Hello all!!

I have signed up to https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/ and I would like to configure my Plasma desktop to use this VPN by configuring network settings using the raw `openvpn.zip` configuration. I've already got everything I need to access a VPN using OpenVPN without installing even more convenience software provided by third parties. (In my experience this convenience tends to cause more trouble in the long run than it helps.)

I'm running "plasmashell 5.14.5" on Debian 10.7 ("Buster").

Is there a guide somewhere that explains how to use the `.ovpn`, `.crt`, and `.pem` configuration files to create a network connection of "OpenVPN" type in the Systems Setting Module? My OpenVPN uses username and password for authorization. Any help -- or even links to code that I could manually disassemble -- would be massively appreciated. Thank you so much!!

Kind regards,

ullbeking

First, make sure you have installed network-manager-openvpn.
Then, all you need to do is extract the files in the zip to a folder.
I can't say exactly where and how in Debian's ancient Plasma version, but you should have the option to import ovpn files in System Settings' network connections section via an 'add new connection' option. Either specifically for Openvpn, or for something like 'import VPN connection', maybe. You will have to import multiple servers, if you want to be able to connect to different locations, one ovpn file at a time iirc. You should be asked if you want to import the certs found in the folder of files, which it should do automatically

Now, I could be wrong on some of the steps/locations, considering the' vintage' version of the desktop you have, and my memory definitely is not solid for 5.14. It is very easy to do on the latest Plasma versions, though tedious if you want to add many countries/servers via the GUI. You will have to edit the connection details to add at least the username, the network manager applet may not offer a username field for connections.

PIA used to have scripts that would add all their servers and import the certs but I don't see it on their website any longer. Using the GUI is tedious at best.




EDIT:
Not sure if this is still valid but looks to be current:
https://fra.privateinternetaccess.com/p ... tu-openvpn
you don't need the network-manager-openvpn-gnome package, the one I listed above works in Plasma's Network Manager
This will add all the servers, and set up your user ID and password , and they will show up in your (now very crowded) network widget.
This used to be the main way to use PIA, before their GUI software was created.

In my many, many years of using PIA, I can say that using their software has been trouble free for me as long as I have been using it.