[pkg-lxqt-devel] Bug#907692: Feature request for CMST and/or Connman/Connman-VPN

[scrap at mailbox.org]

Package: cmst
Version: 2016.10.03-2

Actually this is more a feature request, not a bug. Because of the fact
that CMST is also relevant for the Connman-developers I also put its
maintainers as recipients in here.

While browsing through the internet I found an interesting entry on
StackExchange where a user has reported the same issue with Connman-VPN
that I have experienced many times by myself.

The challenge is: When using Connman with a OpenConnect VPN-connection
some VPN servers request user authentication via cookie. This cookie has
to be generated before connecting to the VPN.

Hereby in most cases the cookie is only valid for a few hours, but not
for a longer period of time. Therefore the user has to renew his cookie
all few hours manually by hand. While Connman's "competitor"
NetworkManager can handle those regenerations of the cookie by himself,
in Connman it is necessary to do this by hand.

To do so, every time you want to connect to the VPN you have to execute
a little command in shell that will do the job for you. This script is
generating the cookie and writes the new cookie into the VPN
provisioning file /var/lib/connman-vpn/vpnname.config. Afterwards you
can connect to the VPN successfully.

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My idea now is:

Would it be possible to add some option into CMST to run a small script
every time when clicking on "Connect"? Just an additional input field
where you can enter some custom code that has to be executed when
clicking on "Connect"? This code could execute the renewing process of
the cookie, either by launching a small external *.sh bash-script or by
immediate insertion of this code into the custom field.

Another idea on how to call this command:

Maybe it would be possible to insert this command into the VPN
provisioning file /var/lib/connman-vpn/vpnname.config directly and tell
CMST that it has to execute this command first before connecting to the
VPN. Just an additional variable line called "ExecuteCodeWhenConnecting
= blablabla" or similar.

You can have a look at the more detailed explanation of this issue here:

https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/449174/connman-how-to-set-up-openconnect-vpn-with-csd-wrapper-correctly

A function like that would gain huge improvements in user comfort.

What do you think about it?

I am very happy to hear from you!

With best regards
Daniel