Ubuntu 13.10 problems with Cisco AnyConnect VPN

When I upgraded from Ubuntu 12.10 to 13.10, my VPN to Cisco AnyConnect stopped working. I use NetworkManager to initiate VPN connection. VPN connection would fail multiple times before connecting finally. Logs showed openconnect process simply exits with error code 1. Initially I thought the problem was with TLS support in the libraries since openconnect was also logging TLS failures in the log. So I replaced /usr/sbin/openconnect with a script that would invoke real openconnect binary with --no-dtls option but that did not help. I tried a workaround based upon a suggestion from a colleague and that worked. So here is the workaround:

Workaround

Initiate VPN connection from Network Manager. When the "Connect to VPN...." window comes up:

Double click on the connect button, instead of clicking it just once. This causes two instances of openconnect to be launched. Somehow at least one of them seems to not die. Now click on Login button as usual after it has established connection with the VPN gateway server. This also creates two VPN network interfaces but you can ignore that and look at the active connection in ifconfig -a output after VPN connection is established. If you have scripts that you run after VPN connection is established that do anything with the VPN network interface, you will need to adjust it since vpn0 may not be the active interface any more.

I have not traced openconnect process yet to see where it dies, but this workaround works reliably for now.

Tesla Model S software version 5.6 update (Update: now 5.8)

Tesla service updated my Model S software from 4.5 to 5.6. This has been a pleasant update. Some of the changes I really like are:

• Automatic display brightness adjustment at dusk and dawn: I have my display mode set to auto switch between day and night modes. I keep my display at 50% brightness in day mode and 5% brightness in night mode. Prior to 5.6, at dusk and dawn the display will switch to night mode and 5% brightness when there was still quite a bit of light. That made 5% brightness too dark and not quite readable. This forced me to tweak the brightness level a few times until sun rose or set fully. With version 5.6, display brightness ramps up/down from one mode to the other at dusk and dawn. This keeps the display from being too dark or too bright at these times and it has been a pleasure to see the display at right brightness at all times without having to fiddle with controls. Great job on this feature from Tesla!
• Status line on instrument panel: Status line at the bottom of instrument panel used small font and the background made it even a little harder to read it at quick glance. With 5.6, background has been improved and fonts are bigger. It is a whole lot easier to read now - 

• FM Radio: FM radio screen has changed slightly. There is a button near the top to enable/disable HD radio. Fonts are thinner and sharper especially for the preset buttons. I like the minor enhancement overall - 

One of the major features of 5.6 was low power consumption mode when not driving, aka sleep mode. Unfortunately I have not yet seen significant benefit from this yet. Vampire loss seems to have gone down just a bit but not enough. On a cold night like last night when temperature dipped to 24 deg F (my car is parked inside an insulated but not heated garage overnight), I still lost 7 rated miles (or 8 ideal miles) overnight over a period of 11 hours. Car was plugged in the whole night.

Update (Nov 18, 2013): I had contacted Tesla about the vampire loss. They told me it should get better with 5.8. I got updated to 5.8 over the weekend. I checked overnight again. This time I lost 4 rated miles (5 ideal miles) overnight over 11 hours. So it is better, but not as good as 1-2 miles loss over 24 hours others had reported with 5.6.