I have a colleague in Spain who has gotten a login to the OpenVPN company server I am managing. He is using a Windows7 Pro X64 PC The server runs this version: OpenVPN 2.4.6 x86_64-pc-linux-gnu Today he installed OpenVPN from the installer "openvpn-install-2.4.6-I602.exe" found on the [url=https://swupdate.openvpn.org/community/releases/openvpn-install-2.4.6-I602.exe]OpenVPN website[/url]. It seemed to go OK so next he tried to connect using the OVPN file I had made for him. But he gets a fatal error which says: [quote]There are no TAP-Windows adapters on this system. You should be able to create a TAP-Windows adapter by going to Start -> All Programs -> TAP-Windows -> Utilities -> Add a new TAP-Windows virtual ethernet adapter. [/quote] I have to support him over Slack instant messaging so it is a bit hard to get relevant information. I tested his OVPN flle before sending it to him so I know it is OK. He sent me this screenshot of the connect window when it failed: [img]http://blog.boberglund.com/OpenVPN_No_TAP_error.png[/img] Any ideas?

OpenVPN GUI client on Win7 complains about missing TAP

BobAGI

I have a colleague in Spain who has gotten a login to the OpenVPN company server I am managing.
He is using a Windows7 Pro X64 PC
The server runs this version: OpenVPN 2.4.6 x86_64-pc-linux-gnu

Today he installed OpenVPN from the installer "openvpn-install-2.4.6-I602.exe" found on the OpenVPN website.
It seemed to go OK so next he tried to connect using the OVPN file I had made for him.
But he gets a fatal error which says:

There are no TAP-Windows adapters on this system. You should be able to create a TAP-Windows adapter by going to Start -> All Programs -> TAP-Windows -> Utilities -> Add a new TAP-Windows virtual ethernet adapter.

I have to support him over Slack instant messaging so it is a bit hard to get relevant information. I tested his OVPN flle before sending it to him so I know it is OK.
He sent me this screenshot of the connect window when it failed:

Any ideas?

TinCanTech

I would hope by now that you understand the details we need in order to help ..

But it looks like the TAP adaptor installation failed .. try re-installing openvpn.

BobAGI

Well, I did not think this had anything to do with neither the server installation configuration nor the OVPN file content since I have verified that it actually worked OK before sending it to the collegue...
Instead I think it must be a problem with the installer or such, that it does not install the TAP adapter or similar.
But then of course you would have others reporting it by now...
I have told him that he should reinstall, but I think he might already have done so. Awaiting his reply.
I saw an old bug discussion of this very problem where they suggested hacking the Registry, but I hope that will not be needed.

BobAGI

Update:
He reinstalled OpenVPN, no change - same problem.
Then he ran the Start/AllPrograms/TAP-Windows/Utilities/AddANewTAP.... command "as administrator".
The TAP connection was created and now he can connect.
I have no idea what was blocking this in the install in his case, some weird permission problem maybe.
I think he installed to Program Files/... (the default) whereas I always install this kind of opensource software in a separate folder named Programs (which is NOT a localized translation of Program Files). UAC at play maybe?

TinCanTech

You claim the GUI complains about missing TAP adapter .. is the same true for command line or service ?

BobAGI

I got some screenshots and textual information via Slack from him.
The logfile looks like this (the part he sent):

Tue Oct 30 16:10:38 2018 OpenVPN 2.4.6 x86_64-w64-mingw32 [SSL (OpenSSL)] [LZO] [LZ4] [PKCS11] [AEAD] built on Apr 26 2018
Tue Oct 30 16:10:38 2018 Windows version 6.1 (Windows 7) 64bit
Tue Oct 30 16:10:38 2018 library versions: OpenSSL 1.1.0h  27 Mar 2018, LZO 2.10
Enter Management Password:
Tue Oct 30 16:10:58 2018 TCP/UDP: Preserving recently used remote address: [AF_INET]xxx.yyy.99.36:1195
Tue Oct 30 16:10:58 2018 UDP link local: (not bound)
Tue Oct 30 16:10:58 2018 UDP link remote: [AF_INET]xxx.yyy.99.36:1195
Tue Oct 30 16:10:59 2018 [VPN] Peer Connection Initiated with [AF_INET]xxx.yyy.99.36:1195
Tue Oct 30 16:11:00 2018 open_tun
Tue Oct 30 16:11:00 2018 There are no TAP-Windows adapters on this system.  You should be able to create a TAP-Windows adapter by going to Start -> All Programs -> TAP-Windows -> Utilities -> Add a new TAP-Windows virtual ethernet adapter.
Tue Oct 30 16:11:00 2018 Exiting due to fatal error

As you can see the last two lines constitute a report of the fatal error concerning the TAP device.

The next step was to try the advice in the logfile, but it failed with an error.
Then he uninstalled/reinstalled OpenVPN and tried again.

At this point he claims that it was again unsuccessful, but I am no longer sure what he actually meant since later on I discovered that his "not working" meant that he could not access a specific server on the network using the //computername syntax, whereas I assumed he meant that what we had been working on did not succeed (connecting to VPN).

Anyway I assumed there was no TAP adapter still and asked him to run the command "as administrator" and report back.
Now after another back-and-forth I got a screenshot showing that he now had in fact no less than 3 TAP adapters!!
And I could verify through the logfile on the server that he was in fact connected...

In his case he was having a DNS issue once he finally got connected since using the IP address of the server worked.
So I told him how to add the two servers to his local hosts file and then his system worked as he expected.

This means that I cannot truly claim that the reinstall of OpenVPN did not in fact solve the problem, even though creating new TAP devices finally seemed to work. The needed TAP may well have been created during re-install.

Sorry for this confusion, I am an engineer now in Sweden and he is a marketing guy in the Madrid office and the home office LAN with VPN server is in the USA...

Concerning the DNS issue I just opened a new ticket here.