How To Install OVPN Client in Debian 12

Overview

This document outlines how to tweak the openvpn config file to get DNS working across the VPN pipe.

Install systemd-resolved helper scripts

After downloading the config, need to follow these instructions:

1. The system uses systemd-resolved, so all you have to do is install the openvpn helper script for systemd-resolved via

   sudo apt install openvpn-systemd-resolved

   or with these GitHub instructions

2. Update your config.ovpn file adding these lines:

   script-security 2
   up /etc/openvpn/update-systemd-resolved
   down /etc/openvpn/update-systemd-resolved
   down-pre

   That instead of adding up and down of /etc/openvpn/update-resolv-conf to the conf.

3. To prevent DNS Leakage, you should add this line to the end of the config.ovpn file (according to this systemd issue comment):

   dhcp-option DOMAIN-ROUTE .