Fortigate Client v7 on OpenSuse

[RikusJansen]

Hi All

Can anyone at Fortigate please let us know when they will release an install package for OpenSuse and SLED

Also, I have tried everything I can think of to get Forticlient to work on OpenSuse Leap 15, but no luck. I have to connect to Company VPN using IPSec but now have to run a windows PC to provide Access to their network because for Some reason Fortigate thinks RedHat and Ubuntu is good enough,

Fortigate is an international product, they need to provide for all the mainstreams, including KDE as well.

Response on this will be greatly appreciated.

[AEK]

Hi Jansen

OpenSuse and SLES are rpm based just like Red Hat.

FortiClient VPN in RPM format is available on the below link.

https://www.fortinet.com/support/product-downloads#vpn

Hope it helps.

[RikusJansen]

I did. First I tried to install via Discover and I got an error "Dependency Failure". Then I used zypper and got the following errors
Problem: 1: nothing provides 'libXext' needed by the to be installed forticlient-7.4.0.1636-1.el7.x86_64
Solution 1: do not install forticlient-7.4.0.1636-1.el7.x86_64
Solution 2: break forticlient-7.4.0.1636-1.el7.x86_64 by ignoring some of its dependencies.

I checked and libXext6 is installed. This is on OpenSuse Leap 15.xx. So, what is the way forward?

[AEK]

This is a Linux related concern but I'll try to help within the limits of my knowledge.

If there is no libXext in the official repo then it may be a problem to run this FortiClient version. However you can still try the following workaround, I tried it in other situations and it worked, but there is no warranty that it will work for your case.

First, try to find where is the "libXext.so.6" file located.

Lets say you find it under /usr/lib/.

Then create a soft link named "libXext.so" inside the same folder, like that:

cd /usr/lib/
ln -s libXext.so.6 libXext.so

Then install FortiClient and ignore the warning if it appears again, then try run it and see if there is any issue.

Hope it helps.

[RikusJansen]

Thanks. The install worked. But now, for some reason the IPSEC connection doesn't work. tries connect and then closes. It works on Windows and Android no propblem

[AEK]

Which FortiClient version?

You need to export logs from FortiClient and also run debug on the remote FortiGate.

diag debug app ike -1
diag vpn ike log-filter name <phase1-name>
diag debug enable

[timppu]

Since googling for "opensuse forticlient" leads to this discussion as the first hit, just as my experience that at least OpenSUSE Tumbleweed seems to come with "openfortivpn" preinstalled that seems to work fine for me to open sslvpn connection to our workplace.

It needs a bit of setting up, mainly to create the config file and then later also adding the certificate line when openfortivpn asks you to add it there.

It works fine at least for me. In Windows and Linux Mint I rather use the official Forticlient VPN, but openfortivpn is a good substitute in case that is not an option.

[oebhardt]

Hi All,
the sslvpn both on the forticlient for VPN only as for the full client are working on SUSE Linux; at our company, we use ems and IPSec. As fas as I understood the documentation, IPSec with linux is only possible if using ems.
I installed the forticlient 7.2 on openSUSE. I set the link for libXext.so. The client starts, and as long as it is in evaluation mode, I can use sslvpn. So fas, so good.
If I try to register with an invitation code using "forticlient epctrl register ##CODE##", it starts, but nothing happens. Looking into the file /var/log/forticlient/epctrl.log, I got
20250910 16:59:23.679 TZ=+0200 [epctrl:INFO] data_manager:180 FortiClient VPN trial period has expired
20250910 16:59:23.799 TZ=+0200 [epctrl:DEBG] state_machine:160 Endpoint state: Offline Offnet
20250910 16:59:23.799 TZ=+0200 [epctrl:DEBG] state_machine:146 In state: Wait
Looking into a TCP-Dump, I can see my client starting a conversation with the ems server, but sending an RST at some point. Neither dmesg nor journalctl show anything that would point me into the direction how to solve this.

I would be grateful for any idea here, as I really am at the end of my ideas! As openSUSE is binary compatible to SLES and SLED, the problems there would be the same.

[AEK]

Hi

Officially FCT 7.2 is not compatible with OpenSuse.

https://docs.fortinet.com/document/forticlient/7.2.11/linux-release-notes/136392/product-integration...

So you shouldn't do that for your production.

[oebhardt]

Hi,
yes, I am aware of that... This is not supported, so I am on my own if something does not work. Even if I bring it to work for myself, I would not recommend it to customers. But it got me hooked - I would like to understand why it is not working. Normally, I can find something (like a segmentation fault, a coredump or something else) that at least shows me where it goes wrong. This time, there is nothing at all - apart from the connection reset. So the alternative would be to install an ubuntu or some RedHat derivative, and I try to avoid this.
But yes, of course this is a "my own fault" situation. Thanks for helping me nevertheless!