How to Install Easy-RSA on POP! OS Latest

In this tutorial, we will walk you through the steps to install Easy-RSA on POP! OS Latest, which is a set of scripts that simplifies the process of creating and managing Public Key Infrastructures (PKI) such as Certificate Authorities (CA), digital certificates and keys.

Prerequisites

Before starting the installation process, ensure that you have the following:

• Access to a terminal on your system
• An active internet connection
• Basic knowledge of the command line

Step 1: Install Required Packages

Firstly, you need to install the required packages to build Easy-RSA from the source. Open the terminal on your system and execute the command below:

sudo apt-get install git gnupg2 build-essential

Step 2: Clone Easy-RSA Repository

Next, clone the Easy-RSA repository from GitHub using the following command:

git clone https://github.com/OpenVPN/easy-rsa.git

This will clone the complete Easy-RSA repository to your current directory.

Step 3: Create Easy-RSA Directory

Now that you have cloned the Easy-RSA repository, create a directory named easy-rsa in the /etc/openvpn/ directory where all the easy-rsa scripts and certificates will be stored.

sudo mkdir /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa

Step 4: Copy Easy-RSA Files

After creating the directory, copy the files from the cloned repository to the easy-rsa directory using the command below:

sudo cp -R ~/easy-rsa/easyrsa3/* /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/

The above command will copy all the Easy-RSA files and directories to the /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/ directory.

Step 5: Initialize Easy-RSA

Now that you have copied all the files to the easy-rsa directory, initialize Easy-RSA using the following command:

sudo easyrsa init-pki

This will initialize the Public Key Infrastructure and create a private key and a Certificate Authority (CA) that will be used to sign certificates.

Step 6: Build the CA

Once you have initialized Easy-RSA, you need to build the Certificate Authority (CA) by executing the command below:

sudo easyrsa build-ca

This will prompt you to enter the DN (Distinguished Name) information for the CA. Provide the information required and press the Enter key. By doing so, you will have created the root CA, which will be used to sign client or server certificates.

Conclusion

Easy-RSA is now installed on your POP! OS Latest system. You can use it to create and manage Certificates Authorities and digital certificates for your OpenVPN server.