OpenVPN Server not working in Arch Linux

[OnePerson10]

Hi. I installed OpenVPN 3 months ago and today has stopped working (Arch Linux). I don´t touch nothing so I don´t know why OVPN not work. I tried to reinstall but doesn´t work. Ports opened.

[luntik2012]

I've installed it just now and it doesn't work (archlinux testing). Worked previously. Service failed to start

[luntik2012]

Feb 16 15:54:56 myhostname openvpn[464347]: Consider setting groups/curves preference with tls-groups instead of forcing a specific curve with ecdh-curve.
Feb 16 15:54:56 myhostname openvpn[464347]: Note: Treating option '--ncp-ciphers' as  '--data-ciphers' (renamed in OpenVPN 2.5).
Feb 16 15:54:56 myhostname openvpn[464347]: Options error: --ca fails with 'ca.crt': Permission denied (errno=13)
Feb 16 15:54:56 myhostname openvpn[464347]: Options error: --cert fails with 'server_mJmlYr4kjNbKQ3WE.crt': Permission denied (errno=13)
Feb 16 15:54:56 myhostname openvpn[464347]: Options error: --key fails with 'server_mJmlYr4kjNbKQ3WE.key': Permission denied (errno=13)
Feb 16 15:54:56 myhostname openvpn[464347]: Options error: --status fails with '/var/log/openvpn/status.log': Permission denied (errno=13)
Feb 16 15:54:56 myhostname openvpn[464347]: Options error: Please correct these errors.
Feb 16 15:54:56 myhostname openvpn[464347]: Use --help for more information.
Feb 16 15:54:56 myhostname systemd[1]: openvpn-server@server.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE

[angristan]

Thanks for the report. PRs appreciated 🙏

[0x000C]

It seems to be related to new permissions in OpenVPN 2.5.0-3.

Changing ownership of the relevant directories seems to fix this problem:
chown -R openvpn.network /etc/openvpn/client /etc/openvpn/server /var/log/openvpn

My reference: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=262317

I have no idea if this is safe to do or permanent, but it does solve the errors at least.

[luntik2012]

sudo  chown -R openvpn.network /var/log/openvpn /etc/openvpn/

worked for me

sansible/openvpn#15

[sokoloowski]

sudo chown -R openvpn.network /etc/openvpn/client /etc/openvpn/server /var/log/openvpn /etc/openvpn/ca.crt /etc/openvpn/server_*

My reference: journalctl -xeu openvpn-server@server

[gatosyperros]

Yeah it fixed it for me putting the line in 925 right before it tries to install openvpn.
I used:
chown -R openvpn.network /etc/openvpn/ /var/log/openvpn/

[mukkumayc]

I did the same as @gatosyperros but after installation.

chown -R openvpn.network /etc/openvpn/ /var/log/openvpn/
systemctl restart openvpn-server@server

[smamun19]

I did the same as @gatosyperros but after installation.

chown -R openvpn.network /etc/openvpn/ /var/log/openvpn/
systemctl restart openvpn-server@server

Thanks. This worked for me :)

[kikislater]

Doesn't work anymore :

$ sudo  chown -R openvpn.network /var/log/openvpn /etc/openvpn/
chown: warning: '.' should be ':': « openvpn.network »

[joshuafhiggins]

Same, has anyone found a fix for this new error? Changing as it says doesn't work either. One of the other commands in here fixed it.

[BenMorel]

Same issue on Ubuntu 22 Server, and I can't use the fix above:

$ sudo chown -R openvpn.network /etc/openvpn/ /var/log/openvpn/
chown: invalid user: ‘openvpn.network’

[joshuafhiggins]

Same issue on Ubuntu 22 Server, and I can't use the fix above:

$ sudo chown -R openvpn.network /etc/openvpn/ /var/log/openvpn/
chown: invalid user: ‘openvpn.network’

Your issue looks different than ours. Try enabling the OpenVPN service and see if you can connect without this fix. I'm not sure how to on Ubuntu.