Set Up Your Own WireGuard VPN Server on Ubuntu

This tutorial is going to show you how to set up your own WireGuard VPN server on Ubuntu. WireGuard is made specifically for the Linux kernel. It runs inside the Linux kernel and allows you to create fast, modern, and secure VPN tunnel.

WireGuard VPN Features

Lightweight and super fast speed, blowing OpenVPN out of the water.
Cross-platform. WireGuard can run on Linux, BSD, macOS, Windows, Android, iOS, and OpenWRT.
User authentication is done by exchanging public keys, similar to SSH keys.
It assigns static tunnel IP addresses to VPN clients. Some folks may not like it, but it can be very useful in some cases.
Mobile devices can switch between Wi-Fi and mobile network seamlessly without dropping any connectivity.
It aims to replace OpenVPN and IPSec in most use cases.

WireGuard is my VPN protocol of choice to eliminate the need to set up TLS encryption for my private networks.

Requirement

This tutorial assumes that the VPN server and VPN client are both running Ubuntu operating system.

Step 1: Install WireGuard on Ubuntu Server and Desktop

Log into your Ubuntu server, then run the following commands to install WireGuard.

Ubuntu 20.04

Ubuntu 20.04 ships with Linux kernel 5.4, which has a built-in wireguard module.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install wireguard wireguard-tools

Ubuntu 18.04

Ubuntu 18.04 ships with Linux kernel 4.15, so users needs to install the hardware-enablement kernel first (HWE), which will install kernel 5.4 on your system.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install linux-generic-hwe-18.04-edge

Restart your Ubuntu 18.04 server and install WireGuard.

sudo shutdown -r now
sudo apt install wireguard wireguard-tools wireguard-dkms

Then use the same commands to install WireGuard on your local Ubuntu computer (the VPN client). Note that you also need to install the openresolv package on the client to configure DNS server.

sudo apt install openresolv

Step 2: Generate Public/Private Keypair

Server

Run the following command on the Ubuntu server to create a public/private key pair, which will be saved under /etc/wireguard/ directory.

wg genkey | sudo tee /etc/wireguard/server_private.key | wg pubkey | sudo tee /etc/wireguard/server_public.key

Client

Run the following command to create a public/private key pair on the local Ubuntu computer (the VPN client).

wg genkey | sudo tee /etc/wireguard/client_private.key | wg pubkey | sudo tee /etc/wireguard/client_public.key

Step 3: Create WireGuard Configuration File

Server

Use a command-line text editor like Nano to create a WireGuard configuration file on the Ubuntu server. wg0 will be the network interface name.

sudo nano /etc/wireguard/wg0.conf

Copy the following text and paste it to your configuration file. You need to use your own server private key and client public key.

[Interface]
Address = 10.10.10.1/24
ListenPort = 51820
PrivateKey = cD+ZjXiVIX+0iSX1PNijl4a+88lCbDgw7kO78oXXLEc=

[Peer]
PublicKey = AYQJf6HbkQ0X0Xyt+cTMTuJe3RFwbuCMF46LKgTwzz4=
AllowedIPs = 10.10.10.2/32

ubuntu wireguard VPN server configuration file wg-conf

Where:

Address: Specify the private IP address of the VPN server. Here I’m using the 10.10.10.0/24 network range, so it won’t conflict with your home network range. (Most home routers use 192.168.0.0/24 or 192.168.1.0/24). 10.10.10.1 is the private IP address for the VPN server.
PrivateKey: The private key of VPN server, which can be found in the /etc/wireguard/server_private.key file on the server.
ListenPort: WireGuard VPN server will be listening on UDP port 51820, which is the default.
PublicKey: The public key of VPN client, which can be found in the /etc/wireguard/client_public.key file on the client computer.
AllowedIPs: IP addresses the VPN client is allowed to use. In this example, the client can only use the 10.10.10.2 IP address inside the VPN tunnel.

Save and close the file. (To save a file in Nano text editor, press Ctrl+O, then press Enter to confirm. Press Ctrl+X to exit.)

Change the file permission mode so that only root user can read the files.

sudo chmod 600 /etc/wireguard/ -R

Client

Use a command-line text editor like Nano to create a WireGuard configuration file on your local Ubuntu computer. wg-client0 will be the network interface name.

sudo nano /etc/wireguard/wg-client0.conf

Copy the following text and paste it to your configuration file. You need to use your own client private key and server public key.

[Interface]
Address = 10.10.10.2/24
DNS = 10.10.10.1
PrivateKey = cOFA+x5UvHF+a3xJ6enLatG+DoE3I5PhMgKrMKkUyXI=

[Peer]
PublicKey = RaoAdsIEIwgV9DHNSubxWVG+nZ1GP/c3OU6A/efBJ0I=
AllowedIPs = 0.0.0.0/0
Endpoint = 12.34.56.78:51820
PersistentKeepalive = 25

Where:

Address: Specify the private IP address of the VPN client.
DNS: specify 10.10.10.1 (VPN server) as the DNS server. It will be configured via the resolvconf command. You can also specify multiple DNS servers for redundancy like this: DNS = 10.10.10.1 8.8.8.8
PrivateKey: The client’s private key, which can be found in the /etc/wireguard/client_private.key file on the client computer.
PublicKey: The server’s public key, which can be found in the /etc/wireguard/server_public.key file on the server.
AllowedIPs: 0.0.0.0/0 represents the whole Internet, which means all traffic to the Internet should be routed via the VPN.
Endpoint: The public IP address and port number of VPN server. Replace 12.34.56.78 with your server’s real public IP address.
PersistentKeepalive: Send an authenticated empty packet to the peer every 25 seconds to keep the connection alive. If PersistentKeepalive isn’t enabled, the VPN server might not be able to ping the VPN client.

Save and close the file.

Change the file mode so that only root user can read the files.

sudo chmod 600 /etc/wireguard/ -R

Step 4: Enable IP Forwarding on the Server

In order for the VPN server to route packets between VPN clients and the Internet, we need to enable IP forwarding. Edit sysctl.conf file.

sudo nano /etc/sysctl.conf

Add the following line at the end of this file.

net.ipv4.ip_forward = 1

Save and close the file. Then apply the changes with the below command. The -p option will load sysctl settings from /etc/sysctl.conf file. This command will preserve our changes across system reboots.

sudo sysctl -p

Step 5: Configure IP Masquerading on the Server

We need to set up IP masquerading in the server firewall, so that the server becomes a virtual router for VPN clients. I will use UFW, which is a front end to the iptables firewall. Install UFW on Ubuntu with:

sudo apt install ufw

First, you need to allow SSH traffic.

sudo ufw allow 22/tcp

Next, find the name of your server’s main network interface.

ip -c a

As you can see, it’s named enp3s0 on my Ubuntu server.

ubuntu wireguard firewall setup

To configure IP masquerading, we have to add iptables command in a UFW configuration file.

sudo nano /etc/ufw/before.rules

By default, there are some rules for the filter table. Add the following lines at the end of this file. Replace enp3s0 with your own network interface name.

# NAT table rules
*nat
:POSTROUTING ACCEPT [0:0]
-A POSTROUTING -s 10.10.10.0/24 -o enp3s0 -j MASQUERADE

# End each table with the 'COMMIT' line or these rules won't be processed
COMMIT

In Nano text editor, you can go to the end of the file by pressing Ctrl+W, then pressing Ctrl+V.

ubuntu wireguard UFW NAT table POSTROUTING MASQUERADE

The above lines will append (-A) a rule to the end of POSTROUTING chain of the nat table. It will link your virtual private network with the Internet. And also hide your network from the outside world. So the Internet can only see your VPN server’s IP, but can’t see your VPN client’s IP, just like your home router hides your private home network.

By default, UFW forbids packet forwarding. We can allow forwarding for our private network. Find the ufw-before-forward chain in this file and add the following 3 lines, which will accept packet forwarding if the source IP or destination IP is in the 10.10.10.0/24 range.

# allow forwarding for trusted network
-A ufw-before-forward -s 10.10.10.0/24 -j ACCEPT
-A ufw-before-forward -d 10.10.10.0/24 -j ACCEPT

ufw allow packet fowarding

Save and close the file. Then enable UFW.

sudo ufw enable

If you have enabled UFW before, then you can use systemctl to restart UFW.

sudo systemctl restart ufw

Now if you list the rules in the POSTROUTING chain of the NAT table by using the following command:

sudo iptables -t nat -L POSTROUTING

You can see the Masquerade rule.

wireguard-IP-Masquerading-ufw-ubuntu

Step 6: Install a DNS Resolver on the Server

Since we specify the VPN server as the DNS server for client, we need to run a DNS resolver on the VPN server. We can install the bind9 DNS server.

sudo apt install bind9

Once it’s installed, BIND will automatically start. You can check its status with:

systemctl status bind9

Sample output:

● named.service - BIND Domain Name Server
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/named.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Sun 2020-05-17 08:11:26 UTC; 37s ago
       Docs: man:named(8)
   Main PID: 13820 (named)
      Tasks: 5 (limit: 1074)
     Memory: 14.3M
     CGroup: /system.slice/named.service
             └─13820 /usr/sbin/named -f -u bind

If it’s not running, start it with:

sudo systemctl start bind9

Edit the BIND DNS server’s configuration file.

sudo nano /etc/bind/named.conf.options

Add the following line to allow VPN clients to send recursive DNS queries.

allow-recursion { 127.0.0.1; 10.10.10.0/24; };

wireguard BIND DNS resolver

Save and close the file. Restart BIND9 for the changes to take effect.

sudo systemctl restart bind9

Then you need to run the following command to allow VPN clients to connect to port 53.

sudo ufw insert 1 allow in from 10.10.10.0/24

Step 7: Open WireGuard Port in Firewall

Run the following command to open UDP port 51820 on the server.

sudo ufw allow 51820/udp

Step 8: Start WireGuard

server

Run the following command on the server to start WireGuard.

sudo systemctl start [email protected]

Enable auto-start at system boot time.

sudo systemctl enable [email protected]

Check its status with the following command. Its status should be active (exited).

systemctl status [email protected]

Now WireGuard server is ready to accept client connections.

Client

Start WireGuard.

sudo systemctl start [email protected]

Enable auto-start at system boot time.

sudo systemctl enable [email protected]

Check its status:

systemctl status [email protected]

Now go to this website: https://icanhazip.com/ to check your public IP address. If everything went well, it should display your VPN server’s public IP address instead of your client computer’s public IP address.

You can also run the following command to get the current public IP address.

curl https://icanhazip.com

Troubleshooting Tips

Can’t ping

You can ping from the VPN server to VPN client (ping 10.10.10.2) to see if the tunnel works. If you see the following error message in the ping,

ping: sendmsg: Required key not available

it might be that the AllowedIPs parameter is wrong, like a typo. After fixing the typo, restart both the VPN server and VPN client.

Public IP Doesn’t Change

If the VPN tunnel is successfully established, but the client public IP address doesn’t change, that’s because the masquerading or forwarding rule in your UFW config file is not working. I once had a typo in the /etc/ufw/before.rules file, which caused my computer not to be able to browse the Internet.

Note that I don’t recommend using SaveConfig=true in the [Interface] section of the WireGuard configuration file. SaveConfig tells WireGuard to save the runtime configuration on shutdown. So if you add additional [Peer] in the configuration file and then restart WireGuard, your newly-added configs will be overwritten.

Enable Debug logging in Linux Kernel

If you use Linux kernel 5.6+, you can enable debug logging for WireGuard with the following command.

sudo su -
echo module wireguard +p > /sys/kernel/debug/dynamic_debug/control

Then you can view the debug logs with

sudo dmesg -wH

sudo journalctl -kf

Restart

If your VPN still doesn’t work, try restarting the VPN server.

sudo systemctl restart [email protected]

Then stop the VPN client.

sudo systemctl stop [email protected]

And upgrade software packages on the VPN client.

sudo apt update; sudo apt upgrade

Next, reboot the VPN client.

sudo shutdown -r now

sudo systemctl start [email protected]

If your WireGuard VPN can only work after a restart, consider adding a cron job to automatically restart the service.

sudo crontab -e

Add the following line in this file.

@daily systemctl restart [email protected]

Speed Comparison between WireGuard & OpenConnect

On one of my VPS servers, I installed both WireGuard and OpenConnect VPN server. The speed test is as follows. It might not look like fast to you, because the connection between my computer and the VPN server is very poor. How fast you can get depends on the latency and packet loss rate between the VPN client and VPN server.

WireGuard is the winner. It’s nearly 3 times faster than OpenConnect.
OpenConnect over TCP is faster than OpenConnect over UDP. Surprise?

WireGuard is able to reach 52296 Kbps (about 51 Mbit/s) when playing YouTube videos.

wireguard vpn speed test

OpenConnect (TLS with TCP BBR algorithm) is able to reach 16504 Kbps (about 16 Mbit/s) when playing YouTube videos.

ocserv TCP bbr speed test

OpenConnect (TLS on UDP) is able to reach 12997 Kbps (about 12.7 Mbit/s) when playing YouTube videos.

ocserv TLS on UDP speed test

Adding Additional VPN Clients

WireGuard is designed to associate one IP address with one VPN client. To add more VPN clients, you need to create a unique private/public key pair for each client, then add each VPN client’s public key in the server’s config file (/etc/wireguard/wg0.conf) like this:

[Interface]
Address = 10.10.10.1/24
PrivateKey = UIFH+XXjJ0g0uAZJ6vPqsbb/o68SYVQdmYJpy/FlGFA=
ListenPort = 51820

[Peer]
PublicKey = 75VNV7HqFh+3QIT5OHZkcjWfbjx8tc6Ck62gZJT/KRA=
AllowedIPs = 10.10.10.2/32

[Peer]
PublicKey = YYh4/1Z/3rtl0i7cJorcinB7T4UOIzScifPNEIESFD8=
AllowedIPs = 10.10.10.3/32

[Peer]
PublicKey = EVstHZc6QamzPgefDGPLFEjGyedJk6SZbCJttpzcvC8=
AllowedIPs = 10.10.10.4/32

Each VPN client will have a static private IP address (10.10.10.2, 10.10.10.3, 10.10.10.4, etc). Restart the WireGuard server for the changes to take effect.

sudo systemctl restart [email protected]

Then add WireGuard configuration on each VPN client as usual.

Automatic-Restart When VPN Connection Drops

Sometimes the VPN connection would drop due to various reasons. You can run the following command to check if the VPN client can ping the VPN server’s private IP address (10.10.10.1). If the ping is unsuccessful, then the command on the right will be executed to restart the VPN client. || is the OR operator in Bash. It executes the command on the right only if the command on the left returned an error.

ping -c9 10.10.10.1 > /dev/null || systemctl restart [email protected]

The ping will be done 9 times, i.e 9 seconds. You can use a for loop in the Bash shell to make the whole command run 6 times, i.e. 54 seconds.

for ((i=1; i<=6; i++)) do (ping -c9 10.10.10.1 > /dev/null || systemctl restart [email protected]) done

Now we can create a Cron job to automate this task. Edit the root user’s crontab file on the VPN client.

sudo crontab -e

Bash isn’t the default shell in Cron. You can add the following line at the beginning of the Crontab file to make it the default.

SHELL=/bin/bash

Then add the following line at the end of this file.

* * * * * for ((i=1; i<=6; i++)) do (ping -c9 10.10.10.1 > /dev/null || systemctl restart [email protected]) done

This Cron job will run every minute, and there will be 6 checks every minute. Save and close the file.

Advanced Usage

Now I will show you how to use policy routing, split tunneling, and VPN kill switch with WireGuard VPN. Note that it’s not recommended to use them in conjunction with each other. If you use policy routing, then you should not enable split tunneling or VPN kill switch, and vice versa. This section is for advanced users. If you are a WireGuard beginner and don’t know what they are used for, then don’t apply the instructions in this section.

Policy Routing

By default, all traffic on the VPN client will be routed through the VPN server. Sometimes you may want to route only a specific type of traffic, based on the transport layer protocol and the destination port. This is known as policy routing.

Policy routing is configured on the client computer, and we need to stop the VPN connection first.

sudo systemctl stop [email protected]

Then edit the client configuration file.

sudo nano /etc/wireguard/wg-client0.conf

For example, if you add the following 3 lines in the [interface] section, then WireGuard will create a routing table named “1234” and add the ip rule into the routing table. In this example, traffic will be routed through VPN server only when TCP is used as the transport layer protocol and the destination port is 25, i.e, when the client computer sends emails.

Table = 1234
PostUp = ip rule add ipproto tcp dport 25 table 1234
PreDown = ip rule delete ipproto tcp dport 25 table 1234

wireguard-vpn-policy-routing-ubuntu

Note: The client should be running Ubuntu 20.04 or up in order to configure policy routing. The ip utility on Ubuntu 18.04 doesn’t support the ipproto and dport argument.

Save and close the file. Then start the WireGuard client.

sudo systemctl start [email protected]

If you want to route traffic for TCP port 80 and 443, use the following syntax.

Table = 1234
PostUp = ip rule add ipproto tcp dport 80 table 1234; ip rule add ipproto tcp dport 443 table 1234
PreDown = ip rule delete ipproto tcp dport 80 table 1234; ip rule delete ipproto tcp dport 443 table 1234

Remember that you should stop the WireGuard VPN connection before changing policy routing rules.

You can also specify a port range like below (TCP port 26 to TCP port 10240).

Table = 1234
PostUp = ip rule add ipproto tcp dport 26-10240 table 1234
PreDown = ip rule delete ipproto tcp dport 26-10240 table 1234

If you want to specify both TCP and UDP ports, then remove ipproto tcp.

Table = 1234
PostUp = ip rule add dport 26-10240 table 1234
PreDown = ip rule delete dport 26-10240 table 1234

You might want to configure the VPN client to use the VPN tunnel only when the traffic is destined to certain IP addresses. You can do so with the to option.

Table = 1234
PostUp = ip rule add to 10.0.0.0/24 table 1234
PreDown = ip rule delete to 10.0.0.0/24 table 1234

Split Tunneling

By default, all traffic on the VPN client will be routed through the VPN server. Here’s how to enable split tunneling, so only traffic to the 10.10.10.0/24 IP range will be tunneled through WireGuard VPN. This is useful when you want to build a private network for several cloud servers, because VPN clients will run on cloud servers and if you use a full VPN tunnel, then you will probably lose connection to the cloud servers.

Edit the client configuration file.

sudo nano /etc/wireguard/wg-client0.conf

Change

AllowedIPs = 0.0.0.0/0

AllowedIPs = 10.10.10.0/24

So traffic will be routed through VPN only when the destination address is in the 10.10.10.0/24 IP range. Save and close the file. Then restart WireGuard client.

sudo systemctl restart [email protected]

You can also allow multiple IP ranges. Let’s say the VPN server also manages the 10.10.20.0/24 network, then you can configure AllowedIPs on the VPN client like this:

AllowedIPs = 10.10.10.0/24, 10.10.20.0/24

So the VPN client can reach the 10.10.20.0/24 network via the VPN server, and vice versa.

To add a single IP address, use the following syntax.

AllowedIPs = 10.10.10.0/24, 10.10.20.0/24, 8.8.8.8/32

This tells the client to use the VPN server when communicating with 8.8.8.8.

VPN Kill Switch

By default, your computer can access the Internet via the normal gateway when the VPN connection is disrupted. You may want to enable the kill switch feature, which prevents the flow of unencrypted packets through non-WireGuard interfaces.

