G+_Jason Brown Posted January 16, 2018 Share Posted January 16, 2018 I'm curious. Who here has experience with installing PiVPN on a standard Ubuntu machine? At this point I can install it with my eyes closed on a Pi. On Ubuntu, it installs fine, but it won't connect. I've setup a local VPN profile that points to my internal address, so my router is completely out of the mix until I get it working. I have enabled port forwarding via 'ufw' and have verified that my ports are, in fact, being forwarded. So I'm confident the software firewall isn't the problem either. Whenever I try to connect to Ubuntu, I get an error telling me to remove the --remote switch or add --float. I've scoured the forums, but can find no reference what file I'm supposed to edit, and where I'm supposed to put those switches. All I can find are posts where something more complex is the issue, or the admin just forgot to enable port forwarding. Ultimately, I've resigned myself to just being okay using the Pi for now. But I do like to repurpose those things a lot, and I also have a pretty nice Linux home server with very little to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Jonathan Bennett Posted January 16, 2018 Share Posted January 16, 2018 Two thoughts for you. First, PiVPN is just a simplified way to set up OpenVPN, so you can look at the OpenVPN documentation for information on the --remote and --float switches. Second, I would assume that the server side has a --remote option in its configuration file, which is dictating the IP address to expect the vpn connection from. Whichever device is acting as the server, you'll need to edit the open vpn config file, and probably just comment out the remote option. Another option is to add the "float" option to both device's configuration files. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Jason Brown Posted January 17, 2018 Author Share Posted January 17, 2018 Yeah, I checked in the server.conf file, but there's nothing in there about remote, except in reference to the cert. But you're saying the float switch needs to be on the server and client side? I was just doing server side Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Jason Brown Posted January 17, 2018 Author Share Posted January 17, 2018 I checked to man pages but couldn't find an example of it's usage, just what it's used for. Syntax errors abound Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Jonathan Bennett Posted January 17, 2018 Share Posted January 17, 2018 Jason Brown it doesn't hurt to have the float switch on both sides. Worth trying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Ben Reese Posted January 17, 2018 Share Posted January 17, 2018 I installed it on a Centos VM. Had to make one change afterwards for selinux, but install/setup worked the same as on a Pi. If you can't get Pi VPN working, look up "OpenVPN Road Warrior". It's a similar setup script that came out around the same time as PiVPN (maybe before) and is designed for Ubuntu, Centos, etc. github.com - Nyr/openvpn-install But PiVPN installed fine for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Jason Brown Posted January 17, 2018 Author Share Posted January 17, 2018 Thanks Jonathan, I had no idea. I'll give that a go. Ben, if this doesn't work, I think I'll try out your suggestion. Thanks for the alternative. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Jason Brown Posted January 17, 2018 Author Share Posted January 17, 2018 I saw something called Simplewall. But I just don't have it in my to blow away my machine again, and they don't seem to have an install package. But it looks like a really nice firewall/vpn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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