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@cybervegan@autistics.life

Post #1316740

2026-03-30 08:46 UTC

@Uair In short, no. But it IS a front for the usual (command-line) package management utilities "apt" and "apt-get" (I don't make up the names). You could use those, but it can lead to other complications. Especially when using third-party downloaded packages. It's really best not to do that. Linux works VERY differently to Windows in this respect. If I remember correctly, you are on Linux Mint. Have you searched in software manager for network-manager-openvpn? I'm not on stock LM (I'm using their LMDE variant) but it's in there for me. If you install THAT one, it's guaranteed to be the correct one. Once you have it installed, if you click on your network icon near the time (usually looks like a wifi symbol, can be a "network" symbol if you are using wired network) and then on "Network connections". In the window that opens, click the "+" button at the bottom left. Click where it says Ethernet, and near the bottom of the selector, you should see OpenVPN. Click on it, and then on the "Create..." button. The connection details dialog then opens, showing the VPN tab. You need to fill in all those details as specified by your VPN provider. You can put any name you like in the top "Connection name" field, or just leave it as "VPN connection 1" or whatever it has in there. Once you have done that, it should appear in the network manager, and you should be able to connect and disconnect as you wish. I can't remember exactly where, and as I currently am not using a VPN, I can't probe through my setup to write that up for you.

Replies (1)

  • @Uair@autistics.life 2026-03-30 19:51

    @cybervegan In my software manager (app store), there are...well, when I search for "VPN", I get maybe a hundred things with a folder icon, like "network-manager-openvpn", and five pieces of software. The paucity of VPN apps convinced me they're unnecessary when torrenting copyrighted content, although I'm still nervous. I remember when the record companies sued a tech illiterate grandmother for 7 million because her granddaughter downloaded some songs. This was the piece I was missing: 'In the window that opens, click the "+" button at the bottom left.' However, that still doesn't get Express VPN installed. It fails on the install. A VPN is still app on Linux, right? I need a piece of VPN software and "network-manager-openvpn" is for configuring it? Or is "network-manager-openvpn" the VPN itself and I can stop paying Express?

    Open ##1316741