Answer for my own question, for reference (https://community.openvpn.net/openvpn/wiki/OpenvpnSoftwareRepos):
1) sudo -s wget -O - https://swupdate.openvpn.net/repos/repo-public.gpg|apt-key add - echo "deb http://build.openvpn.net/debian/openvpn/stable xenial main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openvpn-aptrepo.list apt-get update apt-get dist-upgrade 2) change to verb 4 and now google auth works IF i run openvpn with sudo privileges -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1576588 Title: google-authenticator with openvpn fails on 16.04 To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/openvpn/+bug/1576588/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs