Can someone help, i have been having trouble connected with my home universities vpn, for past 15-20days, it is an openvpn connection, so i have been using networkmanager-openvpn to import my config files, and they have worked previously, but for last 15-20 days i get connection timed out, all certificates used are correct, i have tried to connect on cli,

Connection activation failed: The connection attempt timed out

and it suggests to check journalctl logs (nothing erroneous i could find) i am also able to connect with this vpn with my phone (with openvpn official app with same files), and also i am able to connect to proton’s vpns with my laptop, so i guess my device is not completely broken, i have tried to redownload my certificate files, recreating vpn profile, reinstalling networkmanager, nothing worked

  • Max-P@lemmy.max-p.me
    0·
    6 months ago

    Check the logs, but it’s probably related to the deprecation of compression. OpenVPN 2.6 now requires a flag client-side to enable it as it is known to be the cause of too many vulnerabilities.

    Add

    comp-lzo yes
allow-compression yes

    To your config and try again. If it still doesn’t work set log level to 4, redact personal info and post the logs.

    • sga@lemmy.mlOP
      0·
      6 months ago

      compression was already enabled in config (the config is given to us by institute), i will reply with logs

      • sga@lemmy.mlOP
        0·
        6 months ago

        i tried to change the verbosity level in config (it was 3, i did with 4 and 6), nothing came, and for some reason, nothing is coming in journalctl logs also

        • Max-P@lemmy.max-p.me
          0·
          6 months ago

          You can try running it directly, sudo openvpn --config yourconf.ovpn

          That will also tell us if NetworkManager is at fault.

          • sga@lemmy.mlOP
            0·
            6 months ago
            2024-05-12 23:51:46 WARNING: No server certificate verification method has been enabled.  See http://openvpn.net/howto.html#mitm for more info.
2024-05-12 23:51:47 TCP/UDP: Preserving recently used remote address: ***********
2024-05-12 23:51:47 Socket Buffers: R=[212992->212992] S=[212992->212992]
2024-05-12 23:51:47 UDPv4 link local: (not bound)
2024-05-12 23:51:47 UDPv4 link remote: ******************
2024-05-12 23:51:47 TLS: Initial packet from *************
2024-05-12 23:51:47 WARNING: this configuration may cache passwords in memory -- use the auth-nocache option to prevent this
2024-05-12 23:51:47 VERIFY OK: depth=1, C=IN, ***************
2024-05-12 23:51:47 VERIFY OK: depth=0, C=IN, ***************
2024-05-12 23:51:48 Control Channel: TLSv1.2, cipher TLSv1.2 DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384, peer certificate: 3072 bits RSA, signature: RSA-SHA256, peer temporary key: 1024 bits DH
2024-05-12 23:51:48 [vpn.*******] Peer Connection Initiated with ****************
2024-05-12 23:51:48 TLS: move_session: dest=TM_ACTIVE src=TM_INITIAL reinit_src=1
2024-05-12 23:51:48 TLS: tls_multi_process: initial untrusted session promoted to trusted
2024-05-12 23:51:49 SENT CONTROL [vpn.iitd.ac.in]: 'PUSH_REQUEST' (status=1)
2024-05-12 23:51:49 PUSH: Received control message: ************
2024-05-12 23:51:49 OPTIONS IMPORT: --ifconfig/up options modified
2024-05-12 23:51:49 OPTIONS IMPORT: route options modified
2024-05-12 23:51:49 OPTIONS IMPORT: --ip-win32 and/or --dhcp-option options modified
2024-05-12 23:51:49 OPTIONS ERROR: failed to negotiate cipher with server.  Add the server's cipher ('AES-128-CBC') to --data-ciphers (currently 'AES-256-GCM:AES-128-GCM:CHACHA20-POLY1305') if you want to connect to this server.
2024-05-12 23:51:49 ERROR: Failed to apply push options
2024-05-12 23:51:49 Failed to open tun/tap interface
2024-05-12 23:51:49 SIGUSR1[soft,process-push-msg-failed] received, process restarting
2024-05-12 23:51:49 Restart pause, 1 second(s)

            this repeats over and over, i killed it, also i tried to connect with our vpn a year or 2 ago this method, and had same/similar errors even back then, and it only used to worked with network manager

            sorry for editing it heavily, but would love to not be doxxed

            • Max-P@lemmy.max-p.me
              0·
              6 months ago
              ERROR: failed to negotiate cipher with server.  Add the server's cipher ('AES-128-CBC') to --data-ciphers (currently 'AES-256-GCM:AES-128-GCM:CHACHA20-POLY1305') if you want to connect to this server.

              That’s your error. So I think

              data-ciphers AES-128-CBC

              In your config should resolve this. Basically there’s some issues with CBC and it’s now off by default.

    • sga@lemmy.mlOP
      0·
      6 months ago

      but it works over on my phone, so something has to be borked over my end, i have also recently renewed my certificates, that may have something to do with it, since vpn has also not been working pretty much since then

  • lemmyreader@lemmy.mlEnglish
    0·
    6 months ago

    Not sure if this applies for your university VPN but with VPN providers an important part of making a successful VPN connection and use it browse the Internet, is that the DNS servers in /etc/resolv.conf are correct. You can check and see any difference of the content of that file, before and after starting the VPN connection.

      • lemmyreader@lemmy.mlEnglish
        0·
        6 months ago

        I am not sure if you would be able to compare the content of that file on your phone as well ? Maybe with adb and then check the content there (not sure if Android also uses /etc/resolv.conf) ? Or maybe test connecting on a Linux live USB stick and compare ?

  • 🧟‍♂️ Cadaver@lemmy.world
    0·
    6 months ago

    It may not apply to you but, from my own experience and assuming you are on KDE :

    Remove your ethernet connection. Remove your VPN connection. Recreate an ethernet connection then the VPN. Never set ‘autoconnect’.

    Before putting your computer to sleep/shutdown, manually disconnect from the VPN.

  • sga@lemmy.mlOP
    0·
    6 months ago

    since i forgot to mention it earlier, we have to renew our certificates almost every 6 months, and i renewed them recently (around the time of breakage start, but (i may be misremembering) i think i connected with new certs also, before renewal, the vpn worked both on my phone and laptop, now it only works on phone, i am now trying to use it on a live usb

      • lemmyreader@lemmy.mlEnglish
        0·
        6 months ago

        Your phone is fine with the new certificates but Linux on the desktop is not. #showerthought Would it be possible that both Arch Linux and Linux Mint have software upgraded that is causing the connection failure ? Could it still work if you would use an older LTS Linux version as live USB stick ? Or would the new certificates actually require newer software, like OpenSSL (which is I think a build dependency for OpenVPN) on the desktop ? EDIT: I guess the latter is not the case since Arch Linux is a rolling distribution. But you could ask your IT persons at the university whether they upgraded something ?