My pptp client does not connect when the system startup

Hi there, thanks for reaching out! We’re currently working on recreating the issue you’re experiencing with the PPTP client autostart on your Nextcloud appliance. We’ll follow up with you as soon as we have further guidance or a potential solution.

In the meantime, could you let us know which version of Nextcloud you’re running? Additionally, if you have any details about your configuration or changes made to the system, feel free to share them, as they could help us pinpoint the issue more quickly.

Thanks for your patience, and we’ll be in touch soon!

Thanks for jumping in Mattie. :)

After assessing the situation re your PPTP issue, I don't think it's practical for us to try to recreate your issue. We're pretty snowed under with a huge backlog and we don't have a PPTP server set up - nor access to a Windows server to try to recreate your environment.

Regardless, I'm happy to try to help out. But I need a bit more info.

As Mattie said, could you please confirm the Nextcloud appliance version - if it's not the latest (v18.1) then please share the output of:

turnkey-version

FYI the specific lines from the log lines you shared that are relevant are:

Jan 14 16:47:58 nextcloud systemd[1]: Failed to start pptp-client.service - Startup or shutdown PPTP connection.
[...]
Jan 14 16:47:28 nextcloud pptp[468]: anon fatal[get_ip_address:pptp.c:472]: getaddrinfo(): Name or service not known

So long as you don't need to access external addresses via IPv6, all the other errors are unrelated to your issue and can safely be ignored for now. Although FWIW the ntpd CLOCK line is an easy fix if you want to do that. Just update the 'tzdata' package. I.e.:

apt update
apt install -y tzdata

To add some specifics to Mattie's request for other info, you said that it works when manually started, but not automatically at boot. Can you please give info on how you are manually starting it?

Also please reboot (so pptp isn't working) and share the output of these commands:

journalctl -b -t pptp
ip a

Then manually start it (so it is working) and re run those same commands again.

Sorry if I wasn't clear, but please run those twice. I.e.:

1. Reboot your server
2. As soon as your VM is up again, run those 2 commands (while the tunnel isn't working).
3. Then log into Webmin and enable the tunnel.
4. Double check that it's definitely working.
5. Rerun those 2 commands again.

That will hopefully give me enough info to get an idea of what the issue might be. If nothing else it should give me some ideas on any further info I might need.

My Nextcloud appliance version is 18.1

Manually pptp is launched in the Webmin panel -> Network -> pptp vpn client -> "Connect to" button.

Result of entering commands " journalctl -b -t pptp ip a":

root@nextcloud ~# journalctl -b -t pptp
Jan 23 09:00:54 nextcloud pptp[496]: anon fatal[get_ip_address:pptp.c:472]: getaddrinfo(): Name or service not known

root@nextcloud ~# ip a
1: lo:  mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host noprefixroute
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: eth0:  mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 08:00:27:82:ff:a7 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    altname enp0s3
    inet 192.168.0.33/24 brd 192.168.0.255 scope global eth0
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 fe80::a00:27ff:fe82:ffa7/64 scope link
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
3: gre0@NONE:  mtu 1476 qdisc noop state DOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/gre 0.0.0.0 brd 0.0.0.0
4: gretap0@NONE:  mtu 1462 qdisc noop state DOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
5: erspan0@NONE:  mtu 1450 qdisc noop state DOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

It's interesting that the 'fatal[get_ip_address:pptp.c:472]: getaddrinfo(): Name or service not known' error doesn't reoccur when you manually start it, only when it tries to auto start.

Something else to check - sorry I probably should have thought of this before.

As per what you did before, please reboot and then run this command (i.e. when it's not working) and post the output:

systemctl status pptp-client.service

Then manually start it, re-run the above status command and post that output too.

I think that either the way that Webmin starts it is different to the way the service tries to. Or there is some sort of race condition during early boot where something is not yet ready to be configured when the service tries to start.

