windows client: cannot rename TAP device when the new device has non-Latin characters

[yywudi]

Hi

I just download the latest windows client v1.2.12.
my windows host is running Windows Server 2008 R2 64bit.

during installation, it can create a new Tap device, but seems can't rename or next step configuration.
Outline Setup will report "Could not rename TAP device." at the end.

when I configure & connect to a server, it then always report the "Not able to configure routing tables successfully"

I tried to:
1, manually rename the tap device to "outline-tap0", then the "Not able to configure routing tables successfully" error will not observe but the tap device can't receive any data. that is, connection is established, but the routing table seems not configured correctly as from "route print" the tap device IP is the invalid "169.254.xx.xx"
2, manually configure the tap IPv4 address as 10.0.85.12/255.255.255.0/10.0.85.1(GW), still the same issue that no data received in the tap NIC.

[trevj]

Hi @yywudi and thanks for trying Outline! I'm afraid we don't support Windows Server 2008. Can you confirm you're running Windows 2008? I wouldn't have even expected the client to start on Windows Server 2008.

[trevj]

@yywudi Apologies, I see now that Windows Server 2008 is basically Windows 7. I can see that the majority of TAP device install failures occur on Windows 7 but I'm afraid right now we don't really know why.

[trevj]

@yywudi This may be related to administrator permissions. Doing some testing just now I can see that on Windows 7 the system doesn't necessarily prompt for admin permissions - it does on Windows 8 and 10. This might explain many of the errors we've been seeing.

When you ran the installer, were you logged in as an administrator user?

[yywudi]

Yes I logged in as administrator.

[lgg]

@trevj hmm, what if trouble is in https://github.com/Jigsaw-Code/outline-client/blob/e61bf13b4e8deaec3bd0912bc75ac6c0f8605c9e/electron/add_tap_device.bat#L50

and %DEVICE_DIFF% is wrong?

I just checked my error screen:

And TapAdapter names:

It's different

[lgg]

Deleted OutLine client
Deleted TapAdapters
Reboot system
Check NetConnectionIDs:

C:\Users\Фёдор>wmic nic get netconnectionid /format:list | findstr "="
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=Подключение по локальной сети
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=Беспроводное сетевое соединение
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=Беспроводное сетевое соединение 2
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=VirtualBox Host-Only Network
NetConnectionID=VirtualBox Host-Only Network #2
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=VMware Network Adapter VMnet1
NetConnectionID=VMware Network Adapter VMnet8
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=

Install Outline Client v1.2.12:

C:\Users\Фёдор>wmic nic get netconnectionid /format:list | findstr "="
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=Подключение по локальной сети
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=Беспроводное сетевое соединение
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=Беспроводное сетевое соединение 2
NetConnectionID=Подключение по локальной сети 3
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=VirtualBox Host-Only Network
NetConnectionID=VirtualBox Host-Only Network #2
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=VMware Network Adapter VMnet1
NetConnectionID=VMware Network Adapter VMnet8
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=
NetConnectionID=

Trying to check powershell command as here: https://github.com/Jigsaw-Code/outline-client/blob/e61bf13b4e8deaec3bd0912bc75ac6c0f8605c9e/electron/add_tap_device.bat#L49

got:

Maybe Encoding problem?

[lgg]

Hmm, if i manually renamed:
netsh interface set interface name = "Подключение по локальной сети 3" newname = "outline-tap0"

upd:
Yes! If i manually run all commands for outline-tap0 adapter (static ip, dns 1, dns2) - Outline Client works fine!

[trevj]

@lgg This is extremely useful, thank you very much for the detailed report. It looks like the installer has issues when the new device name is not in English; I will do some testing and report back here exactly what's happening.

[trevj]

@yywudi OK, thanks. I think your problem is related to what @lgg describes. Administrator permissions in Windows 7 is something I will track separately.

[yywudi]

Yes, I do follow @lgg 's suggestion, manually rename tap/set static ip&dns that follow the https://github.com/Jigsaw-Code/outline-client/blob/e61bf13b4e8deaec3bd0912bc75ac6c0f8605c9e/electron/add_tap_device.bat#L49 then everything is working fine.
besides, my windows server 2008 is running English OS, so OS language seems not the key. just the administrator permission issue.

[trevj]

@lgg and @yywudi FYI, I just merged #301 which I hope to include in the next version of Outline for Windows, later this week.

[lgg]

@trevj i just tried to install windows-v1.2.14 and still got this error:

New network adapter still called: "Подключение по локальной сети 5"

I also tried to "Run as Administrator" but still can't rename adapter.

[trevj]

@lgg Thanks for trying again - sorry to hear it still doesn't work.

That device name is quote long - I think the latest release (pushed just now) may address it (looking at the screenshot above in #291 (comment) the name does seem to be truncated):
https://github.com/Jigsaw-Code/outline-client/releases/tag/windows-v1.2.16

I'd love to hear if this new release works for you.

[yywudi]

newly install v1.2.16. report different error but still can't rename the tap device