7

I am having this error using OpenVPN client:

Mon Sep 25 07:46:43 2017 /sbin/ip link set dev tun0 up mtu 1500
Mon Sep 25 07:46:43 2017 /sbin/ip addr add dev tun0 local 10.8.0.10 peer 10.8.0.9
Mon Sep 25 07:46:43 2017 /sbin/ip route add 192.168.1.0/24 via 10.8.0.9
ip: RTNETLINK answers: File exists
Mon Sep 25 07:46:43 2017 ERROR: Linux route add command failed: external program exited with error status: 2
Mon Sep 25 07:46:43 2017 /sbin/ip route add 10.8.0.0/24 via 10.8.0.9
Mon Sep 25 07:46:43 2017 /sbin/ip route add 10.8.0.1/32 via 10.8.0.9
Mon Sep 25 07:46:43 2017 Initialization Sequence Completed

My client configuration is :

dev tun
tls-client
remote myRemoteServer_IP <myRemoteServer_Port>

pull

proto udp

script-security 2

comp-lzo
reneg-sec 0

cipher AES-256-CBC

auth SHA1
auth-user-pass /etc/openvpn/auth.txt

log /etc/openvpn/openvpn.log
verb 3


<ca>
# the certificate...
</ca>

I am not the server administrator so I can't change the server configuration.. I tried the same configuration on my ubuntu and it is working...

My operating system is a costumized distribution of linux, the architceture is ARM (armv5tejl), the kernel is 3.10

Any idea how to fix this? thanks!

[EDIT]

# ip route
default via 192.168.1.254 dev eth0 
10.8.0.0/24 via 10.8.0.9 dev tun0 
10.8.0.1 via 10.8.0.9 dev tun0 
10.8.0.9 dev tun0  src 10.8.0.10 
127.0.0.0/8 dev lo 
192.168.1.0/24 dev eth0  src 192.168.1.80
Improve this question
5
  • What does ip route show. You probably already have a route that conflicts with the route to 192.168.0.1/24 and the kernel refuses to add the route. Commented Sep 25, 2017 at 8:50
  • I added the ip route result, I don't know much in networking, is there a routes conflit? how can I resolve this? thanks Commented Sep 25, 2017 at 8:56
  • 2
    The last line 192.168.1.0/24 dev eth0 src 192.168.1.80 shows that you already have a route to 192.168.1.0/24, which is apparently your local LAN. Why are you trying to add the new route to 192.168.1.0/24? Commented Sep 25, 2017 at 9:27
  • actually it is the openvpn server that is pushing the routes. Commented Sep 25, 2017 at 9:30
  • 2
    Ok. I guess the network addresses are clashing: both the server and you local network use 192.168.1.0/24. If this is the case, you will have to either renumber you own local LAN address space, or negotiate with the openvpn server admins to use a different subnet on the remote network. Commented Sep 25, 2017 at 10:59

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
6

Try once:

sudo ip link delete YOUR_NETWORK_INTERFACE

Example:

sudo ip link delete tun0
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5
  • 1
    Could you explain why this is supposed to help? Commented Dec 23, 2019 at 15:36
  • 3
    It will delete the routes added by openvpn. so next time when you try connecting by openvpn it will not throw any error by saying routes already added. Commented Dec 25, 2019 at 11:48
  • Actually, this was exactly the problem I had today, an old job OpenVPN configuration added a route that remained in place, and in my new job OpenVPN config was not working because of that. ip link delete command and reloading VPN solved the issue. Commented Sep 9, 2020 at 13:19
  • works! in my case tun0 left for some reason after the previous connection, so the deletion did the job Commented Dec 15, 2020 at 20:01
  • In my case it doesnt work. (linux mint sonya running on a macbook) Commented Dec 3, 2023 at 17:40
2

Maybe a somewhat trivial answer, but in my case I solved it by rebooting the machine to resolve the conflict (to free that IP and make it available)

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1
  • Evergreen solution 😂 Commented Dec 21, 2020 at 12:40

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