After importing .ovpn, click Connect and get an error message

[郝肖龙]

Key Points:
2025-06-11 13:57:59.176414 Insufficient key material or header text not found in file '[[INLINE]]' (0/128/256 bytes found/min/max)

2025-06-11 13:57:50.597281 *Tunnelblick: macOS 14.6.1 (23G93); Tunnelblick 8.0 (build 6300)
2025-06-11 13:57:51.057678 *Tunnelblick: Attempting connection with canaan-mac using shadow copy; Set nameserver = 0x00000301; monitoring connection
2025-06-11 13:57:51.059878 *Tunnelblick: openvpnstart start canaan-mac.tblk 61302 0x00000301 0 1 0 0x0210c130 -ptADGNWradsgnw 2.6.14-openssl-3.0.16 <password>
2025-06-11 13:57:51.143807 *Tunnelblick: openvpnstart starting OpenVPN
2025-06-11 13:57:51.426281 OpenVPN 2.6.14 x86_64-apple-darwin [SSL (OpenSSL)] [LZO] [LZ4] [MH/RECVDA] [AEAD]
2025-06-11 13:57:51.426373 library versions: OpenSSL 3.0.16 11 Feb 2025, LZO 2.10
2025-06-11 13:57:51.427180 MANAGEMENT: TCP Socket listening on [AF_INET]127.0.0.1:61302
2025-06-11 13:57:51.427213 Need hold release from management interface, waiting...
2025-06-11 13:57:51.686669 *Tunnelblick: openvpnstart log:
     OpenVPN started successfully.
     Command used to start OpenVPN (one argument per displayed line):
          /Library/Application Support/Tunnelblick/Tunnelblick.app/Contents/Resources/openvpn/openvpn-2.6.14-openssl-3.0.16/openvpn
          --daemon
          --log-append /Library/Application Support/Tunnelblick/Logs/-SUsers-Shaoxiaolong-SLibrary-SApplication Support-STunnelblick-SConfigurations-Scanaan--mac.tblk-SContents-SResources-Sconfig.ovpn.769_0_1_0_34652464.61302.openvpn.log
          --cd /Library/Application Support/Tunnelblick/Users/haoxiaolong/canaan-mac.tblk/Contents/Resources
          --machine-readable-output
          --setenv IV_GUI_VER "net.tunnelblick.tunnelblick 6300 8.0 (build 6300)"
          --verb 3
          --config /Library/Application Support/Tunnelblick/Users/haoxiaolong/canaan-mac.tblk/Contents/Resources/config.ovpn
          --setenv TUNNELBLICK_CONFIG_FOLDER /Library/Application Support/Tunnelblick/Users/haoxiaolong/canaan-mac.tblk/Contents/Resources
          --verb 3
          --cd /Library/Application Support/Tunnelblick/Users/haoxiaolong/canaan-mac.tblk/Contents/Resources
          --management 127.0.0.1 61302 /Library/Application Support/Tunnelblick/Mips/canaan-mac.tblk.mip
          --setenv IV_SSO webauth,crtext
          --management-query-passwords
          --management-hold
          --script-security 2
          --route-up "/Library/Application Support/Tunnelblick/Tunnelblick.app/Contents/Resources/client.up.tunnelblick.sh" -9 -d -f -m -w -ptADGNWradsgnw
          --down "/Library/Application Support/Tunnelblick/Tunnelblick.app/Contents/Resources/client.down.tunnelblick.sh" -9 -d -f -m -w -ptADGNWradsgnw
2025-06-11 13:57:51.697601 MANAGEMENT: Client connected from [AF_INET]127.0.0.1:61904
2025-06-11 13:57:51.711377 *Tunnelblick: Established communication with OpenVPN
2025-06-11 13:57:51.714390 MANAGEMENT: CMD 'pid'
2025-06-11 13:57:51.714492 MANAGEMENT: CMD 'auth-retry interact'
2025-06-11 13:57:51.714527 MANAGEMENT: CMD 'state on'
2025-06-11 13:57:51.714552 MANAGEMENT: CMD 'state'
2025-06-11 13:57:51.714594 MANAGEMENT: CMD 'bytecount 1'
2025-06-11 13:57:51.716195 *Tunnelblick: >INFO:OpenVPN Management Interface Version 5 -- type 'help' for more info
2025-06-11 13:57:51.717106 MANAGEMENT: CMD 'hold release'
2025-06-11 13:57:59.167194 NOTE: --mute triggered...
2025-06-11 13:57:59.168333 2 variation(s) on previous 20 message(s) suppressed by --mute
2025-06-11 13:57:59.168372 NOTE: the current --script-security setting may allow this configuration to call user-defined scripts
2025-06-11 13:57:59.176360 MANAGEMENT: Client disconnected
2025-06-11 13:57:59.176414 Insufficient key material or header text not found in file '[[INLINE]]' (0/128/256 bytes found/min/max)
2025-06-11 13:57:59.176426 Exiting due to fatal error
2025-06-11 13:58:00.644530 *Tunnelblick: Expected disconnection occurred.

[郝肖龙]

One article reads:

A client reported a problem with his newly created VPN, the log lines looked like this:

Wed Nov 10 12:51:11 2021 Insufficient key material or header text not found in file '[[INLINE]]' (0/128/256 bytes found/min/max)
Wed Nov 10 12:51:11 2021 Exiting due to fatal error
The message states that it can’t find enough “key bytes”, so I checked the config file, but the key was there:

<key>
-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----
XXXX
-----END PRIVATE KEY-----
</key>
<tls-crypt>
</tls-crypt>
The problem was that the tls-crypt section was empty. The script we used to generate the client config had a bug, so I had to generate the tls-crypt.key file:

1
openvpn --genkey --secret /etc/openvpn/tls-crypt.key
And then copy the content of that file inside the <tls-crypt> section:

<tls-crypt>
#
# 2048 bit OpenVPN static key
#
-----BEGIN OpenVPN Static key V1-----
xxxx
-----END OpenVPN Static key V1-----
</tls-crypt>

But I have verified that my tls-crypt has a value, which is exported from the connected Windows computer

[CptHuhn]

is the error fixed by now?

Or you still need help?

[Tunnelblick Developer]

What "error"? These error messages:

     Wed Nov 10 12:51:11 2021 Insufficient key material or header text not found in file '[[INLINE]]' (0/128/256 bytes found/min/max)

     Wed Nov 10 12:51:11 2021 Exiting due to fatal error

 

are generated by OpenVPN, not Tunnelblick, and they correctly identify the problem: an inline key was empty. As you note, the "tis-crypt" key was empty. What is the problem to be fixed?

If you wish to request an enhancement to OpenVPN to have the error message identify exactly which key was empty, feel free to do so, but that would have nothing to do with Tunnelblick.