Stop the WireGuard client process.

sudo systemctl stop [email protected]

Edit the client configuration file.

sudo nano /etc/wireguard/wg-client0.conf

Add the following two lines in the [interface] section.

PostUp = iptables -I OUTPUT ! -o %i -m mark ! --mark $(wg show %i fwmark) -m addrtype ! --dst-type LOCAL -j REJECT
PreDown = iptables -D OUTPUT ! -o %i -m mark ! --mark $(wg show %i fwmark) -m addrtype ! --dst-type LOCAL -j REJECT

Like this:

[Interface]
Address = 10.10.10.2/24
DNS = 10.10.10.1
PrivateKey = cOFA+x5UvHF+a3xJ6enLatG+DoE3I5PhMgKrMKkUyXI=
PostUp = iptables -I OUTPUT ! -o %i -m mark ! --mark $(wg show %i fwmark) -m addrtype ! --dst-type LOCAL -j REJECT
PreDown = iptables -D OUTPUT ! -o %i -m mark ! --mark $(wg show %i fwmark) -m addrtype ! --dst-type LOCAL -j REJECT

[Peer]
PublicKey = RaoAdsIEIwgV9DHNSubxWVG+nZ1GP/c3OU6A/efBJ0I=
AllowedIPs = 0.0.0.0/0
Endpoint = 12.34.56.78:51820
PersistentKeepalive = 25

Save and close the file. Then start the WireGuard client.

sudo systemctl start [email protected]

Multiple Addresses in WireGuard Interface

A WireGuard interface can have multiple IP addresses. For example, you can have two IP addresses on the VPN client.

[Interface]
Address = 10.10.10.2/24
Address = 10.10.10.3/24
....

In this case, you need to allow multiple IP addresses on the VPN server for this particular client, or the VPN client might not be able to connect to the VPN server.

[Peer]
...
AllowedIPs = 10.10.10.2/32, 10.10.10.3/32

You can use the following command to check the IP addresses belongs to a network interface.

ip -c a

Note

The ifconfig command can show only IP address for a network interface.
If you set up another WireGuard interface in a new .conf file, then it needs to bind to a port other than 51820, or you will see the ” Address already in use” error.

Wrapping Up

That’s it! I hope this tutorial helped you install and configure WireGuard on Ubuntu. As always, if you found this post useful, then subscribe to our free newsletter to get more tips and tricks 🙂

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74 Responses to “Set Up Your Own WireGuard VPN Server on Ubuntu”

Jason
1 year ago
Reply

What if the server uses a dynamic public IP? I would like to build this in my home server but don’t have a static public IP from my isp.
- Xiao Guoan (Admin)
  1 year ago
  Reply
  You need a domain name and a dynamic DNS service (such as no-ip.com) to translate the domain name into an IP address. Then in the client configuration file, use your domain name instead of an IP address.
```
Endpoint = example.com:51820
```
  You also need to configure port forwarding (UDP 51820) in your router.
Ken Wright
1 year ago
Reply

I’m having a problem with the WireGuard client. When I try to restart it after setting up the VPN Kill Switch, I get an error message. Systemctl status [email protected] tells me there’s a bad integer value for option “–mark”. Is there something I’ve missed?
- Xiao Guoan (Admin)
  1 year ago
  Reply
  Comment out the PostUp and PreDown lines in the client configuration file. Then stop the WireGuard client process.
```
sudo systemctl stop [email protected]
```
  Edit the client configuration file.
```
sudo nano /etc/wireguard/wg-client0.conf
```
  Uncomment the PostUp and PreDown lines. Save and close the file. Then start the WireGuard client.
```
sudo systemctl start [email protected]
```

Ken Wright

1 year ago

Umm, which PostUp and PreDown lines? There are two each. Here’s the file:

PostUp = iptables -I OUTPUT ! -o %i -m mark ! --mark $(wg show %i fwmark) -m addrtype ! --dst-type LOCAL -j REJECT
PreDown = iptables -D OUTPUT ! -o %i -m mark ! --mark $(wg show %i fwmark) -m addrtype ! --dst-type LOCAL -j REJECT
PostUp = ip rule add ipproto tcp dport 25 table 1234
PreDown = ip rule delete ipproto tcp dport 25 table 1234

Am I trying to do too much?

Xiao Guoan (Admin)

1 year ago

Yes, I don’t think policy routing and VPN kill switch should be used together. With policy routing, there is traffic that will need to use the usual Internet connection. However, VPN kill switch is meant to stop the flow of the normal Internet traffic.

Ken Wright

1 year ago

Okay, I deleted the Policy Routing lines and restarted Wireguard Client unsuccessfully. Here’s the output:

● [email protected] - WireGuard via wg-quick(8) for wg/client0
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/[email protected]; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Fri 2020-05-22 13:33:05 EDT; 3min 46s ago
       Docs: man:wg-quick(8)
             man:wg(8)
             https://www.wireguard.com/
             https://www.wireguard.com/quickstart/
             https://git.zx2c4.com/wireguard-tools/about/src/man/wg-quick.8
             https://git.zx2c4.com/wireguard-tools/about/src/man/wg.8
    Process: 24409 ExecStart=/usr/bin/wg-quick up wg-client0 (code=exited, status=2)
   Main PID: 24409 (code=exited, status=2)

May 22 13:33:05 Inspiron-3542 wg-quick[24455]: [#] resolvconf -a wg-client0 -m 0 -x
May 22 13:33:05 Inspiron-3542 wg-quick[24409]: [#] ip -4 route add 0.0.0.0/0 dev wg-client0 table 1234
May 22 13:33:05 Inspiron-3542 wg-quick[24409]: [#] iptables -I OUTPUT ! -o wg-client0 -m mark ! --mark $(wg show wg-client0 fwmark) -m addrtype ! --dst-type LOCAL -j REJECT
May 22 13:33:05 Inspiron-3542 wg-quick[24527]: iptables v1.8.4 (legacy): mark: bad integer value for option "--mark", or out of range.
May 22 13:33:05 Inspiron-3542 wg-quick[24527]: Try `iptables -h' or 'iptables --help' for more information.
May 22 13:33:05 Inspiron-3542 wg-quick[24409]: [#] resolvconf -d wg-client0 -f
May 22 13:33:05 Inspiron-3542 wg-quick[24409]: [#] ip link delete dev wg-client0
May 22 13:33:05 Inspiron-3542 systemd[1]: [email protected]: Main process exited, code=exited, status=2/INVALIDARGUMENT
May 22 13:33:05 Inspiron-3542 systemd[1]: [email protected]: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
May 22 13:33:05 Inspiron-3542 systemd[1]: Failed to start WireGuard via wg-quick(8) for wg/client0.

I wonder about the “bad integer value” that I see. I’ve obviously done something terribly wrong. What can I do to help figure this out?

Xiao Guoan (Admin)
1 year ago
Reply

What’s your output of sudo wg show wg-client0 fwmark? Mine is off
- Ken Wright
  1 year ago
  Reply
  I get
```
Unable to access interface: No such device
```
  I must’ve missed something in the article, but I can’t tell what.

Arc System

1 year ago

Many thanks for useful tutorials!
I just configured Wireguard server/client, but on the client I only can communicate to the server and cannot use/browse the internet as usual. I added the ‘Policy Routing’ to the client but I cannot start Wireguard.
Error:

May 22 12:28:15 client01 wg-quick[13658]: [#] ip -4 route add 0.0.0.0/0 dev wg-client0 table 1234
May 22 12:28:15 client01 wg-quick[13658]: [#] ip rule add ipproto tcp dport 25 table 1234
May 22 12:28:15 client01 wg-quick[13658]: Error: argument "ipproto" is wrong: Failed to parse rule type
May 22 12:28:15 client01 wg-quick[13658]: [#] resolvconf -d wg-client0 -f
May 22 12:28:15 client01 wg-quick[13658]: Too few arguments.
May 22 12:28:15 client01 wg-quick[13658]: Too few arguments.
May 22 12:28:15 client01 wg-quick[13658]: [#] ip link delete dev wg-client0
May 22 12:28:15 client01 systemd[1]: [email protected]: Main process exited, code=exited, status=255/n/a
May 22 12:28:15 client01 systemd[1]: [email protected]: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
May 22 12:28:15 client01 systemd[1]: Failed to start WireGuard via wg-quick(8) for wg/client0.

Xiao Guoan (Admin)
1 year ago
Reply

Is the client running Ubuntu 18.04? I just found that the ip utility on Ubuntu 18.04 doesn’t support the ipproto argument.

On Ubuntu 20.04, I can find the ipproto argument when checking the man page: man ip-rule. It can’t be found on Ubuntu 18.04.
- Arc System
  1 year ago
  Reply
  
  Yes I’m using Ubuntu 18.04. I don’t think I need Policy Routing now, I just gave it a try.
  But I was able to completely install Wireguard and now I’m using it.
  Thank you for the very comprehensive tutorial!

Tom
1 year ago
Reply

From my client ip, 192.168.0.17, I should be able to ping or telnet into server ip, 192.168.0.16, Right? But I cannot
Tom
1 year ago
Reply

My bad, use the same ip as my internal lan, rather a separated tunnel.
Darth Nagar
1 year ago
Reply

Hi Xiao Guoan,

Great turorial, precise, clear and easy to follow.

I still have a couple of questions:
1- about DNS: is there a way, in WireGuard server configuration, NOT to alter Client’s DNS like we can do in OpenVPN? I use Stubby for encrypted DNS (I followed your tutoral for that) and I surely do NOT want to use the ones on my Server side.

2- is there a way to ‘see’ that Wireguard is in use (like you can see when you use OpenVPN a little ‘lock’)?

Thanks in advance,
- Xiao Guoan (Admin)
  1 year ago
  Reply
  If you don’t want to use the server-side DNS resolver, edit the WireGuard client configuariton file.
```
sudo nano /etc/wireguard/wg-client0.conf
```
  Remove the following line from the file.
```
DNS = 10.10.10.1
```
  Save and close the file. Then restart WireGuard client.
```
sudo systemctl restart [email protected]
```
  Actually, using 10.10.10.1 as DNS resolver will also encrypt your DNS queries. I don’t think you need to stick with Stubby.
  
