OpenVPN Client Debugging (Linux)

[u/nullrevolt]

I have configurations for an OpenVPN server and a client I am trying to use. I believe the server configuration to be working as I do not experience any errors when starting up on the command line. This will be working over a tunnel connection (layer 3).

sudo openvpn /etc/openvpn/server.conf

I am less sure about my (Mint 22.3) client configuration. When I start up my client configuration, packets never reach the server.

sudo openvpn ~/openvpn/client.conf

I know that my firewall and connection are solid as I can monitor UDP packets going back and forth through a simple python program I use on the server and client. What I am most suspicious of is that there is no tunnel adapter on the client after starting openvpn. ifconfig on its on will not show any tunnel adapters. Supplying tun0, tun1, and tun2 shows the below for each with no packets or errors:

tunX: flags=4240<POINTOPOINT,NOARP,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        unspec 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00  txqueuelen 500

I have been trying to find documentation on whether a tunnel adapter needs to be configured prior to running the client, or how to do so, but I can not find adequate documentation.

The client log ends with this line (there are no errors or unmanaged warnings):

2026-10-14 10:50:47 UDPv4 link remote: [AF_INET][REDACTED]

What would be my next steps for troubleshooting?

[u/nullrevolt]

Just found this which likely explains whats going on :⁾

Probably DPI blocking the outgoing

https://www.reddit.com/r/PFSENSE/comments/cjaju7/openvpn_over_tls_to_avoid_vpn_blocking_how/evci1me/