Introduction

This guide describes the configuration of OpenVPN on Ubuntu Linux using the Gnome Network Manager.

It might also be applied to other Gnome-based desktop Linux distributions. The guide was tested on Ubuntu Linux 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr).

Installation

Step 1. To begin setting up OpenVPN, open your Terminal

Open your Terminal

Step 2. Open a terminal and enter the following command to install the Gnome Network Manager Plugin for OpenVPN. As a dependency, the required OpenVPN binaries are also installed. In case parts of the Gnome Network Manager are already installed, they need to be forcedly reinstalled to have the newly installed components properly registered in the system.

sudo apt-get install --reinstall network-manager network-manager-gnome network-manager-openvpn network-manager-openvpn-gnome

Install network-manager-openvpn

Step 3. To make the Gnome Network Manager aware of the newly installed component, it needs to be restarted

sudo service network-manager restart

Restart Gnome Network Mangager

Configuration

Step 4. Click here to download FinchVPN Ubuntu OpenVPN config files to your Downloads folder to begin configuring your VPN connection

Step 5. Extract the server location that you want to connect to a folder or on your desktop, make sure you also extract finchvpn-ca.crt and finchvpn-tls-key.key

Step 6. From the Gnome menu bar, open the Network Manager menu and select Configure VPN.

Step 7. An overview of configured network connection appears. Click the Add button.

Step 8. A Choose a VPN Connection Type window will open. Select Import a saved VPN configuration... in the drop-down menu

Step 9. Click Create

Step 10. Navigate to your folder that you extracted to and select the .ovpn config. Click Open

Step 11. A dialog appears. Enter your FinchVPN Username and API KEY (Password) in the appropriate text fields. When you are done, click Advanced..., make sure that CA Certificate is loaded with finchvpn-ca.crt

In the OpenVPN Advanced Options you do not need to alter too many settings, because most of them are read from the configuration file. The settings are shown for completeness and comparison.

Step 12. Make sure your setting look like this

Step 13. In the Security tab the Cipher should already be set to BF-CBC. Click TLS Authentication.

Step 14. In the TLS Authentication tab, make sure the Key File field is pointed to finchvpn-tls-key.key. The Key Direction needs to be set to 1. You can skip the Proxies tab for now and click OK.

Test run

After having gone through the OpenVPN Advanced Options, Save… this VPN connection.

Step 15. After having set up a new VPN connection, it is available in the Network Manager menu. Open it and select FinchVPN from the list of configured VPN connections. The VPN connection gets established.

Step 16. After successfully connected to VPN, a notification will pop up

Step 17. If you want to disconnect your VPN connection, click the "Disconnect VPN"

Step 18. Should you have any connection issues, please type the following into your terminal (and send us the log)

grep VPN /var/log/syslog

Technical instructions for advanced users

For advanced technical users of Linux, including Ubuntu Server, connecting is as simple.

To connect, simply use openvpn command with a configuration:

sudo openvpn --config finchvpn-server-config.ovpn

To disconnect, simply stop openvpn by using Ctrl+C.