  When the VPN client is running in command line mode, there’s no way to indicate that you are using VPN on your desktop environment. The only way to know is to check your current public IP address.
  - Darth Nagar
    1 year ago
    Reply
    
    Thanks for your answers.
    It seems clear if I don’t use the DNS line in the client conf, it does mean then WireGuard on the Server side will use the DNS from my client, right?
    Besides, I keep Stubby for my OpenVPN connection
- Xiao Guoan (Admin)
  1 year ago
  Reply
  
  No. The server will use its own DNS resolver.
Vahid
1 year ago
Reply

i want to connect to vpn server with wiregaurd app on windows
i downloaded it and i gave it the “wg-client0.conf” file. this is the error that app gave me:

2020-07-31 02:32:23.616721: [MGR] Starting WireGuard/0.1.1 (Windows 10.0.18363; amd64)
2020-07-31 02:32:23.622721: [MGR] Starting UI process for user ‘[email protected]’ for session 1
2020-07-31 03:28:37.195610: [MGR] Exited UI process for user ‘[email protected]’ for session 1 with status 0
2020-07-31 16:01:46.511021: [MGR] Starting WireGuard/0.1.1 (Windows 10.0.18363; amd64)
2020-07-31 16:01:46.520022: [MGR] Starting UI process for user ‘[email protected]’ for session 1
2020-07-31 16:02:03.899022: [TUN] [wg-client0] Starting WireGuard/0.1.1 (Windows 10.0.18363; amd64)
2020-07-31 16:02:03.900022: [TUN] [wg-client0] Watching network interfaces
2020-07-31 16:02:03.902023: [TUN] [wg-client0] Resolving DNS names
2020-07-31 16:02:03.910023: [TUN] [wg-client0] Unable to resolve one or more DNS hostname endpoints: No such host is known.
2020-07-31 16:02:03.932020: [TUN] [wg-client0] Shutting down
2020-07-31 16:07:04.281539: [MGR] [wg-client0] Tunnel service tracker finished
2020-07-31 16:07:10.150539: [TUN] [wg-client0] Starting WireGuard/0.1.1 (Windows 10.0.18363; amd64)
2020-07-31 16:07:10.151538: [TUN] [wg-client0] Watching network interfaces
2020-07-31 16:07:10.153538: [TUN] [wg-client0] Resolving DNS names
2020-07-31 16:07:10.163538: [TUN] [wg-client0] Unable to resolve one or more DNS hostname endpoints: No such host is known.
2020-07-31 16:07:10.163538: [TUN] [wg-client0] Shutting down
- AN
  1 year ago
  Reply
  
  Maybe you missed some parts. Is your DNS running?
  
  Did you make these parts?
  
  systemctl status bind9
  
  Edit the BIND DNS server’s configuration file.
  
  sudo nano /etc/bind/named.conf.options
  
  Add the following line to allow VPN clients to send recursive DNS queries.
  
  allow-recursion { 127.0.0.1; 10.10.10.0/24; };
  
  Then you need to run the following command to allow VPN clients to connect to port 53.
  
  sudo ufw insert 1 allow in from 10.10.10.0/24
AN
1 year ago
Reply

Hi Xiao Guoan

I really love your awesome tutorials!!! Please dont stop and keep going on!!!
So I finally configured my own wireguard using your tutorial.

I have a question. I have changed the server wg0.conf “allowed client IP 10.10.10.2/32” to 10.10.10.2/24 “so that I am now able to have VPN tunnels with more clients but my VPN Clients are not able to ping eachother. please give me some advice on how to allow ping between VPN clients.

Thanks in advance
AN
- AN
  1 year ago
  Reply
  
  Okii I notice a problem here. As soon as I changed the server wg0.conf “allowed client IP 10.10.10.2/32” to 10.10.10.2/24. So that I could have more VPN clients, e.g. 10.10.10.2,3,4 — / 24, and I was also able to surf the Internet with clients who had a public IP address through a tunnel. Everything was great. But I had always lost the packet. So something I could ping “10.10.10.1” and sometimes I couldn’t ping. After that i changed the server wg0.conf back to “allowed client IP 10.10.10.2/32”. So now i had no packet lose and everything was working great.
  
  But now i have two questions.
  
  How should I have more VPN clients? without lossing packets. In your tutorial, I can only have one VPN-client.
  How can I allow ping between VPN clients?
  
  Thanks in advance
  AN
- Xiao Guoan (Admin)
  1 year ago
  Reply
  WireGuard is designed to associate one IP address to one VPN client.
  
  To add more VPN clients, you need to create a unique private/public key pair for each client, then add each VPN client in the server’s config file (/etc/wireguard/wg0.conf) like this:
```
[Interface]
Address = 10.10.10.1/24
PrivateKey = UIFH+XXjJ0g0uAZJ6vPqsbb/o68SYVQdmYJpy/FlGFA=
ListenPort = 51820

[Peer]
PublicKey = 75VNV7HqFh+3QIT5OHZkcjWfbjx8tc6Ck62gZJT/KRA=
AllowedIPs = 10.10.10.2/32

[Peer]
PublicKey = YYh4/1Z/3rtl0i7cJorcinB7T4UOIzScifPNEIESFD8=
AllowedIPs = 10.10.10.3/32

[Peer]
PublicKey = EVstHZc6QamzPgefDGPLFEjGyedJk6SZbCJttpzcvC8=
AllowedIPs = 10.10.10.4/32
```
  Then configure each VPN client as usual.
  - Nabisadah
    1 year ago
    Reply
    
    Thanks Xiao it works perfect. Yes you’r right every client should have a unique private/public key. I just didnt notice that. Thanks mate : )
Dallas
1 year ago
Reply

Hi Xiao Guoan,
What a fantastic tutorial you have done! Awesome work
I have followed it to a tee i thought, though the status of the server is showing as “inactive (dead) when i use the wg-quick up command to run it and even the alternative command to start the server results in the same. i have restarted Ubuntu 20.04 and still same also. Any ideas where to start looking to resolve at all?
- Xiao Guoan (Admin)
  1 year ago
  Reply
  Check the log.
```
sudo journalctl -eu [email protected]
```
  - Dallas
    1 year ago
    Reply
    
    Hi Xiao,
    I am not sure what it all means 🙂 , i know enough IT to follow your tutorial, just not enough linux to know what to do 🙂 This is the log output;
    — Logs begin at Tue 2020-08-11 19:49:47 AEST, end at Sat 2020-08-15 18:56:29 AEST. —
    Aug 15 14:08:35 Wattserver systemd[1]: Starting WireGuard via wg-quick(8) for wg0…
    Aug 15 14:08:35 Wattserver wg-quick[173330]: wg-quick: `wg0′ already exists
    Aug 15 14:08:35 Wattserver systemd[1]: [email protected]: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
    Aug 15 14:08:35 Wattserver systemd[1]: [email protected]: Failed with result ‘exit-code’.
    Aug 15 14:08:35 Wattserver systemd[1]: Failed to start WireGuard via wg-quick(8) for wg0.
    Aug 15 14:10:17 Wattserver systemd[1]: Starting WireGuard via wg-quick(8) for wg0…
    Aug 15 14:10:17 Wattserver wg-quick[173379]: wg-quick: `wg0′ already exists
    Aug 15 14:10:17 Wattserver systemd[1]: [email protected]: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
    Aug 15 14:10:17 Wattserver systemd[1]: [email protected]: Failed with result ‘exit-code’.
    Aug 15 14:10:17 Wattserver systemd[1]: Failed to start WireGuard via wg-quick(8) for wg0.
- Xiao Guoan (Admin)
  1 year ago
  Reply
  Maybe there’s already a WireGuard process running. Stop it.
```
sudo wg-quick down /etc/wireguard/wg0.conf
```
  Then use systemd service to start WireGuard.
```
sudo systemctl start [email protected]
```
  - Dallas
    1 year ago
    Reply
    
    Worked! your the best Xiao! I will now go the next step and test from client.
    - Dallas
      1 year ago
      
      Hi Xiao,
      pinging from iOS after connecting WireGuard client and getting ‘204 bytes from xxx.xxx.x.xxx: Destination Unreachable’ . Any ideas of the issue here? Many thanks again
Ted
1 year ago
Reply

Thanks for this great tutorial. I am also trying to install Subspace (https://github.com/subspacecommunity/subspace) for self service configs with SSO. Subspace runs in a Docker container on the WireGuard server. It provides DNS (runs dnsmasq) which conflicts with anything running on port 53 on the WireGuard host. Do you have any recommendations for what to change/exclude from your instructions to deal with that?
Ted
1 year ago
Reply

Specifically with Ubuntu 20.04.
Indu
1 year ago
Reply

Dear Xiao Guoan,
Thank you so much for this tutorial. After repeatedly breaking my head over wireguarding to my ubuntu server, I finally made it with your help. Unfortunately most other tutorials don’t go into the iptables details and just make do with the conf files. I have found other tutorials made by you equally helpful. Pl. keep up the good work.

Jay

1 year ago

Hi Xiao Guoan

I follow your procedure and install on UBuntu 20,

5.4.0-40-generic #44-Ubuntu SMP Tue Jun 23 00:01:04 UTC 2020 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

I think I hit the wall, when I edit the before.rule file. I can’t get my UFW running.
it always say this error.

