Gnome network manager can't import any openvpn config file (.ovpn) after upgrading ubuntu to 16.04 version;
I get the following error message when I try to import openvpn config file:
The file 'file-x.ovpn' could not be read or does not contain recognized VPN connection information Error: the plugin does not support import capability
The issue for me was the following line in my .ovpn file:
route remote_host 255.255.255.255 net_gateway
Commenting out this line allowed me to import the connection.
I also had the same issue, trying to import on an Ubuntu 16.04 client a .ovpn file produced by a home pritunl server.
The .ovpn file contained comment lines (#) as well as inline certificates (<ca>, <tls-auth>, <cert>, <key>). And there was no apparent reason to remove comments or keys. This same .ovpn had already been successfully imported into the Kubuntu 16.04 network manager, with only a warning about reneg-sec being too high; A clue to import issues on Ubuntu 16.04.
The reneg-sec value is too high and encounters known import bug:
reneg-sec 2592000
Comment it out or use default value 3600.
#reneg-sec 2592000
This value can be re-set from Advanced settings in VPN config tab under:
The config had two remote definitions:
remote hostname.org 14195 udp6
remote hostname.org 14195 udp
remote-random
Try with only one:
#remote hostname.org 14195 udp6
remote hostname.org 14195 udp
#remote-random
After these two modifications, there were no import errors.
remote configurationAlthough there was no import error any more, the remote was not imported properly, i.e. the port and protocol were not properly parsed, so I had to further break the remote directive down in the .ovpn file as follows
remote hostname.org
port 14195
proto udp
My .ovpn file contained comments as well as inline certificates, etc.. After reading some other posts, I thought the problem lied in the inline files or the comments, so I split the inline certificates and keys into separate files and removed all comments.
So in the end, after applying the above fixes, the .ovpn file with the inline keys and comments was imported.
I also have Ubuntu 16.04, and the same problem occurs. The solution is not a very good solution, because you need another computer already connected with the VPN.
Check that you have already installed openvpn and network-manager, from the terminal:
$ sudo apt install openvpn network-manager-openvpn network-manager-openvpn-gnome
$ sudo systemctl restart network-manager
In general, this should work, but in very few cases (and i don't know why - i suppose that's probably a bug) a .ovpn can't be imported.
So, follow theses steps:
On the computer that already have a created connection with the VPN, select the vpn connection
make empty the password
click on export button
At this point, you'd have a ".conf" file.
open the ".conf" file and edit any parts that reference files on your computer if exists
In your computer, create a new connection with the ".conf" file.
Try adding it through the terminal instead of through the GUI:
sudo nmcli connection import type openvpn file your-file.ovpn
As stated on https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/network-manager-openvpn/+bug/606365
PS: You might still need to tweak your .ovpn with the tips found on other answers on this question nevertheless.
$ sudo openvpn --config file.ovpn
worked for me - I can tunnel, however I need to remember local IPs since I have no local DNS configured.
In my case it was necessary to remove all the comments (starting with #) from the *.ovpn. Some people found also that the line containing "remote SERVER NNNN" should be split into "remote SERVER" and "port NNNN".
Probably this is caused by settings in the .opvn file that can't be parsed.
First make sure you have the needed packages installed:
sudo apt update && sudo apt install network-manager-openvpn-gnome network-manager-openvpn openvpn
If it still fails, edit the *.ovpn file in a text editor and strip out the following lines that break the import.
<he> tagIf there is a <he> tag in the client ovpn config files, delete those lines. It's not needed:
<he>
...
</he>
If there is something like:
<connection>
remote <ip> 443 tcp-client
</connection
<connection>
remote <ip> 1194 udp
</connection>
Replace that section with this:
remote <ip> 1194 udp
The import stumbles upon multiple connections and doesn't support the <connection> tag. At least not in 16.04-17.04.
That's all, IMHO you can keep comments, they make no difference.
After you deleted the tag and edited the connection part, try to import the modified *.ovpn file. Solution from this blog post.
I had the same problem on a fresh Ubuntu 18.04 install. To my surprise openVPN was NOT installed by default.
I figured out because when I clicked "+" sign in "setting->Network->VPN"section the dialogue box did only had two option i.e. Open VPN option was not there.
I followed 1 and installed openvpn and restarted network manager everything worked fine after that as I can see the OpenVPN option on the popup image attached
sudo apt install openvpn network-manager-openvpn network-manager-openvpn-gnome
sudo systemctl restart network-manager
For me, I had to change the following in the .ovpn file:
remote ***.org 443 tcp-client
To:
proto tcp
remote ***.org 443
And also, as pointed by @Kostas Filios I had to change this part to a comment:
#reneg-sec 2592000
I had this problem while importing the .ovpn file with the network manager. I fixed it by changing my remote line from
remote vpn.example.com 1190 udp4
to
remote vpn.example.com 1190 udp
I needed to replace the line remote xx.xx.xx.xx 443 tcp4 with remote xx.xx.xx.xx 443 tcp for it to work.
All the tags should be removed. Tags like
<connection\>
</connection\>
<ca\>
</ca\>
Sometimes, the commenting doesn't work. Address the certificate to the file in which you store it.
ca '/home/mersadkhan/.cert/nm-openvpn/su2-tcp-ca.pem'
