OpenVPN Setup, getting an error when starting Server 1

[adampk17]

Hello! Long time lurker, first time poster. I'm trying to configure OpenVPN and I'm getting an error when attempting to start Server 1. Here are the particulars:

Router: Asus RT-N66U
F/W: Merlin 3.0.0.4.374.32
Error: openvpn[4754]: Cannot load certificate file server.crt: error:0906D06C:lib(9):func(109):reason(108): error:140AD009:lib(20):func(173):reason(9)

openvpn[4754]: Exiting due to fatal error

I have never set up a VPN before, nor a certificate authority. Frankly, I found setting up and creating the certificates difficult. I used easy-rsa on my Windows 8 64 bit computer to create they keys (Certificate Authority, Server Certificate, and Server Key, I have nothing in the Static Key).

Using Notepad++ I copied and pasted the contents of the keys in to the OpenVPN Keys tab on the VPN Server portion of Advanced Settings on the router. I tried both with and without they key headers and footers. I can provide provide screenshots of my configuration settings if those would be helpful.

I'm at a loss with this error. I would be grateful for any assistance.

Thanks in advance.

Adam

 

[RMerlin]

Hello! Long time lurker, first time poster. I'm trying to configure OpenVPN and I'm getting an error when attempting to start Server 1. Here are the particulars:

Router: Asus RT-N66U
F/W: Merlin 3.0.0.4.374.32
Error: openvpn[4754]: Cannot load certificate file server.crt: error:0906D06C:lib(9):func(109):reason(108): error:140AD009:lib(20):func(173):reason(9)

openvpn[4754]: Exiting due to fatal error

I have never set up a VPN before, nor a certificate authority. Frankly, I found setting up and creating the certificates difficult. I used easy-rsa on my Windows 8 64 bit computer to create they keys (Certificate Authority, Server Certificate, and Server Key, I have nothing in the Static Key).

Using Notepad++ I copied and pasted the contents of the keys in to the OpenVPN Keys tab on the VPN Server portion of Advanced Settings on the router. I tried both with and without they key headers and footers. I can provide provide screenshots of my configuration settings if those would be helpful.

I'm at a loss with this error. I would be grateful for any assistance.

Thanks in advance.

Adam

Make sure you did include the --- BEGIN --- and --- END --- lines when pasting.

You don't need a static key if you are authenticating using certificates, so it's normal for that field to remain empty.

There's a pretty good tutorial for Tomato that can almost directly apply to Asuswrt-Merlin on the Wiki.

 

[adampk17]

Thanks for the quick reply. I went back and re-entered all of my keys, making sure to include the headers and footers.

I followed this guide, obviously to no avail, at this point.http://www.howtogeek.com/60774/connect-to-your-home-network-from-anywhere-with-openvpn-and-tomato/

The one thing that bothers me is that the guide's pictures shot the server certificate having a .crt extension, while mine ended up with a .csr extension. Why I do not know.

Same error still.

 

[RMerlin]

Thanks for the quick reply. I went back and re-entered all of my keys, making sure to include the headers and footers.

I followed this guide, obviously to no avail, at this point.http://www.howtogeek.com/60774/connect-to-your-home-network-from-anywhere-with-openvpn-and-tomato/

The one thing that bothers me is that the guide's pictures shot the server certificate having a .crt extension, while mine ended up with a .csr extension. Why I do not know.

Same error still.

A CSR is a certificate signing request. That's not the correct file, you really want the .crt file. A CRT is generated by signing a CSR using a KEY.

 

[adampk17]

A CSR is a certificate signing request. That's not the correct file, you really want the .crt file. A CRT is generated by signing a CSR using a KEY.

Thanks for the tip, I will do some more googling to figure out how to turn my CSR files in to CRTs.

 

[RMerlin]

Make sure you do run your command prompt with elevated privileges.

Note that you can also use the easy-rsa installation that's included in the firmware. I believe there's a guide on the wiki explaining a step-by-step based on the router's own easy-rsa.

 

[emNewB]

I know I'm digging up an old thread but I just ran in to this same issue. I found that when I opened my server.crt file with plain old notepad that I was not getting the "---end certificate---". So I tried to manually place it in there but still got the same error.

I downloaded Notepad++ and opened my server.crt to find the whole thing is shown there. So I copied and pasted it in to my settings and I'm able to get OpenVPN to work without an issue! So Notepad was cutting it off, even though I used "Ctrl+A" to select all text.

Not sure if this is your problem but worth a look if you haven't solved this issue yet.

 

[TobbeWilson]

Make sure you do run your command prompt with elevated privileges.

Note that you can also use the easy-rsa installation that's included in the firmware. I believe there's a guide on the wiki explaining a step-by-step based on the router's own easy-rsa.

Where is this installation?

 

[RMerlin]

Where is this installation?

As the quoted post said: instructions are on the Wiki.

https://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin/wiki/Generating-OpenVPN-keys-using-Easy-RSA