ERROR: problem running ufw-init
iptables-restore: line 9 failed

Problem running ‘/etc/ufw/before.rules’

[15:21] [localhost.com ~] # iptables -t nat -L POSTROUTING

Chain POSTROUTING (policy ACCEPT)
target     prot opt source               destination

and line 9 is in before rules is the iptable filter
here is my before.rule conf

#
# rules.before
#
# Rules that should be run before the ufw command line added rules. Custom
# rules should be added to one of these chains:
#   ufw-before-input
#   ufw-before-output
#   ufw-before-forward

# Don't delete these required lines, otherwise there will be errors
*filter
:ufw-before-input - [0:0]
:ufw-before-output - [0:0]
:ufw-before-forward - [0:0]
:ufw-not-local - [0:0]
# End required lines


# allow all on loopback
-A ufw-before-input -i lo -j ACCEPT
-A ufw-before-output -o lo -j ACCEPT

# quickly process packets for which we already have a connection
-A ufw-before-input -m conntrack --ctstate RELATED,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT
-A ufw-before-output -m conntrack --ctstate RELATED,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT
-A ufw-before-forward -m conntrack --ctstate RELATED,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT

# drop INVALID packets (logs these in loglevel medium and higher)
-A ufw-before-input -m conntrack --ctstate INVALID -j ufw-logging-deny
-A ufw-before-input -m conntrack --ctstate INVALID -j DROP

# ok icmp codes for INPUT
-A ufw-before-input -p icmp --icmp-type destination-unreachable -j ACCEPT
-A ufw-before-input -p icmp --icmp-type time-exceeded -j ACCEPT
-A ufw-before-input -p icmp --icmp-type parameter-problem -j ACCEPT
-A ufw-before-input -p icmp --icmp-type echo-request -j ACCEPT

# ok icmp code for FORWARD
-A ufw-before-forward -p icmp --icmp-type destination-unreachable -j ACCEPT
-A ufw-before-forward -p icmp --icmp-type time-exceeded -j ACCEPT
-A ufw-before-forward -p icmp --icmp-type parameter-problem -j ACCEPT
-A ufw-before-forward -p icmp --icmp-type echo-request -j ACCEPT

# allow forwarding for trusted network
-A ufw-before-forward -s 10.8.0.0/8 -j ACCEPT
-A ufw-before-forward -d 10.8.0.0/8 -j ACCEPT


# allow dhcp client to work
-A ufw-before-input -p udp --sport 67 --dport 68 -j ACCEPT

#
# ufw-not-local
#
-A ufw-before-input -j ufw-not-local

# if LOCAL, RETURN
-A ufw-not-local -m addrtype --dst-type LOCAL -j RETURN

# if MULTICAST, RETURN
-A ufw-not-local -m addrtype --dst-type MULTICAST -j RETURN

# if BROADCAST, RETURN
-A ufw-not-local -m addrtype --dst-type BROADCAST -j RETURN

# all other non-local packets are dropped
#-A ufw-not-local -m limit --limit 3/min --limit-burst 10 -j ufw-logging-deny
#-A ufw-not-local -j DROP

# allow MULTICAST mDNS for service discovery (be sure the MULTICAST line above
# is uncommented)
-A ufw-before-input -p udp -d 224.0.0.251 --dport 5353 -j ACCEPT

# allow MULTICAST UPnP for service discovery (be sure the MULTICAST line above
# is uncommented)
-A ufw-before-input -p udp -d 239.255.255.250 --dport 1900 -j ACCEPT

# don't delete the 'COMMIT' line or these rules won't be processed
COMMIT

# nat
*nat
:POSTROUTING ACCEPT [0:0]
-A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE

COMMIT

could you point me to the right direction of troubleshooting this issues.
thanks
Jay

Ken Wright

12 months ago

Hello Xiao!

I installed bind9 per your instructions, but when I try to start it it fails. I get an error message saying “/etc/bind/named.conf.options:25: unknown option ‘allow_recursion’ ” It worked before, but now the server is broken. If ‘allow_recursion’ is an unknown option, I must have missed something, but I can’t tell what.

Ken Wright

12 months ago

Okay, I found the typo in named.conf.options; it was allow_recursion when it should have been allow-recursion. Got that problem fixed, but when I start Wireguard on the client it fails with the following status:

● [email protected] - WireGuard via wg-quick(8) for wg/client0
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/[email protected]; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Mon 2020-10-26 19:07:40 EDT; 41s ago
       Docs: man:wg-quick(8)
             man:wg(8)
             https://www.wireguard.com/
             https://www.wireguard.com/quickstart/
             https://git.zx2c4.com/wireguard-tools/about/src/man/wg-quick.8
             https://git.zx2c4.com/wireguard-tools/about/src/man/wg.8
    Process: 206719 ExecStart=/usr/bin/wg-quick up wg-client0 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
   Main PID: 206719 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)

Oct 26 19:07:40 Inspiron-3542 systemd[1]: Starting WireGuard via wg-quick(8) for wg/client0...
Oct 26 19:07:40 Inspiron-3542 wg-quick[206719]: [#] ip link add wg-client0 type wireguard
Oct 26 19:07:40 Inspiron-3542 wg-quick[206719]: [#] wg setconf wg-client0 /dev/fd/63
Oct 26 19:07:40 Inspiron-3542 wg-quick[206732]: Line unrecognized: `PostUp-ipruleaddipprototcpdport25table1234'
Oct 26 19:07:40 Inspiron-3542 wg-quick[206732]: Configuration parsing error
Oct 26 19:07:40 Inspiron-3542 wg-quick[206719]: [#] ip link delete dev wg-client0
Oct 26 19:07:40 Inspiron-3542 systemd[1]: [email protected]: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Oct 26 19:07:40 Inspiron-3542 systemd[1]: [email protected]: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Oct 26 19:07:40 Inspiron-3542 systemd[1]: Failed to start WireGuard via wg-quick(8) for wg/client0.

I checked the wg-client0.conf file, and it’s exactly as you specified in the Policy Routing section. Can you shed any light on this subject?

Ken Wright
12 months ago
Reply

You know, all this computer stuff would be easier if I learned to type. I found the problem here; another typo. It should have been = after PostUp instead of -.

I don’t understand, though, why my Internet access stops after a few minutes. Web pages won’t load, email won’t send, nothing, but only after Wireguard has been running for a few minutes. At first everything works just fine. Do I need to tweak the PersistentKeepAlive parameter?

Armin

11 months ago

Hi Xiao, thanks for your great work, as always it was an awesome tutorial.

Unfortunately, I have a problem with WireGuard in MacOS. After it connects to the server, I can resolve websites IP address and ping them, but can’t open them in any browser.

Here are my configurations:

Server (Ubuntu 18.04 with kernel 5.4):

[Interface]
Address = 172.20.30.1/28
SaveConfig = true
PrivateKey = [my_server_private_key]
ListenPort = [port_number] #I changed the default port and open it on iptable

[Peer]
PublicKey = [my_mac_os_publick_key]
AllowedIPs = 172.20.30.2/32

[Peer]
PublicKey = [my_iphone_publick_key]
AllowedIPs = 172.20.30.3/32

Client (MacOS Catalina):

[Interface]
PrivateKey = [my_mac_os_private_key]
Address = 172.20.30.2/28 #also tried with /32
DNS = 8.8.8.8 #tried other DNS servers too

[Peer]
PublicKey = [my_server_public_key]
AllowedIPs = 0.0.0.0/0
Endpoint = [my_server_public_ip_address]:[port_number]
PersistentKeepalive = 25

WireGuard log in MacOS (1. connect, 2. try to open some websites, 3. disconnect):

