OpenVPN in Windows 8 consumer preview

[Clodo]

I investigate on this issue, the "Waiting for TUN/TAP interface to come up" under Windows 8.

Test environment:
- Fresh, clean install of Windows 8 PRO Retail under a VirtualBox VM.
- OpenVPN 2.3.0


At connection, always waiting the TUN/TAP interface, forever until OpenVPN continue and finish with a "Initialization Sequence Completed With Errors".

Some people, for example here:
http://blogs.radicalsystems.com.au/lsil ... windows-8/
and also 'Bulvot' in this thread say to open the "Control Panel -> Network connections" to resolve.

True. Sistematic. If for example wait five "Waiting for TUN/TAP" and i open the control panel, OpenVPN unlock (see the adapter) in realtime.

So, control panel do something, i suppose it change somethings on the TAP network interface.

People around internet say it's because CP start the "Netman" service.

Also, some other people, for example here:
http://visualplanet.org/blog/?p=127

say that issue is caused by missing "RAS Connection Manager Administration Kit (CMAK)" in Windows 8 default installation.



Actually, in my test environment,
i don't have installed the "RAS Connection Manager Administration Kit (CMAK)",
i don't have started or set auto the service "Netman",
i simply run

Code: Select all

netsh interface set interface "Local Area Connection" ENABLED

When i detect in the log the message "Waiting for TUN/TAP interface to come up".
("Local Area Connection" is my TAP-Windows interface).




I still think that OpenVPN developer must investigate about this issue.

Regards.

[chuckles]

Huh.

I seem to have stumbled upon a permanent fix for getting OpenVPN connection to work with Windows 8 Pro using the info from previous posts.

1) first step was to completely remove my installation OpenVPN.
2) open the Network Adapter applet (I just used the command window and entered "start c:\windows\system32\control.exe ncpa.cpl"
3) leave the applet open and then reinstall OpenVPN running the installer as administrator. After installation, there was a TAP-Windows Adapter V9 in Network connections with red X
4) Change the properties of openvpn.exe and the gui applications to run as an administrator.

Now when I open the main application or use the GUI, I always get a connection - I don't have to open the Network Adapter applet ever again.

[LighScan]

I should've seen this one coming... Got a new laptop from work with Windows 8 on it, everything works smooth except... vpn. *sigh*.

So after reading this topic and spending a few hours (more like wasting them) on getting this to work, I failed. I can't get the connection up and running.

Okay so basically:

• The program OpenVPN which I can download and install from website from my work, is very outdated and doesn't run under Windows 8 (great job sys-admins @ work )
• OpenVPN Desktop Client is actually able to make a connection (yes, running as "Administrator")
• Same problem as described in this topic occurs: the network interface doesn't get updated with the info, thus the connection works only half (openvpn works but doesn't share..., simply put).

It doesn't work by running the network applet, compability mode, etc. What am I doing wrong?

[AU_Squirrel]

Having a similar issue. I have configured OpenVPN to run as admin. I do connect to the server however the windows 8 firewall is blocking any packets not originating from the gateway. It has placed the Tap adapter in the public space.

For testing I can ssh into the gateway box and then connect to any workstation on the internal network. I can ping my gateway box from the laptop. I can't ping or traceroute to the laptop from the gateway or any internal network.

I run a wireshark capture on the tap adapter and packets from the internal network are arriving. It appears that the windows 8 firewall is blocking them as it has placed the Tap adapter in the public networks group. This setting will not allow incoming ICMP or other packets into the workstation. To date I have not found a way of adding the Tap adapter to the private network group. Most options require me to run the gpedit.msc which is not installed on the laptop.

[rfigueroa]

Same issue here, also solved by opening the applet before.

We're running OpenVPN as Service, so I modified the script to stop open the applet and start the service:

Code: Select all

net stop OpenVPNService
start c:\windows\system32\control.exe ncpa.cpl
net start OpenVPNService

So the user needs to run this script as Administrator every time he wants to connect.

Are there any issue opened that we can follow to be notified when this get resolved?

[rseiler]

My primary problem in Win8 Pro RTM with the latest OpenVPN client (Feb 14) is that perhaps around every other or every third time, it GPF's when connecting. I then have to go in and disable/enable the TAP adapter (Local Area Connection) and reconnect. Quite annoying.

Faulting application name: openvpn-gui.exe, version: 2.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x511d035b
Faulting module name: msvcrt.dll, version: 7.0.9200.16384, time stamp: 0x5010ac20
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x0000000000001264
Faulting process id: 0xa58
Faulting application start time: 0x01ce18b23178df37
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files\OpenVPN\bin\openvpn-gui.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\system32\msvcrt.dll
Report Id: 51d08b26-8566-11e2-bef4-74f06debe923
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

[rseiler]

What's the deal with not being able to edit a post after only a couple minutes? Anyway, I found a better thread for the crashing issue here:
topic11901.html

[egroeper]

Actually, in my test environment,
i don't have installed the "RAS Connection Manager Administration Kit (CMAK)",
i don't have started or set auto the service "Netman",
i simply run

Code: Select all

netsh interface set interface "Local Area Connection" ENABLED

When i detect in the log the message "Waiting for TUN/TAP interface to come up".
("Local Area Connection" is my TAP-Windows interface).

Thanks! This works here, too.

I put this into a batch script (enabletap.cmd):

Code: Select all

C:\Windows\System32\netsh interface set interface %1 Enabled

This script is called by OpenVPN GUI:

Code: Select all

script-security 2
up enabletap.cmd

After these changes the timeouts for the tap device are gone and the tunnel seems to work every time.

[Videonisse]

Can anyone confirm if OpenVPN still needs a workaround to initiate the first connection in Win 8.1, or if the problem is solved?

[rseiler]

It's long solved.

[Videonisse]

It's long solved.

I updated OpenVPN on a Win 8 PC few months ago and the problem existed after the update. I have not updated to Win 8.1 yet.

Should it be solved in OpenVPN or in Win 8.1?

[rseiler]

We might be talking about different problems then, but it was a client update that solved my problem a long time ago, not Windows. What do you mean by "Initiate the first connection"? It works here for any and all connections.

[linnea]

I do experience same problem too but after the client update my openvpn works fine.

[voter]

The probelm ist still there in Windows 8.1 and OpenVPN with GUI v5 : after coming back from stand-by no more OpenVPN connection is possible.


The simple solution - opening Network Connection panel, helps.

With old OpenVPN v1.5.6 and old TAP driver the problem is not appearing.

[ananda]

My problem was on server side, but the solution may be similar on the client. More precisely, for me the problem was only present on reboot, openvpn was unable to set tap-adapter address (I guess it was not logged), and then had no chance to setup the route.

The basic idea for me was to manualy set as much as possible in windows:
- Set the TAP-Win32 adapter Media Status property to "Always Connected"
- Set the address of the adapter let's say 10.8.0.4/255.255.255.252 (client first default address)
- Add a static route to this network using the tap-adapter: route add 10.8.0.0 mask 255.255.255 10.8.0.5 if your-tap-adapter
(make it persistent using -p if you want)
- in openvpn config (it was in server mode in my case, but it should also work):

# don't let openvpn set the adapter address
ip-win32 manual

# I assume this line is no longer needed, but I didn't try and it didn't hurt...
ifconfig 10.8.0.4 10.8.0.5

# route 10.8.0.0 255.255.255.0 (no longer needed, it's already here)

Hope this helps.