Fitzcarraldo]

You could try running nm-applet as "me" by putting the command in ~/.bashrc

Give that a try.

By the way, there is a bug relating to the ppp daemon plug-in for in the version of NetworkManager currently in the Entropy repository (net-misc/networkmanager-0.8-r1) - see Huawei E160 Mobile Broadband Modem [Solved]. The latest version of NetworkManager in Portage is 0.8-r6 and fixes that bug. Although the two problems are unrelated, perhaps the new version might have a fix your problem too.

I suspect that the root cause of your problem is to do with a D-Bus policy. Having just googled "xfce nm-applet", there seem to be quite a few folk having trouble with nm-applet in Xfce (e.g. <NetworkManager> nm-applet fails to start as normal user in XFCE, xfce 4.4 and NetworkManager [SOLVED], Xfce and nm-applet (no autostart)). I'm flailing around in the dark a bit here as I don't use Xfce, but you might want to try editing the D-Bus policy file for nm-applet (/etc/dbus-1/system.d/nm-applet.conf) and adding:

Code: Select all

<policy group="plugdev">
            <allow own="org.freedesktop.NetworkManagerUserSettings"/>
            <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.NetworkManagerUserSettings"/>
            <allow send_interface="org.freedesktop.NetworkManagerUserSettings"/>
            <deny send_interface="org.freedesktop.NetworkManagerSetting.Secrets"/>
</policy>

There are some instructions for Xfce and nm-applet in the Gentoo Wiki article on NetworkManager. Perhaps they will be of use to you.