Dear Maintainer,

in a OpenVPN setup where everything is proven to work as expected using the
`openvpn` command line client, the following happens when using
NetworkManager
to connect to the VPN instead:

- first, the connection is established successfully
- but then, no extra routes or DNS servers are set

The extra routes (i.e. any routes not to 10.8.0.0) or DNS servers are
not set
whether the OpenVPN server pushes them down or whether they are set
manually in
the NM GUI. In the latter case, the settings for them are properly
written into
`/etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/<connection name>`, though. If
routes
and DNS servers are manually set after the VPN connection has been
established
by NM, everything works normally.

This bug might be connected to #487378, even though that bug report does not
mention DNS servers at all, nor the distinction between pushed routes/DNS
servers and ones set through the NM GUI.

Cheers,
Jonathan

Hi,

this is just in time for this bug's 10 years anniversary. Dear Utopia
Team, how about reacting to the bug report before the ten year cake is
baked?

I am using OpenVPN 2.7, NetworkManager and nm-applet (in KDE Plasma) on
Current Debian Unstable in June 2026. The server is running Debian
trixie, OpenPVN 2.6, and systemd-networkd. The server is configured to
push  IPv6 nameservers and the two routes necessary to reach them::

push "route-ipv6 2a01:238:43fa:bc81::/64"
push "route-ipv6 2a01:238:43fa:bc1e::/64"
push "dns server 51 address 2a01:238:db8:bc81::35:100 2a01:db8:43fa:bc8e::35:100"
push "dns server 51 resolve-domains ka51.example.com"

While the two routes show up in the client's routing table, the DNS
servers and the resolve domain do not show up in systemd-resolved. When
I manually configure the DNS servers in the OpenVPN connection inside
nm-applet, systemd-resolved is updated correctly. This is both evidence
that the problem most probably sits between network-manager and OpenVPN
and proof that network-manager can properly talk and configure
systemd-networkd.

I am administrator on the server, and the server is not SO important
that I can't do experimental configurations there. Let me know what I
can do.

Also, I'd like to say that OpenVPN upstream is rather helpful and
willing to talk to cooperating packages like network-manager to deliver
information beyond the offical docs, hunt bugs and to give advice. One
just needs to talk to them.

Greetings
Marc