2020-11-13 15:51:29.544978: [APP] startActivation: Entering (tunnel: Tilaa)
2020-11-13 15:51:29.546316: [APP] startActivation: Starting tunnel
2020-11-13 15:51:29.546643: [APP] startActivation: Success
2020-11-13 15:51:29.552338: [APP] Tunnel 'Tilaa' connection status changed to 'connecting'
2020-11-13 15:51:29.694310: [NET] App version: 0.0.20191105 (16); Go backend version: 0.0.20191013
2020-11-13 15:51:29.694546: [NET] Starting tunnel from the app
2020-11-13 15:51:29.767049: [NET] Tunnel interface is utun4
2020-11-13 15:51:29.767450: [NET] Attaching to interface
2020-11-13 15:51:29.768035: [NET] Routine: encryption worker - started
2020-11-13 15:51:29.768081: [NET] Routine: handshake worker - started
2020-11-13 15:51:29.768150: [NET] Routine: encryption worker - started
2020-11-13 15:51:29.768198: [NET] Routine: event worker - started
2020-11-13 15:51:29.768232: [NET] Routine: handshake worker - started
2020-11-13 15:51:29.768282: [NET] Routine: decryption worker - started
2020-11-13 15:51:29.768311: [NET] Routine: encryption worker - started
2020-11-13 15:51:29.768420: [NET] Routine: handshake worker - started
2020-11-13 15:51:29.768495: [NET] Routine: decryption worker - started
2020-11-13 15:51:29.768523: [NET] Routine: TUN reader - started
2020-11-13 15:51:29.768612: [NET] Routine: decryption worker - started
2020-11-13 15:51:29.768654: [NET] Routine: encryption worker - started
2020-11-13 15:51:29.768701: [NET] Routine: handshake worker - started
2020-11-13 15:51:29.768732: [NET] Routine: decryption worker - started
2020-11-13 15:51:29.768792: [NET] UAPI: Updating private key
2020-11-13 15:51:29.768883: [NET] UAPI: Removing all peers
2020-11-13 15:51:29.768910: [NET] UAPI: Transition to peer configuration
2020-11-13 15:51:29.769187: [NET] peer(WkYt…R2gM) - UAPI: Created
2020-11-13 15:51:29.769220: [NET] peer(WkYt…R2gM) - UAPI: Updating endpoint
2020-11-13 15:51:29.769321: [NET] peer(WkYt…R2gM) - UAPI: Updating persistent keepalive interval
2020-11-13 15:51:29.769367: [NET] peer(WkYt…R2gM) - UAPI: Removing all allowedips
2020-11-13 15:51:29.769439: [NET] peer(WkYt…R2gM) - UAPI: Adding allowedip
2020-11-13 15:51:29.769732: [NET] Routine: receive incoming IPv6 - started
2020-11-13 15:51:29.769795: [NET] Routine: receive incoming IPv4 - started
2020-11-13 15:51:29.769875: [NET] UDP bind has been updated
2020-11-13 15:51:29.769911: [NET] peer(WkYt…R2gM) - Starting...
2020-11-13 15:51:29.770008: [NET] peer(WkYt…R2gM) - Routine: sequential receiver - started
2020-11-13 15:51:29.770053: [NET] peer(WkYt…R2gM) - Routine: nonce worker - started
2020-11-13 15:51:29.770113: [NET] peer(WkYt…R2gM) - Routine: sequential sender - started
2020-11-13 15:51:29.770181: [NET] peer(WkYt…R2gM) - Sending keepalive packet
2020-11-13 15:51:29.770238: [NET] Device started
2020-11-13 15:51:29.770247: [NET] peer(WkYt…R2gM) - Sending handshake initiation
2020-11-13 15:51:29.771477: [APP] Tunnel 'Tilaa' connection status changed to 'connected'
2020-11-13 15:51:29.771372: [NET] peer(WkYt…R2gM) - Awaiting keypair
2020-11-13 15:51:29.949538: [NET] peer(WkYt…R2gM) - Received handshake response
2020-11-13 15:51:29.949822: [NET] peer(WkYt…R2gM) - Obtained awaited keypair
2020-11-13 15:51:34.547733: [APP] Status update notification timeout for tunnel 'Tilaa'. Tunnel status is now 'connected'.
2020-11-13 15:52:56.248118: [APP] startDeactivation: Tunnel: Tilaa
2020-11-13 15:52:56.251121: [APP] Tunnel 'Tilaa' connection status changed to 'disconnecting'
2020-11-13 15:52:56.422958: [NET] Network change detected with satisfied route and interface order [en0]
2020-11-13 15:52:56.426172: [NET] Routine: receive incoming IPv4 - stopped
2020-11-13 15:52:56.427959: [NET] Routine: receive incoming IPv6 - stopped
2020-11-13 15:52:56.432475: [NET] Routine: receive incoming IPv4 - started
2020-11-13 15:52:56.432596: [NET] Routine: receive incoming IPv6 - started
2020-11-13 15:52:56.433637: [NET] UDP bind has been updated
2020-11-13 15:52:56.433807: [NET] peer(WkYt…R2gM) - Sending keepalive packet
2020-11-13 15:52:56.619476: [NET] Stopping tunnel
2020-11-13 15:52:56.619666: [NET] Device closing
2020-11-13 15:52:56.621138: [NET] Routine: TUN reader - stopped
2020-11-13 15:52:56.621837: [NET] Routine: event worker - stopped
2020-11-13 15:52:56.622082: [NET] Routine: receive incoming IPv4 - stopped
2020-11-13 15:52:56.623103: [NET] Routine: receive incoming IPv6 - stopped
2020-11-13 15:52:56.623373: [NET] peer(WkYt…R2gM) - Stopping...
2020-11-13 15:52:56.624129: [NET] Routine: encryption worker - stopped
2020-11-13 15:52:56.624222: [NET] Routine: handshake worker - stopped
2020-11-13 15:52:56.624541: [NET] peer(WkYt…R2gM) - Routine: nonce worker - stopped
2020-11-13 15:52:56.624600: [NET] Routine: encryption worker - stopped
2020-11-13 15:52:56.624771: [NET] Routine: decryption worker - stopped
2020-11-13 15:52:56.624993: [NET] Routine: decryption worker - stopped
2020-11-13 15:52:56.625309: [NET] Routine: decryption worker - stopped
2020-11-13 15:52:56.625368: [NET] Routine: encryption worker - stopped
2020-11-13 15:52:56.626325: [NET] Routine: decryption worker - stopped
2020-11-13 15:52:56.626402: [NET] Routine: encryption worker - stopped
2020-11-13 15:52:56.628483: [NET] Routine: handshake worker - stopped
2020-11-13 15:52:56.628694: [NET] Routine: handshake worker - stopped
2020-11-13 15:52:56.629905: [NET] Routine: handshake worker - stopped
2020-11-13 15:52:56.630043: [NET] peer(WkYt…R2gM) - Routine: sequential receiver - stopped
2020-11-13 15:52:56.631864: [NET] peer(WkYt…R2gM) - Routine: sequential sender - stopped
2020-11-13 15:52:56.633358: [NET] Interface closed
2020-11-13 15:52:56.638383: [APP] Tunnel 'Tilaa' connection status changed to 'disconnected'

Could you help me with this, please?

P.S: My iPhone doesn’t have any problem with the same config (with a different IP address and keys) and opens all websites without any problem.

Xiao Guoan (Admin)
11 months ago
Reply
Maybe you should shut down the WireGuard server.
```
sudo systemctl stop [email protected]
```
Delete the following line in the server config file.
```
SaveConfig = true
```
Configure the [peer]s.

Then start the WireGuard server.
```
sudo systemctl start [email protected]
```

Jaka
11 months ago
Reply
Hi there.

I read a few winguard guides today. I have an ubuntu 20.04 server (wireguard server) and wanted to connect several devices to it (windows desktop pc, mobile phones)… I like your guide as it is very clear, but unfortunately, two things did not work for me.

1. the stuff from step 5 (# NAT table rules lines) did not work for me at the end of /etc/ufw/before.rules (with only one COMMIT line), so I had to move them to the start of the file and add COMMIT immediately after them.

2. once VPN was established I could only ping the client from the server (10.x.x.x IPs) and vice versa, both client’s traffic did not reach the internet. I found these two lines in another guide, and after I put them to my server’s wg0.conf, everything started to work ok:
```
PostUp = iptables -A FORWARD -i wg0 -j ACCEPT; iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE; ip6tables -A FORWARD -i wg0 -j ACCEPT; ip6tables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE

PostDown = iptables -D FORWARD -i wg0 -j ACCEPT; iptables -t nat -D POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE; ip6tables -D FORWARD -i wg0 -j ACCEPT; ip6tables -t nat -D POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE
```
So… did I mess something, or are these actually needed?

Cheers!
- Xiao Guoan (Admin)
  11 months ago
  Reply
  
  The two things are actually one thing. The VPN clients can’t browser the Internet because the firewall rules are not set up correctly.
  
  By default, there’s only one table (the filter table) in the /etc/ufw/before.rules file. Each table must end with a COMMIT line, so there’s only one COMMIT in this file and there’s nothing wrong with it. You can add the nat table rules at the end of this file.
  
  The iptables rules in the PostUp and PostDown are actually meant to do the same thing as I instructed in step 5: set up masquerading and allow forwarding for the private network.
  
  It might be easier to add these rules directly in the wg0.conf file. However, what if you have another VPN server like OpenConnect VPN running on the same host? If the WireGuard VPN server shuts down, then the firewall rules will also be deleted, and the OpenConnect VPN server won’t be working. By adding the firewall rules in the UFW config file instead of wg0.conf file, this won’t happen.
Alex
9 months ago
Reply

You are the best 🙂 Thanks 🙂
Michael Fischer
9 months ago
Reply
Nice guide, thanks!
On the wireguard client side your solution has got the problem that openresolv does not use the local “hosts” file. So I changed my setup as follows:

NO openresolv installation
```
sudo systemctl disable --now systemd-resolved
sudo rm /etc/resolv.conf
sudo echo "nameserver 8.8.8.8" > /etc/resolv.conf
sudo apt-get install dnsmasq dnsutils ldnsutils -y
```
sudo nano /etc/dnsmasq.conf:
```
port=53
domain-needed
bogus-priv
listen-address=127.0.0.1,your-server-ip
expand-hosts
domain=dns-example.com
cache-size=1000
```
Change Network Manager settings for the physical NIC as shown in the pic, so Network Manager will not override /etc/resolv.conf anymore.
```
sudo systemctl restart dnsmasq
```
sudo nano /etc/resolv.conf:
```
nameserver your_local_IP
nameserver 10.10.10.1
nameserver 8.8.8.8
search your_local_domain.nia
```
NO DNS entry in wg-client0.conf, but:
“Endpoint = target_url.nia:51820”

and an alias for raising the wireguard interface:

“wgup=’ping -4 -q -c1 -w5 target_url.nia && systemctl start [email protected]'”
in order to have target_url.nia resolved in DNS cache already.

I also suggest to disable ipv6 with: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=”ipv6.disable=1″ whenever ipv6 is not needed for the VPN connection.

In contrast openresolv does no caching for the nameserver 10.10.10.1, so the dnsmasq solution is generally faster when dealing with lots of URLs from the internet.
- Xiao Guoan (Admin)
  9 months ago
  Reply
  My Ubuntu desktop computer uses openresolv and /etc/hosts file works like a charm. If you edit an entry in /etc/hosts file, but it doesn’t seem to work, it’s perhaps because your web browser caches DNS results. You can clear your browser cache or restart the web browser.
  
  openresolv is just a framework for managing the content of the /etc/resolv.conf, i.e, setting the DNS server address. No more and no less. It’s not a local DNS resolver like dnsmasq.
  
  dnsmasq was replaced by systemd-resolved since Ubuntu 16.10. You should not compare openresolv with dnsmasq, because they are meant for doing different tasks. Rather, you should compare systemd-resolved with dnsmasq.
  
  systemd-resolved does have caching capability.
```
sudo systemd-resolve --statistics
```
  And it uses /etc/hosts file per default. If you take a look at /etc/systemd/resolved.conf file, you can find the following line.
```
#ReadEtcHosts=yes
```
  By default, Network Manager won’t override the DNS server setting in /etc/resolv file. As you can see from the screenshot below, I have 127.0.0.1 set as the DNS server in Network Manager.
  
