Transmission OpenVPN Guide

[Loose Nut]

I'm having an issue with the openvpn transmission guide.  Once I do all the steps in the guide it appears to be working and by doing the torrent file test I get PIA's IP instead of my own.  However, once I reboot the Banana Pi transmission appears to stop working.  I cannot access it via the web gui.  I did service transmission-daemon restart and I was able to log into the web gui.  However, I was no longer being protected by the PIA IP and my own IP was visible with the torrent file test.

I thought maybe it was a permissions thing, so I re-did the tutorial as root and the same thing happened.  I did notice the following error though:

root@bananapi:~# cd /etc/openvpn
root@bananapi:/etc/openvpn# sudo openvpn --config /etc/openvpn/'AU Melbourne.ovpn' --auth-user-pass /etc/openvpn/login.txt --script-security 2 --up /etc/openvpn       /torrentvpn.sh --down /etc/openvpn/torrentvpnstop.sh
Thu Sep  3 12:29:02 2015 OpenVPN 2.2.1 arm-linux-gnueabihf [SSL] [LZO2] [EPOLL]        [PKCS11] [eurephia] [MH] [PF_INET6] [IPv6 payload 20110424-2 (2.2RC2)] built on        Dec  1 2014
Thu Sep  3 12:29:02 2015 WARNING: file '/etc/openvpn/login.txt' is group or othe       rs accessible
Thu Sep  3 12:29:02 2015 NOTE: the current --script-security setting may allow t       his configuration to call user-defined scripts
Thu Sep  3 12:29:02 2015 LZO compression initialized
Thu Sep  3 12:29:02 2015 UDPv4 link local: [undef]
Thu Sep  3 12:29:02 2015 UDPv4 link remote: [AF_INET]168.1.99.218:1194
Thu Sep  3 12:29:02 2015 WARNING: this configuration may cache passwords in memo       ry -- use the auth-nocache option to prevent this
Thu Sep  3 12:29:03 2015 [Private_Internet_Access] Peer Connection Initiated wit       h [AF_INET]168.1.99.218:1194
Thu Sep  3 12:29:06 2015 TUN/TAP device tun1 opened
Thu Sep  3 12:29:06 2015 do_ifconfig, tt->ipv6=0, tt->did_ifconfig_ipv6_setup=0
Thu Sep  3 12:29:06 2015 /sbin/ifconfig tun1 10.108.1.6 pointopoint 10.108.1.5 m       tu 1500
Thu Sep  3 12:29:06 2015 /etc/openvpn/torrentvpn.sh tun1 1500 1542 10.108.1.6 10       .108.1.5 init
Stopping bittorrent daemon: transmission-daemon.
nameserver 209.222.18.222
nameserver 209.222.18.218
RTNETLINK answers: File exists
RTNETLINK answers: File exists
Restarting bittorrent daemon: transmission-daemon.
SIOCADDRT: File exists
Thu Sep  3 12:29:07 2015 ERROR: Linux route add command failed: external program        exited with error status: 7
Thu Sep  3 12:29:07 2015 Initialization Sequence Completed


Could that have something to do with it?  I have been playing with it for ages, but nothing I do seems to fix it 

[Mike]

Well done for trying, it is a rather complicated guide. I have never seen that linux route add error before. Are you using ethernet?

Once you reboot it should run the scripts correctly and everything. Did you install upstart (because that could break the systemd service, I hope you took a backup as recommended!)

[Loose Nut]

I changed $ifconfig_local to $ifconfig_remote in

Code:

/etc/openvpn/torrentvpn.sh

And didn't get an error when I did
sudo openvpn --config /etc/openvpn/'AU Melbourne.ovpn' --auth-user-pass /etc/openvpn/login.txt --script-security 2 --up /etc/openvpn/torrentvpn.sh --down /etc/openvpn/torrentvpnstop.sh

However, it's still not working.  Transmission is not starting when I reboot and then when I manually start it, it isn't connecting via the VPN.

I didn't use the upstart method.  I used the /etc/rc.local method.

What do you think my next step should be?  Restore from backup and try again?

[Karajorma]

Do you have to use OpenVPN? Cause there is a really good (and easy to follow) guide on how to set up an IPSec VPN on a a Raspberry Pi here

tomearp.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/setting-up-l2tpipsec-vpn-with-softether.html

I used it with no problems on my Banana Pi and SoftEther seems to be really nice and easy to use software.

[Mike]

Thank you Karajorma, however, there are two distinct use cases for a VPN. One is for remotely accessing a network to access resources (what you are doing), the other is masking your IP address by using a paid provider like Private Internet Access.

Loose nut, if you don't get an error when you run that command manually there is something about how it is starting up, when you run the command manually do you get everything working?

[Karajorma]

Ah, yeah. I didn't read as carefully as I should have.

[Loose Nut]

Success!  I restored my previous backup and re-did the guide as root and it appears to have worked!  Time to backup!

Thanks for replying @Karajorma and @Mike

[Mike]

(Sep 04, 2015, 06:11 AM)Karajorma Wrote: Ah, yeah. I didn't read as carefully as I should have.

It's a common error, most think all VPNs are the same, it's easy to get confused

[guido]

(Sep 03, 2015, 10:32 PM)Loose Nut Wrote: I didn't use the upstart method.  I used the /etc/rc.local method.

Would you mind sharing your rc.local code?

I have the problem that not all my services start, separately they do start. 
my code looks like this:

Code:

#!/bin/sh -e
#
# rc.local
#
# This script is executed at the end of each multiuser runlevel.
# Make sure that the script will "exit 0" on success or any other
# value on error.
#
# In order to enable or disable this script just change the execution
# bits.
#
# By default this script does nothing.

sudo python /home/osmc/sickbeard/SickBeard.py -d
python /home/osmc/CouchPotatoServer/CouchPotato.py
sleep 15
sudo openvpn --config /etc/openvpn/amsterdam50000.ovpn --auth-user-pass /etc/openvpn/login.txt --script-security 2 --up /etc/openvpn/torrentvpn.sh --down /etc/openvpn/torrentvpnstop.sh

[Mike]

Guido, I have a feeling this is an OSMC issue which has always had random strange issues (many with Raspbmc, OSMC's predecessor). Are you saying that only one of the programs actually starts in rc.local but not all of them together (e.g. only sickbeard runs but couchpotato and sickbeard don't?)

Your sleep value is incorrect, it should be sleep 15, not sleep15.

You shouldn't need to run Sickbeard or Couchpotato in rc.local, there are init.d scripts for it, how did you install SickBeard and CouchPotato?

I am very curious to see why OSMC is not letting you do things in rc.local.

I would definitely recommend trying the Minibian image and the installer to install Kodi, SickRage and Couchpotato to see if that will suit your needs.

Are you using a Kodi VPN plugin or did you install OpenVPN through SSH?