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How to configure OpenVPN for Linux Debian (Terminal)

Please make sure the following requirements are met:

exp.pngWhen using a native VPN protocol please make sure that your VPN protocol software supports the Internet protocol IPv6 along with IPv4 or run an IPv4 Internet connection only. Many Internet Service Providers connect with the IPv6 protocol or offer both protocols, IPv4 and IPv6, at the same time and as long as a native VPN protocol doesn't support IPv6 you risk data leaks, since an IPv6 connection can bypass the tunneled IPv4 connection.
While the CyberGhost client does support IPv6 and therefor prevent IPv6 leaks, users of native VPN protocols need to deactivate the IPv6 Internet protocol manually.
exp.pngDisclaimer: Please keep in mind that, although the technical process is as thoroughly documented as possible, you need to have at least some technical understanding. There's always a chance for an overseen mistake and/or things have changed and the article is not updated yet. 

Step 1

Visit your CyberGhost VPN online account.

Click on the menu entry 'My Devices' and then on button 'Add Device'.

In the list of Operating Systems you can CyberGhost use with, please click on 'Other' to be able to setup all necessary options for the OpenVPN protocol. When done the screen extends and gives way to 'Create new credentials'. Do it by clicking on the respective button.

Scroll up the page. As you see, the placeholder for a new device is now replaced by 'Linux, Router, etc.'. Click on that button:

Type a name for your new device and activate the wanted extra features, provided with each Premium subscription:

Scroll down and generate the login and configuration data for the OpenVPN protocol: 

  • Protocol: Choose the OpenVPN protocol you want to use:
    • OpenVPN (UDP): UDP allows higher speed than the TCP version, but can result in broken downloads in some cases. This is the default setting.
    • OpenVPN (TCP): TCP allows more stable connections than the UDP version, but is a bit slower. Choose this version, if you have recurrent connection issues such as sudden disconnections.
  • Country: Since native protocol connections may only be used with exactly one server you now have to choose the country you want to surf from; the server to be used in this country will be chosen by CyberGhost automatically. (If you want or need different PPTP, L2TP or OpenVPN connections in different countries, repeat all steps for every country.)
  • Server group: Depending on the chosen country as well as the availability of different server types as an attribute of your current plan you can also define a server group to use:
    • Standard Server: This is the group of all paid service servers (Special Edition, Premium, Premium Plus)
    • Premium Server: This is the smaller group of all exclusive servers for Premium subscribers (Premium, Premium Plus)
    • NoSpy Server: This is the group of all exclusive NoSpy servers for Premium subscribers with special extensions.

After setting up your connection wishes please note down the following data sets. You will need them to configure your device:

  • Server: This is the address of the country (server) you want to be connected with, e.g. '1-ro.cg-dialup.net'. Note: This address changes with every country you have chosen in the step before. The actual single server to be used will be chosen automatically by CyberGhost.
  • User name: A solely for protocol usage generated user name. This is NOT your regular CyberGhost account user name.
  • Password: A solely for protocol usage generated password. This is NOT your regular CyberGhost account password.

Once done, please download the configuration file. For that please click on 'Download Configuration' and save the file on your computer. It's a ZIP file, which contains the following single configuration files:

  • ca.crt: This is the certificate of the certification authority
  • client.crt: This is the user certification file 
  • client.key: This is your private key file
  • openvpn.ovpn: This is your OpenVPN configuration file

Step 2

Extract the downloaded configuration file and rename the containing 'openvpn.ovpn' to 'CG_Country.conf'.

Copy the file into your OpenVPN configuration directory. For that you open a terminal window and move to the folder in which you extracted the configuration files by typing:

cd [path to folder with the extracted configuration files]

Now copy the files:

sudo cp CG_XX.conf /etc/openvpn/
sudo cp ca.cert /etc/openvpn/
sudo cp client.crt /etc/openvpn/
sudo cp client.key /etc/openvpn/

If you want to surf from more than one country, download after the selection of a different country in your account management the the next zipped configuration file and rename that one also from 'openvpn.ovpn' to 'CG_AnotherCountry.conf'.

For two different countries you need for example do the following steps:

  1. Specify device, protocol and operating system
  2. Choose a country, e.g. USA
  3. Download the zipped configuration file with certificates, key and OpenVPN configuration file
  4. Unzip the downloaded file and copy all files in your OpenVPN configuration folder
  5. Rename the OpenVPN configuration file from ‘openvpn.ovpn’ to ‘CG_USA.conf’. (If you need to address a single server instead a country in general, you are to edit the OVPN file and exchange the pre-configured server address line. 
  6. Choose the next country, e.g. Romania
  7. Download the next zipped configuration file
  8. Unzip the downloaded file and copy just the file 'openvpn.ovpn' into the configuration folder 
  9. Rename it to ‘CG_RO.ovpn’.
  10. etc. ...

Step 3

Before you can begin configuring your network settings make sure you already installed the needed packages. If they are missing, please do as follows:

Download the package information by opening a console and typing ‘sudo apt-get update’.

Once done download the package with ‘sudo apt-get install openvpn openssl openresolv’

To be able to log in automatically, save your user name and password in a file called ‘user.txt’ and store it in your OpenVPN folder. For that first move to the OpenVPN folder:

cd /etc/openvpn

Now enter the following command to create and open a text file called 'user':

sudo nano user.txt

Type in your credentials (one in each line). In the first line type in the user name created in step 1, in the second line type in the password, also created in step 1:

YourUsername
YourPassword

DO NOT use your regular CyberGhost user name and password, which you use to login in the client and your account management!

Save your changes with ‘CTRL+O’ and leave the editor via ‘CTRL+X’

Next open the configuration file ‘CG_XX.conf’ by typing

sudo nano CG_XX.conf

Extend the line ‘auth-user-pass’ …

[...]
auth-user-pass
[...]

… with the path to your credentials file:

[...]
auth-user-pass /etc/openvpn/user.txt
[...]

At the bottom of the configuration passage (after 'comp-lzo') add the following two lines:

up /etc/openvpn/update-resolv-conf
down /etc/openvpn/update-resolv-conf

Save via ‘CTRL+O’ and leave the editor with ‘CTRL+X’.

Then get the file auto loaded by typing

sudo nano /etc/default/openvpn

and adding the following line:

AUTOSTART="CG_XX"  (the name of the file WITHOUT the file extension ‘.conf’)

Again, save with ‘CTRL+O’ and leave the editor with ‘CTRL+X’.

At last type in your console

sudo update-rc.d openvpn enable

Step 4

Before starting OpenVPN check your configuration with …

cat /etc/resolv.conf

… and have a look, if the last line (‘nameserver’) shows the IP of the router. If not, change it.

Now start OpenVPN:

sudo service openvpn start

Wait a few seconds and then test, if everything works fine.

Furthermore you might want to open the website https://dnsleaktest.com/ and test on leaks. For that choose ‘Standard Test’ or ‘Extended Test’.

*Many thanks to ‘Haudrauf’ for the original tutorial! 

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