How Do You Troubleshoot the OpenVPN Issue “insufficient key material or header text not found in file”?

Problem scenario
You get an error message when you run openvpn. You are trying to start the client service. You get “insufficient key material or header text not found in file”. What should you do?

Possible Solution #1
Backup your client.conf file.

Find your tls-crypt.key file. If you have none, run this:

openvpn –genkey –secret /etc/openvpn/tls-crypt.key

Copy every line in the tls-crypt.key file and paste it into a particular location of the client.conf file.

What Is the Difference between the wheel Group and the admin Group?

Problem scenario
You have seen Linux distributions use wheel whereas some use admin. What is the difference?

Solution
For most purposes, there is no difference.

Many RedHat distributions use wheel (per page 429 of Fedora and RedHat by Sobell).

Ubuntu uses wheel (per this posting).

To add a Linux user to a sudoers file,

How Do You Get Sunglasses That Do Not Fog Up?

Problem scenario
You have tried different anti-fog sprays on sunglasses. Your sunglasses still fog up when you exercise. What should you do?

Solution
Find sunglasses that have a form factor that allows for more air. They do not wrap completely around your eyes, but they will provide protection as sunglasses. With more air to get around the inside of the lenses,

What Is the Default Format for cryptsetup?

Question
You ran some cryptsetup commannds. You passed no –type flag. Was the format luks1 or luks2 or something else?

Answer
luks2.

…more recent Ubuntu releases default to version 2 (“luks2”).

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Full_Disk_Encryption_Howto_2019

As of 2022, you may want to use luks2 when you can — but do not assume you can. That is, sometimes you still need to use luks1.

Is it Adelman or Adleman?

Question
You know about RSA (Rivest, Shamir, Adelman) encryption. Asymmetric encryption and RSA specifically are regularly used in the I.T. industry. But when you search on the internet, you find many different spellings of Adelman (such as Adleman). Which is the correct spelling?

Answer
It is Adelman. The sources include page 648 of RHCSA/RHCE Linux Certification Study Guide Sixth Edition by Jang (McGrawHill) and this external site.

How Do You Troubleshoot “TLS Error: TLS key negotiation failed to occur TLS handshake failed”?

Problem scenario
You have a Linux server with the openvpn binary command installed. You try to start the OpenVPN client service. You see this message: “TLS Error: TLS key negotiation failed to occur TLS handshake failed.”

What should you do?

Solution
Reinstall and reconfigure the OpenVPN server. Just completely start over.
You may want to try this: https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/howto-setup-openvpn-server-on-ubuntu-linux-14-04-or-16-04-lts/

Helping a Loved One Through the Challenges of an Autoimmune Disease

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Helping a Loved One Through the Challenges of an Autoimmune Disease

This post below was contributed by fitshiela.com.

Autoimmune diseases impact at least 50 million Americans according to the American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association. As of now, more than 80 chronic illnesses are considered autoimmune, and the number keeps rising.

If you have a loved one who lives with an autoimmune disease,