How to install openvpn client in Debian?

Question

I've gone through many tutorials, wiki pages youtube videos about installing. They all are showing how to install openvpn server and use the same with client.

I was using the config files from tcpvpn.com in Windows and in Manjaro. All I had to do was import the config file and put username and passcode, it would connect and poof internet was working.

I also tried to learn the difference between server and client. All I got was openvpn is community edition? Please help me here, I am struggling to work this out from last 7 to 8 days.

Whenever I import the config files of different countries in network manager it has a blank field of ca.crt, I don't know what to do?

Solution

I don't think this should be hard. All there is to do is open a terminal and issue:

sudo apt-get install openvpn

Then start openvpn with:

sudo openvpn --config /path/to/configfile.conf

Said config file can be placed anywhere you please, but if it contains references to external files, I suggest placing them all in the same directory and cding to it before starting openvpn.

Comments

[AjaiVeer Singh Sandhu]

it shows everything ok but internet connection doesn't work. I checked through ifconfig -a, everything is fine but no downlink at all. Thanks

[simlev]

If OpenVPN shows the message ´Initialization Sequence Completed´, then you are connected, good news. Since you can't yet browse the Internet, there are two more things to check: DNS and routes. First, see if domain name resolution is working by running in a different terminal window ´ping google.com´; if it does not work and instead ´ping 8.8.8.8´ is successful, then you need to specify DNS servers. The other thing is routing: you need to instruct your machine to send traffic through the OpenVPN connection.

[AjaiVeer Singh Sandhu]

i pinged 8.8.8.8 and it was successful, could you please me with routing - how do i instruct my machine to send traffic though OpenVPN.

[simlev]

If you can ping 8.8.8.8 then you have Interrnet connectivity. Does ´ping google.com´ work? If not, it's a DNS issue.

[AjaiVeer Singh Sandhu]

pinging 8.8.8.8 was successful but for "www.google.com" it wasn't. I wanna learn how to specify DNS server and routing for OpenVPN. really thanks for helping.

[AjaiVeer Singh Sandhu]

I did try to search and figure out the solution for specifying DNS server but all I get is for OpenVPN server and client results and I don't know what to do.

[simlev]

What are the contents of /etc/resolv.conf? That is where the DNS servers to be used are stored. To add a DNS server you open Network Tools, choose the relevant interface e.g. Ethernet Interface (eth0), click on Configure, double click the relevant connection e.g. Ethernet->Wired connection 1, click on IPv4 Settings and input e.g. 8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4 (for Google's well known DNS servers) in the Additional DNS servers field. After a reboot your /etc/resolv.conf should contain two additional lines: nameserver 8.8.8.8 and `nameserver 8.8.4.4'.

[AjaiVeer Singh Sandhu]

thanks for the big help. Everything is working fine now, though in xubuntu I have to manually edit /etc/resolv.conf everytime. can you help me one other problem I am facing about easy-tether ? or do I have to ask another question for that query ?

[simlev]

Did you switch from Debian? In Xubuntu click on the up/down arrow near the top right corner, then click on Edit connections..., double-click on Wired connection 1 -> IPv4 Settings and edit the Additional DNS servers field.

[simlev]

I never heard of easy-tether so I can't help you on that, but as a general rule you should always ask a new question when you have a new question.

[Rodrigo]

Shouldn't there be a default config file?

[simlev]

@Rodrigo The config file contains details about the connection, so it must be specific to it. While it makes little sense to have a default configuration, it could be useful to have a sample configuration file.