If you travel a lot, or need vpn for work purposes, I can understand why it would make sense to install vpn software directly on devices. If not, I can heartily recommend letting your router take care of it (as long as your router is able to handle it). That way, all devices within the LAN are properly protected.
Thanks for sharing this. I am almost ready to ditch PVPN and try others that have easier support for arch users.
In previous forum discussions on this topic, it was mentioned how the old protonvpn-CLI client was not reliable, in that PVPN had officially stopped supporting it but anyone who had it still installed could run it (a 2 year old version is still available in AUR). I had proof of this a few days ago. Either the secure core would not run on it or the (Garuda-only) machine it was on got infected without regard for it. So I strongly advise users to avoid that CLI unless there are good reasons for taking the risks lol.
Cheaper is RiseUp VPN with very basic functions compared to PVPN, and installs & runs easily on Garuda. There is another Swedish vpn Mullvad that reportedly can be installed on arch linux. I wonder if any Garuda users have tried it.
Did you have to install the Gnome keyring ? I had installed the PVPN on a debian machine with KDE and had to install the Gnome keyring handler on it to get it to work there. (I still prefer Garuda lol). Also when on a public wifi, it looked like when the network comms were pen-tested (I suspect the ISP is doing it), on that machine it went to instant cold power off. On WinOs if the PVPN kill switch is on, then if the comms get tripped then the network comms stay on, but the kill switch stays on and the connection to wifi is blocked.
FYI the PVPN CLI breach was one of these bios-rewrite attacks I suspect, triggered either from a twitter feed interaction or it has some delay timer and hit coincidentally then! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EI6Y6PVgLo
Dunno if this’ll help the OP at this point, but for anyone who might find it helpful, I’ve been using ProtonVPN through the OpenVPN protocol, personally. It’s seemed to work pretty well, and I think I prefer it over Wireguard.
For the most part, I followed Proton’s guide, though I found an exception (listed below the link) that makes things easier.
One thing I discovered about the downloadable configuration files is that, instead of copy-pasting or whatever, you can double-click them, and you’ll be prompted to import them. Way easier!
There might be something similar with Wireguard, but I don’t know enough about that method to say.
I am thinking of trying the GTK app from the AUR now, though.
Please be aware that it’s not always a good sign when a VPN provider is cheap. I’m not saying that cheaper per se equals less secure, but I’d prioritize trustworthyness. I know trustworthyness is hard to define, but sites like this one used to help a lot: VPN Comparison by That One Privacy Guy (perhaps a bad example, since it’s unfortunately no longer maintained).
Yes I agree with this entirely and have been a paid customer of PVPN since 2018 or so. (Before that I had a paid Nord account too lol). Same goes for email imo. I have had independent email since 2010 via domain reg & server.
FYI From today I am trying Mullvad from Sweden after looking over the options in the VPN page in the AUR Wiki.
The build pkg was already in the repository and it worked very easily right out of the box in Dra46onized w KDE Plasma (GTK GUI similar to the one PVPN has for the GNOME applet but MUCH FASTER/more responsive. ) There are some more tweaks mentioned in the Arch Wiki but I did not implement them yet and it still is running well. Their home page also has a DNS leak checker that anyone can use fyi. The only thing I did was make my account on another computer that had vpn running already and topped it up (they are set up like a prepaid phone top up system & you buy however many months you want at a time with minimum @ 5 Euros/month.)
I also like that they did NOT link a FB icon on their home page lol. They obviously know what customers they want lol.
I do like PVPN because their tech support has always been very responsive by email, chat and even on Twitter they will respond. In online discussions they replied on Reddit that they did not have the manpower capacity to maintain an ARCH friendly version and were honest about it. On the other hand, the pvpn landing page says they have 100 million users. So it is more of a choice and understandable that they are going after a market where Arch users are 0.1 % so not worth the investment. For some internet security coder starting out, they do seem to be looking for staff.
