Bug#918624: openvpn: No password prompt under systemd

[Vlastimil Zima]

Package: openvpn
Version: 2.4.6-1
Severity: important

Dear Maintainer,

I have troubles using openvpn. I use private key protected by password,
but when I start openvpn through systemd:

sudo systemctl start ope...@work.service

no password prompt is requested. When I start openvpn directly using

sudo openvpn --config /etc/openvpn/work.conf

everything works fine.

I'd expect the systemd to ask for password when I start the openvpn
service. It used to work for me before reinstall of computer some time
ago, but I'm not sure which version of openvpn I had.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: buster/sid
APT prefers testing
APT policy: (500, 'testing'), (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 4.19.0-1-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_DK.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_DK.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=en_DK.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled

Versions of packages openvpn depends on:
ii debconf [debconf-2.0] 1.5.69
ii iproute2 4.19.0-2
ii libc6 2.28-2
ii liblz4-1 1.8.2-1
ii liblzo2-2 2.10-0.1
ii libpam0g 1.1.8-3.8
ii libpkcs11-helper1 1.25.1-1
ii libssl1.1 1.1.1a-1
ii libsystemd0 240-2
ii lsb-base 10.2018112800

Versions of packages openvpn recommends:
ii easy-rsa 3.0.5-1

Versions of packages openvpn suggests:
ii openssl 1.1.1a-1
ii resolvconf 1.79

-- Configuration Files:
/etc/default/openvpn changed [not included]

-- debconf information excluded

[Vlastimil Zíma]

I have found a workaround for the issue using following commands:

    sudo systemctl start ope...@work.service && sleep 3 && sudo systemd-tty-ask-password-agent --query

The sleep is needed to provide enough time for the openvpn to trigger the password prompt.

VZ