NetworkManager: VPN connection via CLI

Sometimes you want to enable a VPN connection from your command line. The NetworkManager package on Ubuntu brings the nmcli script, which can be used to do exactly that.

First, list all available connections:

$ nmcli con
NAME            UUID           TYPE              TIMESTAMP-REAL
netresearch     4a595227-...   vpn               Sun Dec  4 13:47:19 2011
home.cweiske.de 2bf6c562-...   802-11-wireless   Tue Oct 11 18:24:06 2011
customer        15b4b51f-...   vpn               never

Then establish the connection:

$ nmcli con up id netresearch
Active connection state: unknown
Active connection path: /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/ActiveConnection/7
state: VPN connecting (need authentication) (2)
state: VPN connecting (3)
state: VPN connecting (getting IP configuration) (4)
Connection activated