Hi. I need noob help with setting up an ovpn connection.
Ubuntu Version:
Ubuntu Mate 16.04
Desktop Environment (if applicable):
Not sure what desktop environment is installed.
Problem Description:
I am trying to install OpenVPN. I have tried several options as follows:-
Install Easy OpenVPN Server on Linux | Snap Store
When I get to step 3 there is no “Import .ovpn config” option in the network manager. If I cancel the VPN setup and select “Import a saved VPN configuration” the network manager does not recognise the *.ovpn file that I downloaded. Error states “The file ‘default.ovpn’ could not be read. The plugin does not support import capability.”
I have tried manually setting up a vpn by utilising the OpenVPN files.
– click on “edit connections”
– click on “add”
– select “openvpn” from the drop down menu
– click “create”
– I extract the “ca” and “cert” and “key” data from the ovpn file by copying and pasting everything between and , including the line -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- at the start and at the end. I repeated this for the “cert” and “key” data. I saved these files with the *.crt and *.key formats at the end of the file name.
– I dragged and dropped these created files into the correct slots in the next to “User Certificate” and “CA certificate” and “Private Key”
– some of the ovpn files have passwords and others don’t. If there is a password I put it in “Private Key Password”
– I’m a bit unsure about how to enter Gateway data. Is it purely the IP address? or is there a colon at the end with the port number?
– Then I click on “Advanced”, which I probably do not fully understand. Do I re-enter the port number? Some sites say to use the “LZO compression” and other sites say don’t. Some sites say that the “TCP connection” is flexible - do I tick it or not?
– Under the “security” tab some sites say to set the cipher specifically to a value and other sites say to leave it on default. I’m not sure what to do here.
– most sites don’t say anything about the “TLS authentication” and “proxies” tabs.
– I have tried this method with multiple different ovpn files.
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Relevant System Information:
Intel i5
8gb Ram
Onboard video card
Screenshots or Error Messages:
No screenshots unfortunately because I’m using a different PC to access this forum. The Ubuntu PC has Firefox installed which apparently is outdated. However when I try update it, it just stays on the same Firefox version (v88).
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Ubuntu announced its 16.04 (Xenial Xerus) release almost 5 years ago, on April 21, 2016. As with the earlier LTS releases, Ubuntu committed to ongoing security and critical fixes for a period of 5 years. The standard support period is now nearing its end and Ubuntu 16.04 LTS will transition to Extended Security Maintenance (ESM) on Friday, April 30th, 2021
Support is now only provided by Canonical (ESM options) OR the wider Linux community.
I suggest using a supported release of Ubuntu instead, your ESM support options offered by Canonical, or keeping your machine offline due to EOL/EOSS status.
which you’ll note includes the date Fri, 16 Apr 2021, ie. not long before EOSS (my prior comment/reply).
If you switch to using ESM (Expanded Security Maintenance), it was documented that ESM support was provided for a number of packages via snap package; so your details imply you’ve not enabled ESM and switched required packages to snap (if you had I’d expect 136.0-3 or 128.8.0esr-1). Please note the other components in the documentation; as many of your packages aren’t covered by ESM (the MATE desktop used by Ubuntu-MATE for example is found in the universe (community maintained) repository which isn’t covered by ESM you’ll note in my provided link ). If you’ve not assessed the security implications of that release; I’d suggest using a fully supported release of Ubuntu (or Ubuntu-MATE).
No time at the moment to change the PC OS at the moment. So I managed to find the https://ubuntu-mate.community/ website. Hopefully there will be some assistance there on how to install a VPN.
Even if there is, it is very likely that the package version you could use for this is outdated and full of security holes if you do not enable Ubuntu pro (or ESM as it was called back then), everything you would get from the standard 16.04 archive has not been touched in many years to fix known security issues … for something that is supposed to protect your network communication on the internet that isnt actually a good idea