HOW TO SET UP OPENVPN USING GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE (GUI) WITH SURFSHARK(OR ANOTHER)
I see many people asking if there's a graphical tool for some popular VPN services as Surfshark for Linux(for example) and the answer is simple: there isn't (for most cases).
This is due to the fact that they give the information you need in order to configure your VPN connection. So in theory you can set up your VPN connection via CLI or via GUI, using wizards and other stuff.
I don't want to use the terminal emulator and scripts to configure VPN connection. What can I do?
Well, I'll share my user experience with you on what I did and that worked fine.
I have already created a script to make things easier and faster. Even, calling windows for you to select the configuration file you need.
But I could not accept that there wasn't an easier way to configure this in Linux using graphical tools.
So, let's go!
Preparing the system and running the network manager
Open a new window for you preferred terminal emulator and run:
sudo apt-get install openvpn network-manager-gnome network-manager-openvpn network-manager-openvpn-gnome network-manager-vpnc
Maybe you'll need to restart networking service:
sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart
Configuring VPN connection using GUI
It's time to run nm-applet if you do not use it.
sudo nm-applet or nm-applet
Now click on network-manager gnome applet icon on your systray. Go to VPN Connections and then Configure VPN:
Before you change anything you can read on how to get your configuration files for Surfshark here. You can also use this tutorial with other VPN services(over OpenVPN) just changing the configuration details.
Then click on add. If you have other network profiles configured it will open another window. It's just click on "+":
Then select Import a saved VPN configuration
Now select an ovpn file similar to what you see in the picture:
Now insert the name of the VPN connection you're creating and your credentials.
Make sure that your certificate was successfully imported:
Go to IPv4 Settings panel and choose Automatic (VPN) addresses only.
Now go back to VPN panel and click on Advanced
Now go TLS Authentication panel and check if the your key file was also imported and press OK:
Now save your VPN connection profile.
Time to test it. Click on the network-manager icon on systray and select VPN Connections> The name of the VPN connection you've just created. As you can see on the picture below:
Once connected you will see a desktop notification informing that you are connected and the network icon will change showing a padlock as you can see on the first picture of this tutorial. Don't forget to configure the DNS of your VPN service on your base network configuration(cable or Wi-Fi).
Update:
now that you have both base and VPN connection you can configure that base connection to use VPN automatically as you can see in the picture below.
So it's just to create as many VPN connections as you need. Then select which one you will use. This useful specially when you need to change the server.
I hope this can be helpful to many people.
Did you like this tutorial?
Join our community on YouTube and Twitter.
YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/MeuRefugioNerd
Social Media, donations and support:https://wlo.link/@meurefugionerd
Go Home