  I always recommend using the default software on Ubuntu operating system rather than using alternative software, unless you really need to get a feature that’s not available in the default software.

Michael Fischer

9 months ago

Right you are. Meanwhile with another fresh setup of the ubuntu wireguard client /etc/hosts is being used properly.

However, systemd-resolved does not cache on client side:

dig linuxbabe.com

; <> DiG 9.16.1-Ubuntu <> linuxbabe.com
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 45003
;; flags: qr rd ra ad; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 2, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 4096
; COOKIE: 6a238862bd68f4420100000060054b01592ae7534e632429 (good)
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;linuxbabe.com.			IN	A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
linuxbabe.com.		300	IN	A	172.67.222.85
linuxbabe.com.		300	IN	A	104.21.17.55

;; Query time: 63 msec
;; SERVER: 10.10.10.1#53(10.10.10.1)
;; WHEN: Mo Jan 18 09:46:57 CET 2021
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 102

dig linuxbabe.com

; <> DiG 9.16.1-Ubuntu <> linuxbabe.com
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 33922
;; flags: qr rd ra ad; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 2, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 4096
; COOKIE: bfb4a9ae057470890100000060054b090205321e41507c72 (good)
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;linuxbabe.com.			IN	A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
linuxbabe.com.		292	IN	A	104.21.17.55
linuxbabe.com.		292	IN	A	172.67.222.85

;; Query time: 27 msec
;; SERVER: 10.10.10.1#53(10.10.10.1)
;; WHEN: Mo Jan 18 09:47:05 CET 2021
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 102

dig linuxbabe.com

; <> DiG 9.16.1-Ubuntu <> linuxbabe.com
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 47100
;; flags: qr rd ra ad; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 2, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 4096
; COOKIE: 033523afade2631f0100000060054b0db361d085bf8fb9e2 (good)
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;linuxbabe.com.			IN	A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
linuxbabe.com.		288	IN	A	172.67.222.85
linuxbabe.com.		288	IN	A	104.21.17.55

;; Query time: 31 msec
;; SERVER: 10.10.10.1#53(10.10.10.1)
;; WHEN: Mo Jan 18 09:47:09 CET 2021
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 102

where 30ms is about the ping time:

ping -c5 10.10.10.1
PING 10.10.10.1 (10.10.10.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 10.10.10.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=31.0 ms
64 bytes from 10.10.10.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=30.2 ms
64 bytes from 10.10.10.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=28.6 ms
64 bytes from 10.10.10.1: icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=28.2 ms
64 bytes from 10.10.10.1: icmp_seq=5 ttl=64 time=28.4 ms

--- 10.10.10.1 ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 5 received, 0% packet loss, time 4006ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 28.200/29.284/31.022/1.115 ms

Also I have to know all LAN IPs on server side, as bind9 there does not resolve them via 10.10.10.1, so the only way is to put all corresponding entries into “/etc/hosts” on my client. In this special case we have to register 14 computing nodes inside the server LAN plus 4 more in an DMZ plus a couple of non-computing devices. I would’nt know how to avoid these hosts entries altogether.

Xiao Guoan (Admin)
9 months ago
Reply
When using openresolv to set 10.10.10.1 as DNS server, DNS requests are sent directly to the 10.10.10.1 resolver, so there’s no cache.

You can remove openresolv (sudo apt remove openresolv), remove DNS = 10.10.10.1 from the wg-client0.conf file and set the DNS resolver directly in systemd-resolved.
```
sudo nano /etc/systemd/resolved.conf
```
You can set multiple DNS resolvers in this file like so:
```
DNS = 10.10.10.1 192.168.1.2
```
Save and close the file. Then
```
sudo systemctl restart systemd-resolved
```
- Michael Fischer
  9 months ago
  Reply
  
  I like this, going to implement it right away. Thanks!

Michael Fischer
9 months ago
Reply

Another little problem: Whenever openresolv kicks in, names in the client LAN do not get resolved anymore, as the nameserver at 10.10.10.1 does not know anythinǵ about them. So have to put all my clients LAN nodes into /etc/hosts as well.
Ken Wright
8 months ago
Reply

I’m running WireGuard on my server and my laptop, per these instructions. I find, however, when I try to access the CUPS web interface and add (and share) a printer, I get a message reading “Forbidden” and on the next line “You cannot access this page.” Do I need to open another port (presumably 631) in the firewall? It worked well before installing WireGuard.
- Xiao Guoan (Admin)
  8 months ago
  Reply
  If your WireGuard VPN server and CUPS print server are running on the same box, and you want to access the CUPS web interface via 10.10.10.1:631, then you need to add the 10.10.10.0/24 IP range to the CUPS whitelist.
  
  Edit the /etc/cups/cupsd.conf file and add the 10.10.10.0/24 IP range to the whitelist.
```
<Location />
  Order allow,deny
  Allow @LOCAL
  Allow 10.10.10.0/24
</Location>

<Location /admin>
  Order allow,deny
  Allow @LOCAL
  Allow 10.10.10.0/24
</Location>
```
  Save and close the file. Then restart CUPS for the changes to take effect.
```
sudo systemctl restart cups
```
  Also, allow clients in 10.10.10.0/24 to access port 631.
```
sudo ufw allow in from 10.10.10.0/24 to any port 631
```
  - Ken Wright
    8 months ago
    Reply
    
    Worked like a charm!
Andras D.
8 months ago
Reply

Hi
Thanks for another great tutorial…

One question:
Did you mean to remove the Port 22 from ufw at then end of the procedure?

As I thought VPN port was meant to be the only entry through ufw.
Then once VPN is connected then Port 22 for ssh can be connected only from 10.10.10.0/24 based on rule –> ALLOW Anywhere From 10.10.10.0/24

Isn’t that right?
Perhaps you have removed Port 22 from ufw somewhere I missed.

Thanks again,
Really appreciate the welth of tutorials..
Andras
- Xiao Guoan (Admin)
  8 months ago
  Reply
  
  This tutorial didn’t close port 22 from public access, but you can do so.
  
  Closing port 22 carries a risk in that if your VPN server stops working, you would lock yourself out. If your VPS hosting provider allows VNC Console access, you can use the console to access the server and fix this problem.
- Andras D.
  8 months ago
  Reply
  
  My reason to think about implementing this VPN setup was because, on my servers I am now encountering houndreds of Fail2Ban Bans over SSH port, that it made me feel like I want to turn SSH port off.
  At the same time I need to SSH into my servers for the obvious reason of maintenance, evry now and then.
  So I thought I would implement a VPN server on every single one of my servers, so only when I am connected together a certain server through VPN, only then it would be possible to SSH into it.
  Hence I thought Port 22 could be closed towards the public.
  
  Thanks again,
- Xiao Guoan (Admin)
  8 months ago
  Reply
  
  Yes, you can set up VPN server on every server and add all the server IP addresses to the firewall whitelist, so if one VPN server stops working, you can connect to another VPN server and have SSH access. This greatly reduces the risk of locking yourself out.

thierry

7 months ago

Hi,

Thanks again for your tutorials.

It seems that there is something which doesn’t run properly on bind9.

Is the following output from my terminal nominal?

[email protected]:~$ systemctl status bind9
● named.service - BIND Domain Name Server
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/named.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Wed 2021-03-17 07:37:06 CET; 1 day 4h ago
       Docs: man:named(8)
   Main PID: 949 (named)
      Tasks: 38 (limit: 18723)
     Memory: 259.7M
     CGroup: /system.slice/named.service
             └─949 /usr/sbin/named -f -u bind

mar 18 08:37:13 Server-TH named[949]: network unreachable resolving './DNSKEY/IN': 2001:500:12::d0d#53
mar 18 08:37:13 Server-TH named[949]: network unreachable resolving './DNSKEY/IN': 2001:500:2d::d#53
mar 18 08:37:13 Server-TH named[949]: network unreachable resolving './DNSKEY/IN': 2001:7fd::1#53
mar 18 08:37:13 Server-TH named[949]: network unreachable resolving './DNSKEY/IN': 2001:500:a8::e#53
mar 18 08:37:13 Server-TH named[949]: network unreachable resolving './DNSKEY/IN': 2001:dc3::35#53
mar 18 08:37:13 Server-TH named[949]: network unreachable resolving './DNSKEY/IN': 2001:503:c27::2:30#53
mar 18 08:37:13 Server-TH named[949]: network unreachable resolving './DNSKEY/IN': 2001:500:9f::42#53
mar 18 08:37:13 Server-TH named[949]: network unreachable resolving './DNSKEY/IN': 2001:500:1::53#53
mar 18 08:37:13 Server-TH named[949]: network unreachable resolving './DNSKEY/IN': 2001:7fe::53#53
mar 18 08:37:13 Server-TH named[949]: managed-keys-zone: Key 20326 for zone . is now trusted (acceptance timer complete)

Thanks in advance

Xiao Guoan (Admin)
7 months ago
Reply
It indicates your server network doesn’t provide IPv6 connectivity. You need to disable IPv6 in BIND.

Disable IPv6 in BIND on Ubuntu 20.04

open the /etc/default/named file
```
sudo nano /etc/default/named
```
Add -4 to the OPTIONS.
```
OPTIONS="-u bind -4"
```
Save and close the file. Then restart BIND and you are done.
```
sudo systemctl restart named
```
Disable IPv6 in BIND on Ubuntu 18.04

Open the /etc/default/bind9 file
```
sudo nano /etc/default/bind9
```
Add “-4” to the OPTIONS.
```
OPTIONS="-u bind -4"
```
Save and close the file. Then restart BIND and you are done.
```
sudo systemctl restart bind9
```

Thierry
7 months ago
Reply

Thanks Xiao, it solved the issue.
floyd
6 months ago
Reply
Hello thanks for the tutorial.

