VPN service connection failed because the VPN service failed to start

I'm trying to connect to my universities VPN on Ubuntu. Here is their online guide - Off Campus | University of Stirling Going by the Mac installation guide, it states: "VPN Type: L2TP over IPsec" .. so I've run sudo apt-get install network-manager-l2tp-gnome, restarted Ubuntu and now I have the option to create a Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP) connection. I've entered the gateway and username as they instruct. As they also request "over IPsec" I've checked the box, IPsec Settings... > "Enable IPsec tunnel to L2TP host", I've also entered "secret" in the Pre shared key box. By the way, I also tried to connect prior to setting these but it didn't work, and doesn't work now I've entered them either. Here is the log from sudo tail -f /var/log/syslog: Mar 1 15:29:32 martyn-Lenovo-B590 NetworkManager: [1519918172.6221] audit: op="connection-activate" uuid="9f1fcb5e-7d9b-41e2-9637-2a9545283b10" name="UoS VPN" pid=2301 uid=1000 result="success" Mar 1 15:29:32 martyn-Lenovo-B590 NetworkManager: [1519918172.6310] vpn-connection[0x27291e0,9f1fcb5e-7d9b-41e2-9637-2a9545283b10,"UoS VPN",0]: Started the VPN service, PID 4452 Mar 1 15:29:32 martyn-Lenovo-B590 NetworkManager: [1519918172.6452] vpn-connection[0x27291e0,9f1fcb5e-7d9b-41e2-9637-2a9545283b10,"UoS VPN",0]: Saw the service appear; activating connection Mar 1 15:29:32 martyn-Lenovo-B590 gnome-session: Gtk-Message: GtkDialog mapped without a transient parent. This is discouraged. Mar 1 15:29:37 martyn-Lenovo-B590 NetworkManager: [1519918177.6835] keyfile: update /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/UoS VPN (9f1fcb5e-7d9b-41e2-9637-2a9545283b10,"UoS VPN") Mar 1 15:29:37 martyn-Lenovo-B590 NetworkManager: [1519918177.6915] vpn-connection[0x27291e0,9f1fcb5e-7d9b-41e2-9637-2a9545283b10,"UoS VPN",0]: VPN connection: (ConnectInteractive) reply received Mar 1 15:29:37 martyn-Lenovo-B590 NetworkManager: nm-l2tp ipsec enable flag: yes Mar 1 15:29:37 martyn-Lenovo-B590 NetworkManager: ** Message: Check port 1701 Mar 1 15:29:37 martyn-Lenovo-B590 NetworkManager: ** Message: Can't bind to port 1701 Mar 1 15:29:37 martyn-Lenovo-B590 NetworkManager: nm-l2tp L2TP port 1701 is busy, using ephemeral. Mar 1 15:29:37 martyn-Lenovo-B590 NetworkManager: nm-l2tp starting ipsec Mar 1 15:29:37 martyn-Lenovo-B590 NetworkManager: Stopping strongSwan IPsec failed: starter is not running Mar 1 15:29:39 martyn-Lenovo-B590 NetworkManager: Starting strongSwan 5.3.5 IPsec [starter]... Mar 1 15:29:39 martyn-Lenovo-B590 NetworkManager: Loading config setup Mar 1 15:29:39 martyn-Lenovo-B590 NetworkManager: Loading conn '9f1fcb5e-7d9b-41e2-9637-2a9545283b10' Mar 1 15:29:39 martyn-Lenovo-B590 NetworkManager: found netkey IPsec stack Mar 1 15:29:39 martyn-Lenovo-B590 charon: 00[DMN] Starting IKE charon daemon (strongSwan 5.3.5, Linux 4.4.0-116-generic, x86_64) Mar 1 15:29:39 martyn-Lenovo-B590 charon: 00[CFG] loading ca certificates from '/etc/ipsec.d/cacerts' Mar 1 15:29:39 martyn-Lenovo-B590 charon: 00[CFG] loading aa certificates from '/etc/ipsec.d/aacerts' Mar 1 15:29:39 martyn-Lenovo-B590 charon: 00[CFG] loading ocsp signer certificates from '/etc/ipsec.d/ocspcerts' Mar 1 15:29:39 martyn-Lenovo-B590 charon: 00[CFG] loading attribute certificates from '/etc/ipsec.d/acerts' Mar 1 15:29:39 martyn-Lenovo-B590 charon: 00[CFG] loading crls from '/etc/ipsec.d/crls' Mar 1 15:29:39 martyn-Lenovo-B590 charon: 00[CFG] loading secrets from '/etc/ipsec.secrets' Mar 1 15:29:39 martyn-Lenovo-B590 charon: 00[CFG] loading secrets from '/etc/ipsec.d/nm-l2tp-ipsec-9f1fcb5e-7d9b-41e2-9637-2a9545283b10.secrets' Mar 1 15:29:39 martyn-Lenovo-B590 charon: 00[CFG] loaded IKE secret for %any Mar 1 15:29:39 martyn-Lenovo-B590 charon: 00[LIB] loaded plugins: charon test-vectors aes rc2 sha1 sha2 md4 md5 random nonce x509 revocation constraints pubkey pkcs1 pkcs7 pkcs8 pkcs12 pgp dnskey sshkey pem openssl fips-prf gmp agent xcbc hmac gcm attr kernel-netlink resolve socket-default