VPNs for Linux Roundup
After reading for many years how we should use a VPN for privacy on the web, Google’s recent moves persuaded me to try.
Thinking that GUI apps would be more convenient, I tried PIA, but the installer fails with a permissions error that I couldn’t work around (Linux Mint 21). Despite me sending full details including the error messages, the helpdesk was useless and I had to give up and get a refund. So next I tried Surfshark, but its installer gave even more errors, and again it couldn’t help so I had to get a refund.
I don’t know how you arrange tests on services like these, but perhaps if you gave them advance notice, they might get their Linux apps fixed before you test?
Neil says… I’ve been using PIA for a few months and its installer was fine on vanilla Ubuntu. If you’ve had two services fail, it’s possible that there is some odd configuration at your end. We are planning to run a VPN feature soon, as it continues to be a useful area for people to know about, but it’s not going to highlight specific issues – companies struggle to support single versions of Windows never mind the myriad of Linux configs.
Did the PIA support mention the manual install guide? That’s more likely to succeed, and if it doesn’t, it might provide a more obvious reason for its failure: https://bit.ly/lxf316pia. The basic outline is: install OpenVPN, grab and unzip the configuration files, launch OpenVPN using the country config you want, profit. The page does offer some options if OpenVPN can’t connect over your network/ broadband connection.
Repository time
Even though I have been using Linux Ubuntu 20.04 LTS now for
quite a while, I still consider myself to be only an intermediate user. I seem to have problems accessing the repository in order to find apps that I can use both in my general usage and also in my ham radio hobby, such as EchoLink. I faithfully read my Linux Format magazine, cover to cover, every month and learn many things. After reading LXF311 and deciding to install the Dolphin file manager, I tried to find it in a repository and was unable to do so. I actually kept looking for a way to find it and was finally able to. (I swallowed real hard, gritted my teeth and headed for the terminal, put in sudo snap.install.dolphin and, oh my god, it worked!) I now have Dolphin in my apps. I was hoping that you folks might be kind enough to do an article on how to find and use repositories.
Neil says… Thanks to reader feedback, we are looking at more elementary topics, such as repositories and package management. This issue, we’re looki