I’m very new to this and it seems I’m able to follow the guide up to the end where enabling the wg service from the client
```
sudo systemctl start [email protected]
```
but after that the I cannot connect to the client (raspberry pi) anymore locally on my PC and when checking the IP of the client it seems to use my Server IP. When I stop the service My PC can connect to my client again.

Is this how it should bahave?
- Xiao Guoan (Admin)
  6 months ago
  Reply
  
  VPN can change a client’s public IP address, so connections to the old public IP address will be dropped. A working VPN does not affect a client’s LAN connection.
  - floyd
    6 months ago
    Reply
    
    Okay, got.
    Then all I have to do is also add my PC as a additional client and connect to wireguard server to be connect to my client (raspberry).
    
    Thanks for the quick response.
CJ Moro
6 months ago
Reply

Hi Xiao,
Thank you for such an awesome and extensive article. I’ve seen a lot of content on setting up WireGuard, and yours is simply the best. Would you be able to elaborate on how to set up Wireguard to work with multiple IPs as exit points? For example, I have two IPs with my server that are both added to the same networking interface. I can use both as IPs endpoints to my clients to access and forward traffic on my server. However, both IPs still resolve to the same IP address on exit. So no matter which IP I use on the Wireguard client, when browsing and checking my IP, they both resolve to the default IP address of the server. I’ve search everywhere and unable to find a proper set up.
Morteza
6 months ago
Reply

Hello, thanks for the tutorial.

I want to use the Wireguard in another ubuntu server as a client, but when I start Wireguard in the client ubuntu server, I lose ssh connection, apparently
- Xiao Guoan (Admin)
  6 months ago
  Reply
  
  You need to enable split tunneling on the client Ubuntu server, which is explained at the end of this article.

dragonsway

5 months ago

Excellent tutorial. I have followed it line by line… However, my client can now connect the server (no errors), but there is no internet connectivity.

client$ systemctl status [email protected]

● [email protected] - WireGuard via wg-quick(8) for wg/client1
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/[email protected]; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: active (exited) since Thu 2021-05-20 13:51:00 CST; 23min ago
       Docs: man:wg-quick(8)
             man:wg(8)
             https://www.wireguard.com/
             https://www.wireguard.com/quickstart/
             https://git.zx2c4.com/wireguard-tools/about/src/man/wg-quick.8
             https://git.zx2c4.com/wireguard-tools/about/src/man/wg.8
    Process: 16516 ExecStart=/usr/bin/wg-quick up wg-client1 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
   Main PID: 16516 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)

5月 20 13:51:00 jenny wg-quick[16516]: [#] ip -4 address add 10.0.0.8/24 dev wg-client1
5月 20 13:51:00 jenny wg-quick[16516]: [#] ip link set mtu 1420 up dev wg-client1
5月 20 13:51:00 jenny wg-quick[16548]: [#] resolvconf -a tun.wg-client1 -m 0 -x
5月 20 13:51:00 jenny wg-quick[16516]: [#] wg set wg-client1 fwmark 51820
5月 20 13:51:00 jenny wg-quick[16516]: [#] ip -4 route add 0.0.0.0/0 dev wg-client1 table 51820
5月 20 13:51:00 jenny wg-quick[16516]: [#] ip -4 rule add not fwmark 51820 table 51820
5月 20 13:51:00 jenny wg-quick[16516]: [#] ip -4 rule add table main suppress_prefixlength 0
5月 20 13:51:00 jenny wg-quick[16516]: [#] sysctl -q net.ipv4.conf.all.src_valid_mark=1
5月 20 13:51:00 jenny wg-quick[16646]: [#] iptables-restore -n
5月 20 13:51:00 jenny systemd[1]: Finished WireGuard via wg-quick(8) for wg/client1.

When I connect: client$wg-quick up wg-client1

[#] ip link add wg-client1 type wireguard
[#] wg setconf wg-client1 /dev/fd/63
[#] ip -4 address add 10.0.0.8/24 dev wg-client1
[#] ip link set mtu 1420 up dev wg-client1
[#] resolvconf -a tun.wg-client1 -m 0 -x
[#] wg set wg-client1 fwmark 51820
[#] ip -4 route add 0.0.0.0/0 dev wg-client1 table 51820
[#] ip -4 rule add not fwmark 51820 table 51820
[#] ip -4 rule add table main suppress_prefixlength 0
[#] sysctl -q net.ipv4.conf.all.src_valid_mark=1
[#] iptables-restore -n

On my server: server# systemctl status [email protected]

● [email protected] - WireGuard via wg-quick(8) for wg0
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/[email protected]; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (exited) since Thu 2021-05-20 13:17:34 CST; 1h 8min ago
     Docs: man:wg-quick(8)
           man:wg(8)
           https://www.wireguard.com/
           https://www.wireguard.com/quickstart/
           https://git.zx2c4.com/wireguard-tools/about/src/man/wg-quick.8
           https://git.zx2c4.com/wireguard-tools/about/src/man/wg.8
  Process: 21256 ExecStart=/usr/bin/wg-quick up wg0 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 21256 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)

May 20 13:17:34 server1 systemd[1]: Starting WireGuard via wg-quick(8) for wg0...
May 20 13:17:34 server1 wg-quick[21256]: [#] ip link add wg0 type wireguard
May 20 13:17:34 server1 wg-quick[21256]: [#] wg setconf wg0 /dev/fd/63
May 20 13:17:34 server1 wg-quick[21256]: [#] ip -4 address add 10.10.10.6/24 dev wg0
May 20 13:17:34 server1 wg-quick[21256]: [#] ip link set mtu 1420 up dev wg0
May 20 13:17:34 server1 systemd[1]: Started WireGuard via wg-quick(8) for wg0.

On my client when I conect to the server:client$ wg

wg
interface: wg-client1
  public key: XXXXXXX=
  private key: (hidden)
  listening port: 50043
  fwmark: 0xca6c

peer: XXXXXXX=
  endpoint: 123.456.789.123:51820
  allowed ips: 0.0.0.0/0
  transfer: 0 B received, 592 B sent
  persistent keepalive: every 25 seconds

Xiao Guoan (Admin)
5 months ago
Reply
Can you ping from the VPN client to VPN server using the private IP address?
```
ping 10.0.0.8

ping 10.10.10.6
```
I see the VPN client is using 10.0.0.8/24 address, but VPN server is using 10.10.10.6/24 address. You need to use the same subnet for client and server.

dragonsway
5 months ago
Reply

Also I should mention that my server does not use ssh on port 22. I use ssh on a different port. I don’t know if this is a possible factor.
- Xiao Guoan (Admin)
  5 months ago
  Reply
  
  SSH doesn’t affect WireGuard VPN.
dragonsway
5 months ago
Reply

thanks for the follow up.. I just figured out my problem… I am on a VPS.. which has an external firewall. So even though I opened 51280 in UFW… I had forgotten to open the same port in the external firewall, which of course… fixed the problem and now everything works perfectly.. Thanks again for excellent tutorial!
Ken Wright
4 months ago
Reply
Xiao,
I’ve just upgraded my mobile phone, and I can’t seem to get it onto the VPN (which was working perfectly with the old phone). I’ve followed your instructions on adding more VPN clients, but when I enable Wireguard on the phone (Android) it loses its net connection. When I try to ping the phone I get the following error:
```
ping: sendmsg: Destination address required
From 10.10.10.1 icmp_seq=8 Destination Host Unreachable
```
I can’t find the problem, and I’d like to get it right before I add my wife’s phone (also and Android) to the VPN.
- Xiao Guoan (Admin)
  4 months ago
  Reply
  You can try installing a newer Linux kernel on the Ubuntu server.
  Ubuntu 20.04
```
sudo apt update
sudo apt install linux-generic-hwe-20.04-edge
```
  Ubuntu 18.04
```
sudo apt update
sudo apt install linux-generic-hwe-18.04-edge
```
  Reboot the server.
```
sudo shutdown -r now
```
  Next, enable debug logging for WireGuard on the server with the following command.
```
sudo su -
echo module wireguard +p > /sys/kernel/debug/dynamic_debug/control
```
  Then you can view the debug logs with
```
sudo dmesg -wH
```
  or
```
sudo journalctl -kf
```
Ken Wright
4 months ago
Reply

I get repetitions of the following:

wireguard: wg0: Invalid MAC of handshake, dropping packet from 192.168.1.100:58344

Is my Android’s MAC address incompatible somehow?
Ken Wright
4 months ago
Reply

Never mind; I found the problem.

I had typos in the Peer’s Public key. I accidentally entered 0 for O in a couple of places. After I corrected that, the VPN worked perfectly.
Shine
2 weeks ago
Reply

Great, great article. Thanks in advance.
But I have a problem with it. My ip changes and when I did a DNS leak test, it didn’t have any leaks. But still, google can find my real ip and location, both on Ubuntu, and android. Although there are some vpns that I used on android that google couldn’t find my real location. What seems to be the problem?

LinuxBabe

Set Up Your Own WireGuard VPN Server on Ubuntu

WireGuard VPN Features

Requirement

Step 1: Install WireGuard on Ubuntu Server and Desktop

Ubuntu 20.04

Ubuntu 18.04

Step 2: Generate Public/Private Keypair

Server

Client

Step 3: Create WireGuard Configuration File

Server

Client

Step 4: Enable IP Forwarding on the Server

Step 5: Configure IP Masquerading on the Server

Step 6: Install a DNS Resolver on the Server

Step 7: Open WireGuard Port in Firewall

Step 8: Start WireGuard

server

Client

Troubleshooting Tips

Can’t ping

Public IP Doesn’t Change

Enable Debug logging in Linux Kernel

Restart

Speed Comparison between WireGuard & OpenConnect

Adding Additional VPN Clients

Automatic-Restart When VPN Connection Drops

Advanced Usage

Policy Routing

Split Tunneling

VPN Kill Switch

Multiple Addresses in WireGuard Interface

Note

Wrapping Up

74 Responses to “Set Up Your Own WireGuard VPN Server on Ubuntu”

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