connmark stroke updown Mar 1 15:29:39 martyn-Lenovo-B590 charon: 00[LIB] dropped capabilities, running as uid 0, gid 0 Mar 1 15:29:39 martyn-Lenovo-B590 charon: 00[JOB] spawning 16 worker threads Mar 1 15:29:39 martyn-Lenovo-B590 charon: 13[CFG] received stroke: add connection '9f1fcb5e-7d9b-41e2-9637-2a9545283b10' Mar 1 15:29:39 martyn-Lenovo-B590 charon: 13[CFG] added configuration '9f1fcb5e-7d9b-41e2-9637-2a9545283b10' Mar 1 15:29:40 martyn-Lenovo-B590 charon: 01[CFG] rereading secrets Mar 1 15:29:40 martyn-Lenovo-B590 charon: 01[CFG] loading secrets from '/etc/ipsec.secrets' Mar 1 15:29:40 martyn-Lenovo-B590 charon: 01[CFG] loading secrets from '/etc/ipsec.d/nm-l2tp-ipsec-9f1fcb5e-7d9b-41e2-9637-2a9545283b10.secrets' Mar 1 15:29:40 martyn-Lenovo-B590 charon: 01[CFG] loaded IKE secret for %any Mar 1 15:29:40 martyn-Lenovo-B590 NetworkManager: nm-l2tp Spawned ipsec up script with PID 4531. Mar 1 15:29:40 martyn-Lenovo-B590 charon: 11[CFG] received stroke: initiate '9f1fcb5e-7d9b-41e2-9637-2a9545283b10' Mar 1 15:29:40 martyn-Lenovo-B590 charon: 07[IKE] initiating Main Mode IKE_SA 9f1fcb5e-7d9b-41e2-9637-2a9545283b10[1] to 139.153.12.200 Mar 1 15:29:40 martyn-Lenovo-B590 charon: 07[ENC] generating ID_PROT request 0 [ SA V V V V ] Mar 1 15:29:40 martyn-Lenovo-B590 charon: 07[NET] sending packet: from 192.168.1.134 to 139.153.12.200 (248 bytes) Mar 1 15:29:44 martyn-Lenovo-B590 charon: 02[IKE] sending retransmit 1 of request message ID 0, seq 1 Mar 1 15:29:44 martyn-Lenovo-B590 charon: 02[NET] sending packet: from 192.168.1.134 to 139.153.12.200 (248 bytes) Mar 1 15:29:50 martyn-Lenovo-B590 NetworkManager: nm-l2tp Timeout trying to establish IPsec connection Mar 1 15:29:50 martyn-Lenovo-B590 NetworkManager: nm-l2tp Terminating ipsec script with PID 4531. Mar 1 15:29:50 martyn-Lenovo-B590 NetworkManager: Stopping strongSwan IPsec... Mar 1 15:29:50 martyn-Lenovo-B590 charon: 00[DMN] signal of type SIGINT received. Shutting down Mar 1 15:29:50 martyn-Lenovo-B590 charon: 00[IKE] destroying IKE_SA in state CONNECTING without notification Mar 1 15:29:50 martyn-Lenovo-B590 NetworkManager: initiating Main Mode IKE_SA 9f1fcb5e-7d9b-41e2-9637-2a9545283b10[1] to 139.153.12.200 Mar 1 15:29:50 martyn-Lenovo-B590 NetworkManager: generating ID_PROT request 0 [ SA V V V V ] Mar 1 15:29:50 martyn-Lenovo-B590 NetworkManager: sending packet: from 192.168.1.134 to 139.153.12.200 (248 bytes) Mar 1 15:29:50 martyn-Lenovo-B590 NetworkManager: sending retransmit 1 of request message ID 0, seq 1 Mar 1 15:29:50 martyn-Lenovo-B590 NetworkManager: sending packet: from 192.168.1.134 to 139.153.12.200 (248 bytes) Mar 1 15:29:50 martyn-Lenovo-B590 NetworkManager: destroying IKE_SA in state CONNECTING without notification Mar 1 15:29:50 martyn-Lenovo-B590 NetworkManager: nm-l2tp Could not establish IPsec tunnel. Mar 1 15:29:50 martyn-Lenovo-B590 NetworkManager: (nm-l2tp-service:4452): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: g_dbus_method_invocation_take_error: assertion 'error != NULL' failed Mar 1 15:29:50 martyn-Lenovo-B590 NetworkManager: [1519918190.9294] vpn-connection[0x27291e0,9f1fcb5e-7d9b-41e2-9637-2a9545283b10,"UoS VPN",0]: VPN plugin: state changed: stopped (6) Mar 1 15:29:50 martyn-Lenovo-B590 NetworkManager: [1519918190.9315] vpn-connection[0x27291e0,9f1fcb5e-7d9b-41e2-9637-2a9545283b10,"UoS VPN",0]: VPN plugin: state change reason: unknown (0) Mar 1 15:29:50 martyn-Lenovo-B590 NetworkManager: [1519918190.9339] vpn-connection[0x27291e0,9f1fcb5e-7d9b-41e2-9637-2a9545283b10,"UoS VPN",0]: VPN service disappeared Mar 1 15:29:50 martyn-Lenovo-B590 NetworkManager: [1519918190.9360] vpn-connection[0x27291e0,9f1fcb5e-7d9b-41e2-9637-2a9545283b10,"UoS VPN",0]: VPN connection: failed to connect: 'Message recipient disconnected from message bus without replying' UPDATE 2nd March $ ip r default via 192.168.1.1 dev wlp2s0 proto static metric 600 169.254.0.0/16 dev wlp2s0 scope link metric 1000 192.168.1.0/24 dev wlp2s0 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.1.134 metric 600