Client Drops Connection in Ubuntu 16.04

tweezer

Hi there!

I am trying to install and configure OpenVPN client on Ubuntu 16.04 to access my home network remotely from my laptop.

Background:

The OpenVPN Server is in a Netgear R8000 router in my home network. The internet connection is a fiber modem in bridge mode.
On Windows machines, the OpenVPN client connects and works perfectly with the router's provided "Windows" cert/config files..
For Ubuntu, I got the "Non-Windows" certificate/config files from the router.
On the Ubuntu machine, I installed OpenVPN and OPenVPN-Gnome
I placed the config files in etc/openvpn on ubuntu
I used Ubuntu's Network Manager "Import a Saved VPN configuration", and selected the client.conf in my etc/openvpn location
I restarted the system

So when I go the connect the vpn (the vpn name shows in the VPN Connections list. In my case it is called 'client2') I get the error message "The VPN Connection 'client2' failed because the VPN service returned invalid configuration"

The syslog looks like this (note, changed the ip address and port to 11.222.33.444:11111 here):

Jul 4 18:32:12 mysystem NetworkManager[702]: <info> [1467631932.0101] audit: op="connection-activate" uuid="942f267d-ebbf-4b39-bb51-9b8425f8d41a" name="client2" pid=1797 uid=1000 result="success"
Jul 4 18:32:12 mysystem NetworkManager[702]: <info> [1467631932.0203] vpn-connection[0xdf87d0,942f267d-ebbf-4b39-bb51-9b8425f8d41a,"client2",0]: Started the VPN service, PID 2490
Jul 4 18:32:12 mysystem NetworkManager[702]: <info> [1467631932.0417] vpn-connection[0xdf87d0,942f267d-ebbf-4b39-bb51-9b8425f8d41a,"client2",0]: Saw the service appear; activating connection
Jul 4 18:32:12 mysystem NetworkManager[702]: nm-openvpn-Message: openvpn[2495] started
Jul 4 18:32:12 mysystem NetworkManager[702]: <info> [1467631932.0542] vpn-connection[0xdf87d0,942f267d-ebbf-4b39-bb51-9b8425f8d41a,"client2",0]: VPN plugin: state changed: starting (3)
Jul 4 18:32:12 mysystem NetworkManager[702]: <info> [1467631932.0549] vpn-connection[0xdf87d0,942f267d-ebbf-4b39-bb51-9b8425f8d41a,"client2",0]: VPN connection: (ConnectInteractive) reply received
Jul 4 18:32:12 mysystem nm-openvpn[2495]: OpenVPN 2.3.11 x86_64-pc-linux-gnu [SSL (OpenSSL)] [LZO] [EPOLL] [PKCS11] [MH] [IPv6] built on May 10 2016
Jul 4 18:32:12 mysystem nm-openvpn[2495]: library versions: OpenSSL 1.0.2g-fips 1 Mar 2016, LZO 2.08
Jul 4 18:32:12 mysystem nm-openvpn[2495]: WARNING: No server certificate verification method has been enabled. See http://openvpn.net/howto.html#mitm for more info.
Jul 4 18:32:12 mysystem nm-openvpn[2495]: NOTE: the current --script-security setting may allow this configuration to call user-defined scripts
Jul 4 18:32:12 mysystem nm-openvpn[2495]: WARNING: file '/etc/openvpn/client.key' is group or others accessible
Jul 4 18:32:12 mysystem nm-openvpn[2495]: NOTE: chroot will be delayed because of --client, --pull, or --up-delay
Jul 4 18:32:12 mysystem nm-openvpn[2495]: NOTE: UID/GID downgrade will be delayed because of --client, --pull, or --up-delay
Jul 4 18:32:12 mysystem nm-openvpn[2495]: UDPv4 link local: [undef]
Jul 4 18:32:12 mysystem nm-openvpn[2495]: UDPv4 link remote: [AF_INET]11.222.33.444:11111
Jul 4 18:32:12 mysystem nm-openvpn[2495]: [netgear] Peer Connection Initiated with [AF_INET]11.222.33.444:11111
Jul 4 18:32:25 mysystem nm-openvpn[2495]: TUN/TAP device tap1 opened
Jul 4 18:32:25 mysystem nm-openvpn[2495]: /usr/lib/NetworkManager/nm-openvpn-service-openvpn-helper --bus-name org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.openvpn.Connection_4 --tap -- tap1 1500 1590 init
