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I have a Macbook Pro and I'm trying to get VPN from home to work. It refuse to work. I have turned on verbose logging, but how can I read the log ?

Roland Bengtsson
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3 Answers3

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Whether you choose L2TP over IPSec or PPTP for your settings, the log file is located at:

/var/log/ppp.log

If you want use terminal to view your log file you can do following:

vim /var/log/ppp.log

tail -f /var/log/ppp.log (if you want see end of file)

less /var/log/ppp.log (if your log file was huge and want to see page by page)

Am1rr3zA
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    For additional information on IPSec, use the built-in "syslog" command to query all logs for messages from the racoon key management daemon: 
    syslog -k Facility -k Sender racoon
    – Asmus Feb 07 '11 at 14:54
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    This answer no longer seems relevant: on OS X El Capitan, there is no /var/log/ppp.log. There is a /var/log/ppp/ directory, but it's empty. Logs seem to go into /var/log/system.log. – D.W. Aug 23 '16 at 17:49
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    @D.W. I'm on Sierra 10.12.6 and /var/log/ppp.log is still being written to as I write – PandaWood Sep 16 '17 at 04:38
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    Where can I find Cisco IPSec logs? – Kirill Oct 06 '17 at 09:33
  • Not using the terminal and just to extend previous information, on mac open the Console Tool and on the right side (explorer) and click on /var/log you should see in the middle panel a list of logs, click on the ppp.log – Pedro Luz Oct 31 '17 at 10:51
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    On Mojave, this file does not exist, even after enabling verbose logging for L2TP – Elliott Apr 21 '20 at 21:01
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For completeness, I'll add a way to view the log in the GUI.

Open the Console utility, select Show Log List from the toolbar (if it isn't already shown), then select FILES > /private/var/log > ppp.log from the sidebar.

On macOS Catalina, the toolbar reads "Log Reports", then ppp.log

The macOS Console application on macOS Catalina

Velociround
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Gordon Davisson
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MacOS 14.x -> None of the above is relevant.

  • /var/log/ppp.log does not exist
  • /var/log/ppp is empty
  • /var/log/system.log only prints the process ID on VPN connect, but no additional info when it fails, fails during connecting (assuming some handshake did not complete etc.)

Example from system.log when connecting to VPN:

login[6631]: USER_PROCESS: 6631 ttys003
Greenonline
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DavidDunham
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