Openvpn On My Machine: Easy-RSA: Building My Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) part I

I have been on the lookout for third party VPN providers for a year now. Since the start of 2017, privacy is in the top of my to-do list. After installing Arch linux early February, and configuring basic maintenance and security procedures, I am now ready to embark on connecting to somekind of vpn service. From what I've read so far my best bet is a third party vpn provider which gives me a secure and private connection to the Internet and easy to configure. I also went to the Arch linux wiki, specifically, Openvpn and Easy-RSA pages. Arch linux has a culture of "do-it-yourself" and "keep-it-simple-shit" (KISS, maybe I got that wrong).

The latter course is the subject of my post (hopefully in the next post(s) I could bring good news too). Openvpn is based on machines authenticating themselves to servers which connect to the Internet securely. I have to build up my public key infrastructure PKI to make this possible. In the wiki, it is recommended that the CA issuing machine be different (more entropy capable) from the server and of course the client machines. This path assumes I have more than one machine. What if I only have one?

Openvpn is a flexible and highly configurable software. It says so in the manual:

"OpenVPN is an open source VPN daemon by James Yonan. Because OpenVPN tries to be a universal VPN tool offering a great
deal of flexibility, there are a lot of options..."

Also:

            "OpenVPN is a robust and highly flexible VPN daemon. OpenVPN supports SSL/TLS security, ethernet bridging,     TCP or UDP tun‐
       nel transport through proxies or NAT, support for dynamic IP addresses and DHCP, scalability to hundreds or     thousands of
       users, and portability to most major OS platforms.

       OpenVPN is tightly bound to the OpenSSL library, and derives much of its crypto capabilities from it.

       OpenVPN supports conventional encryption using a pre-shared secret key (Static Key mode) or public key         security (SSL/TLS)."

But what closed the deal for me is this:

            "Sample OpenVPN 2.0 config file for            #
# multi-client server.                          #
#                                               #
# This file is for the server side              #
# of a many-clients <-> one-server              #
# OpenVPN configuration.                        #
#                                               #
# OpenVPN also supports                         #
# single-machine <-> single-machine             #
# configurations (See the Examples page         #
# on the web site for more info).

I hope single machine is what it means and I can make this work.

Password Issues On Ubuntu Login

I found myself unable to enter my login credentials when prompted to do so in Ubuntu. I think I might have changed it then forget about it. I've been running the current session for more days than I should have. I forget. So what's the solution to my problem. How do I get in to my system now? It involved getting into the grub menu somehow. I am uncertain as to how to do that exactly in your system. So there's a couple of ways to do it (finger's crossed). When booting at system start, use the esc key or the shift key. The first one worked for me. The timing is key. Wait until the bios banner shows then hit the esc key once. I am using Ubuntu 22.04.4 here. I have a current version of grub. The grub menu will give you options and the one you want is: root. Yes you want root privileges to set the root password. It should give you a terminal access where you can issue commands. Type: #mount -rw -o -s remount / ==> this command mounts the filesyste...

New ZFS Pool And the New 4TB Hard Drive

I am using the new pool for my videos and music. Downloading them using my torrent client, transmission. The old pool is raidz2 and now I am using a raidz1 only. But and a big but I gained space of up to 4.5 TB.

2024 So Far

I have a feeling of moving earth or walking off my itchiness. The growing fat in my belly tells me I am failing on many occasions to give in to this urge. My eyes are blurred by morning glory. I remember my father having the same ritual in the morning. After his weak stroke, he couldn't speak much, just a grunt but he would demonstrate with hand how he liked to wash his face. The weather wasn't helping. It's been raining cats and dogs the past week. The province of Rizal was soaked and spilled volumes of water into the bay and Laguna lake. Our Caimito tree was cut to no more than 4 feet from the ground. It was towering above the corrugated sheet metal of our roof. Now it lay horizontal on the yard. I calculated it could be made into a whole table and chairs set by a talented carpenter artist. I showed Lino the two big pieces of trunk that could only be moved if cut by a power saw in place. The road widening project in San Mateo was in the middle stage. One side of the road ...

Danny's Space

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