FortiClient config daemon failing

[pablob]

Hello,

I have two different laptops running Debian 12, and in one of them  FortiClient stopped working (it was working before, and it is not clear what changed).

When I start the GUI, I get the dreaded "blank" window (with just a menu with the options to quit and help).

If I try to do anything with the CLI, I get errors to the tune that "No configuration data was returned".

Investigating a bit, it seems that the "confighandler" process runs a local HTTP server, and the tools connect to it to get configuration data. However, in the computer with FortiClient issues, this server seems to not respond and close connections without delivering any data.

I have tried purging and installing all 7.2.x versions available in the Fortinet repositories (both Debian and Ubuntu), and even the latest 7.4 from the Debian repo. All of them fail in the same way (7.2.0 is different in the sense that it keeps retrying, while all others seem to give up at the first failure to connect to the config server). I have removed all the configuration directory before re-installing and rebooted. Nothing seems to change the behaviour.

Any help to fix that would be really appreciated, since that computer is functionally isolated now from the data I have behind the VPN.

Thanks!

Pablo B.

[AEK]

Hello Pablo

Did you try to export FCT logs and check if anything useful there?

[pablob]

I cannot export the logs from the GUI, since it is impossible to get to the proper option (as the whole window is blank).

I can access the logs by looking at the /var/log/forticlient directory. There are some errors in the confighandler log, but I get the exact same messages in my other computer where things work. When I looked there was nothing obviously useful, would you have any suggestions on what to look for? I don't have that computer near me now, but I could try copying the logs into a post here.

I have removed everything (including the configuration directory and logs directory), rebooted the computer to make sure nothing was still running and reinstalled (all the marked dependencies were installed), and the problem is still there.

One potential idea could be that there may be undeclared dependency in the package, that is installed in the other computer but somehow was removed in this one. I did the quick check with ldd, but that did not show anything obvious missing.

Thanks!

Pablo B.

[AEK]

Hi Pablo

When I was sysadmin, when app hangs and nothing shown in logs then I use truss and strace, and usually I find interesting things

[pablob]

Hi AEK!

Thanks for the tip! I did not know truss, so that seems a quite useful tip!

I am overwhelmed with stuff right now, and this has low priority. I hope that once things get a bit calmer I will have a chance to look into this.

Thanks gain!

Pablo B.