It would also be useful to see the contents of the service file:

systemctl cat pptp-client.service

root@nextcloud ~# journalctl -b -t pptp
Jan 29 09:00:58 nextcloud pptp[485]: anon fatal[get_ip_address:pptp.c:472]: getaddrinfo(): Name or service not known
Jan 29 14:25:46 nextcloud pptp[2690]: anon log[main:pptp.c:353]: The synchronous pptp option is NOT activated
Jan 29 14:25:46 nextcloud pptp[2700]: anon log[ctrlp_rep:pptp_ctrl.c:259]: Sent control packet type is 1 'Start-Control-Connection-Request'
Jan 29 14:25:46 nextcloud pptp[2700]: anon log[ctrlp_disp:pptp_ctrl.c:781]: Received Start Control Connection Reply
Jan 29 14:25:46 nextcloud pptp[2700]: anon log[ctrlp_disp:pptp_ctrl.c:815]: Client connection established.
Jan 29 14:25:47 nextcloud pptp[2700]: anon log[ctrlp_rep:pptp_ctrl.c:259]: Sent control packet type is 7 'Outgoing-Call-Request'
Jan 29 14:25:47 nextcloud pptp[2700]: anon log[ctrlp_disp:pptp_ctrl.c:900]: Received Outgoing Call Reply.
Jan 29 14:25:47 nextcloud pptp[2700]: anon log[ctrlp_disp:pptp_ctrl.c:939]: Outgoing call established (call ID 52863, peer's call ID 9038).

root@nextcloud ~# ip a
1: lo:  mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host noprefixroute
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: eth0:  mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 08:00:27:82:ff:a7 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    altname enp0s3
    inet 192.168.0.33/24 brd 192.168.0.255 scope global eth0
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 fe80::a00:27ff:fe82:ffa7/64 scope link
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
3: gre0@NONE:  mtu 1476 qdisc noop state DOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/gre 0.0.0.0 brd 0.0.0.0
4: gretap0@NONE:  mtu 1462 qdisc noop state DOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
5: erspan0@NONE:  mtu 1450 qdisc noop state DOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
6: ppp0:  mtu 1450 qdisc fq_codel state UNKNOWN group default qlen 3
    link/ppp
    inet 192.168.88.57 peer 192.168.88.1/32 scope global ppp0
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

Hi Alexandr

Apologies about the radio silence. I've been really snowed under and unfortunately haven't had time to look into this closer. TBH, I don't understand why it's not working. Unfortunately I don't have access to anything that uses PPTP so I can't try to troubleshoot locally. :(

systemctl status pptp-client.service × pptp-client.service - Startup or shutdown PPTP connection Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/pptp-client.service; enabled; preset: enabled) Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Wed 2025-02-12 08:43:51 MSK; 18min ago Process: 364 ExecStart=/etc/webmin/pptp-client/start.pl (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE) CPU: 1.155s Feb 12 08:42:21 nextcloud systemd[1]: Starting pptp-client.service - Startup or shutdown PPTP connection... Feb 12 08:42:21 nextcloud start.pl[364]: Establishing a PPTP connection with the command pptp *my_ip* call museum .. Feb 12 08:42:21 nextcloud pptp[491]: anon fatal[get_ip_address:pptp.c:472]: getaddrinfo(): Name or service not known Feb 12 08:43:51 nextcloud start.pl[364]: .. connection failed! Check the log messages below for information why. Feb 12 08:43:51 nextcloud start.pl[364]: anon fatal[get_ip_address:pptp.c:472]: getaddrinfo(): Name or service not known Feb 12 08:43:51 nextcloud systemd[1]: pptp-client.service: Control process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE Feb 12 08:43:51 nextcloud systemd[1]: pptp-client.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'. Feb 12 08:43:51 nextcloud systemd[1]: Failed to start pptp-client.service - Startup or shutdown PPTP connection. Feb 12 08:43:51 nextcloud systemd[1]: pptp-client.service: Consumed 1.155s CPU time.