Jul 4 18:32:25 mysystem systemd-udevd[2498]: Could not generate persistent MAC address for tap1: No such file or directory
Jul 4 18:32:25 mysystem NetworkManager[702]: <info> [1467631945.3301] manager: (tap1): new Tun device (/org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Devices/7)
Jul 4 18:32:25 mysystem NetworkManager[702]: <info> [1467631945.3687] devices added (path: /sys/devices/virtual/net/tap1, iface: tap1)
Jul 4 18:32:25 mysystem NetworkManager[702]: <info> [1467631945.3688] device added (path: /sys/devices/virtual/net/tap1, iface: tap1): no ifupdown configuration found.
Jul 4 18:32:25 mysystem NetworkManager[702]: (process:2499): nm-openvpn-WARNING **: No IP4 netmask/prefix (missing or invalid 'ifconfig_netmask')
Jul 4 18:32:25 mysystem NetworkManager[702]: <info> [1467631945.4047] vpn-connection[0xdf87d0,942f267d-ebbf-4b39-bb51-9b8425f8d41a,"client2",0]: VPN connection: (IP Config Get) reply received.
Jul 4 18:32:25 mysystem NetworkManager[702]: <info> [1467631945.4120] vpn-connection[0xdf87d0,942f267d-ebbf-4b39-bb51-9b8425f8d41a,"client2",8:(tap1)]: VPN connection: (IP4 Config Get) reply received
Jul 4 18:32:25 mysystem NetworkManager[702]: <warn> [1467631945.4132] vpn-connection[0xdf87d0,942f267d-ebbf-4b39-bb51-9b8425f8d41a,"client2",8:(tap1)]: invalid IP4 config received!
Jul 4 18:32:25 mysystem NetworkManager[702]: <warn> [1467631945.4133] vpn-connection[0xdf87d0,942f267d-ebbf-4b39-bb51-9b8425f8d41a,"client2",8:(tap1)]: VPN connection: did not receive valid IP config information
Jul 4 18:32:25 mysystem nm-openvpn[2495]: chroot to '/var/lib/openvpn/chroot' and cd to '/' succeeded
Jul 4 18:32:25 mysystem nm-openvpn[2495]: GID set to nm-openvpn
Jul 4 18:32:25 mysystem nm-openvpn[2495]: UID set to nm-openvpn
Jul 4 18:32:25 mysystem nm-openvpn[2495]: Initialization Sequence Completed
Jul 4 18:32:25 mysystem nm-openvpn[2495]: event_wait : Interrupted system call (code=4)
Jul 4 18:32:25 mysystem NetworkManager[702]: nm-openvpn-Message: openvpn[2495]: send SIGTERM
Jul 4 18:32:25 mysystem NetworkManager[702]: <info> [1467631945.4227] vpn-connection[0xdf87d0,942f267d-ebbf-4b39-bb51-9b8425f8d41a,"client2",0]: VPN plugin: state changed: started (4)
Jul 4 18:32:25 mysystem NetworkManager[702]: <info> [1467631945.4240] vpn-connection[0xdf87d0,942f267d-ebbf-4b39-bb51-9b8425f8d41a,"client2",0]: VPN plugin: state changed: stopping (5)
Jul 4 18:32:25 mysystem NetworkManager[702]: <info> [1467631945.4241] vpn-connection[0xdf87d0,942f267d-ebbf-4b39-bb51-9b8425f8d41a,"client2",0]: VPN plugin: state changed: stopped (6)
Jul 4 18:32:25 mysystem NetworkManager[702]: <info> [1467631945.4313] devices removed (path: /sys/devices/virtual/net/tap1, iface: tap1)
Jul 4 18:32:25 mysystem nm-openvpn[2495]: SIGTERM[hard,] received, process exiting
Jul 4 18:32:25 mysystem NetworkManager[702]: nm-openvpn-Message: openvpn[2495] exited with success

I think the most telling messages in the log are:

nm-openvpn-WARNING **: No IP4 netmask/prefix (missing or invalid 'ifconfig_netmask')
invalid IP4 config received!
VPN connection: did not receive valid IP config information

On the router (VPN Server)'s logs, I see these:

"OpenVPN, connection successfully"
Then a minute or two later, "OpenVPN, connection dropped"

My client2.conf file:

client
dev tap
proto udp
remote myddnsurl.hopto.org 11111
resolv-retry infinite
nobind
persist-key
persist-tun
ca ca.crt
cert client.crt
key client.key
cipher AES-128-CBC
comp-lzo
verb 5

If anyone has some insight or suggestions on how to fix on this issue, I'm all ears. Thanks in advance for any advice.

Cheers,
T

TinCanTech

The best solution is .. do not use network-manager ..