Failed to parse profile iOS 14.1

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martin51
OpenVpn Newbie
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Joined: Fri Oct 23, 2020 4:16 am

Failed to parse profile iOS 14.1

Post by martin51 » Fri Oct 23, 2020 5:38 am

Not sure if this is the right place to post this but here goes.

I have a Netgear Nighthawk R7000P router that I'm trying to implement VPN on. The problem I'm having is that OpenVPN is unable to parse the VPN profile generated by the router. It recognizes the client3.ovpn file but when I try to import it I get the error "Failed to parse profile: ca.crt, client.crt, client.key". All of the files are in the folder containing client.ovpn. I've already spent a couple of hours with Neatgear support but other than repeat the set up procedure, which inevitably results in the same outcome, they have no further suggestions. I suspect there's something odd about the configuration of the .crt and/or .key file but it's beyond my expertise to begin to troubleshoot although if somebody could point me in the right direction I'd be happy to dig into it.

I running latest version of OpenVPN downloaded from the App Store on an iPhone 11Pro, iOS14.0.1.

Any help greatly appreciated

TinCanTech
OpenVPN Protagonist
Posts: 11137
Joined: Fri Jun 03, 2016 1:17 pm

Re: Failed to parse profile iOS 14.1

Post by TinCanTech » Fri Oct 23, 2020 1:30 pm


martin51
OpenVpn Newbie
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri Oct 23, 2020 4:16 am

Re: Failed to parse profile iOS 14.1

Post by martin51 » Fri Oct 23, 2020 5:13 pm

Thanks for the reply.

Tried editing the client3.ovpn file as shown in the link but still getting the failed to parse error.

As I understand from the example you linked to this is a method to put all the information contained in ca.crt, client.crt, and client.key files into a single .ovpn file so I used BBEdit to copy and paste the contents of the 3 files replacing the ... between the Begin and End Certificate dividers. I'm not sure what or don't have the information that corresponds to tls-auth or the OpenVPN Static Key V1 but so far my edits haven't worked but I'll keep trying.

I was beginning to think there was something odd about my set up but it sounds like I'm not the only user with this problem. Maybe Netgear should be encouraged to change the format of the OpenVPN profile.

Thanks again for your help. Any further pointers appreciated

TinCanTech
OpenVPN Protagonist
Posts: 11137
Joined: Fri Jun 03, 2016 1:17 pm

Re: Failed to parse profile iOS 14.1

Post by TinCanTech » Fri Oct 23, 2020 5:17 pm

martin51 wrote:
Fri Oct 23, 2020 5:13 pm
Any further pointers appreciated
I would not use netgear for this at all, except to run the VPN.

Use EasyRSA on a real computer to generate your PKI and EasyTLS to inline everything:
https://github.com/OpenVPN/easy-rsa/releases
https://github.com/TinCanTech/easy-tls

If you do then let me know how you get on.

martin51
OpenVpn Newbie
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri Oct 23, 2020 4:16 am

Re: Failed to parse profile iOS 14.1

Post by martin51 » Fri Oct 23, 2020 10:36 pm

Thanks again for your help but this is getting to be a bit above my pay grade. My next thought is to replace the Netgear firmware with Advanced Tomato - hopefully its OpenVPN implementation will work.

TinCanTech
OpenVPN Protagonist
Posts: 11137
Joined: Fri Jun 03, 2016 1:17 pm

Re: Failed to parse profile iOS 14.1

Post by TinCanTech » Fri Oct 23, 2020 11:27 pm

This is total noob stuff .. and you are quitting already :(

martin51
OpenVpn Newbie
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri Oct 23, 2020 4:16 am

Re: Failed to parse profile iOS 14.1

Post by martin51 » Sat Oct 24, 2020 1:37 am

Ouch 😃. I used Bbedit to look into the profile files but the syntax and terminology are pretty much a foreign language so much of what I've done so far has been trial and error. Unfortunately loading up EasyRSA and EasyTLS in Terminal and going through the help files didn't exactly boost my confidence - too many TLAs (three letter acronyms) and other undefined terms. Maybe I'll revisit after a couple of days to get over the shock 😬

taxelas
OpenVpn Newbie
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Joined: Thu Jul 27, 2017 8:42 am

Re: Failed to parse profile iOS 14.1

Post by taxelas » Mon May 09, 2022 9:44 pm

What worked for me is to include certificates in the .ovpn file.
to do so I copy pasted the text from certificates into ovpn file and delete links to the file certificates:

Code: Select all

 ca ca.crt
 cert client.crt
 key client.key
*no "inline" reference is needed
certificates should be in the end of the config:

Code: Select all

<ca>
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
XXXXXXXXX
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
</ca>

<cert>
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
XXXXXXX
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
</cert>

<key>
-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
XXXXXXX
-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
</key>
I hope it helps.

dropframe
OpenVPN User
Posts: 21
Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2022 5:11 pm

Re: Failed to parse profile iOS 14.1

Post by dropframe » Thu Jun 30, 2022 6:09 pm

Try right clicking on the clientxx opvn file. then launch OpenVPN from the pop up. That way the file and certificate will automatically associate itself.

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