[Enhancement] Autostart on Ubuntu 19.04

[sojusnik]

What would be the proper way to configure this program to automatically connect to a VPN at system startup in the background on Ubuntu 19.04?

[Rafficer]

I've written a guide for this now, you can access it currently here: https://github.com/ProtonVPN/protonvpn-cli-ng/blob/master/USAGE.md#via-systemd-service

Would be great if you could give feedback if it worked as expected for you or if anything was unclear!

[sojusnik]

Thanks for the doc!

My systemd file looks the following, but it won't autoconnect at startup:

[Unit]
Description=ProtonVPN-CLI auto-connect
Wants=network-online.target

[Service]
Type=forking
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/protonvpn c --cc CH
Environment=SUDO_USER=ubu (that's my PC username, not the openvpn one)

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

The status shows:

ubu@ntu:~$ systemctl status protonvpn-autoconnect
● protonvpn-autoconnect.service - ProtonVPN-CLI auto-connect
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/protonvpn-autoconnect.service; enabled; vendor preset: enable
   Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Sun 2019-11-17 20:36:41 CET; 16min ago
  Process: 971 ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/protonvpn c --cc CH (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)

Nov 17 20:36:41 ntu systemd[1]: Starting ProtonVPN-CLI auto-connect...
Nov 17 20:36:41 ntu protonvpn[971]: [!] There was an error connecting to the ProtonMail API.
Nov 17 20:36:41 ntu protonvpn[971]: [!] Please make sure your connection is working properly!
Nov 17 20:36:41 ntu systemd[1]: protonvpn-autoconnect.service: Control process exited, code=exited, 
Nov 17 20:36:41 ntu systemd[1]: protonvpn-autoconnect.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Nov 17 20:36:41 ntu systemd[1]: Failed to start ProtonVPN-CLI auto-connect.
lines 1-11/11 (END)

I've also found this instruction, that should automatically reconnect, if the connection drops. Does this also apply to your config?

[Rafficer]

Seems like your system didn't have access to the internet when it booted.

You could try changing the Wants=network-online.target to Requires=network-online.target

As there is no "waiting for connection" in ProtonVPN-CLI currently, you need to have a working internet connection before this fires up.

[sojusnik]

Even with Requires=network-online.target I get the same error message as above :/

But if I manually executed sudo systemctl start protonvpn-autoconnect after the system has booted up, then everything works fine.

What about additional settings, like in the instruction linked above, to automatically reconnect on connection drops?

[Rafficer]

You can add a Restart=always line, but I fear that this might go ham quite a bit and has some negative effects.

You can also try delaying the unit file, but this may as well have unexpected side effects: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/43001223/how-to-ensure-that-there-is-a-delay-before-a-service-is-started-in-systemd

[sojusnik]

Adding

[Unit]
Description=ProtonVPN
After=syslog.target network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target

did the trick! Kudos to @Hofer-Julian!

With Restart=always adding

ExecStop=/usr/local/bin/protonvpn d
ExecReload=/usr/local/bin/protonvpn r

is not necessary?

[Rafficer]

With Restart=always adding

ExecStop=/usr/local/bin/protonvpn d
ExecReload=/usr/local/bin/protonvpn r

is not necessary?

Depends if you want that. This would just allow you to properly disconnect by using sudo systemctl stop protonvpn-autoconnect and reconnect with sudo systemctl reload protonvpn. If you want that feel free to add it.

The purpose of the guide that I wrote is just to have a "one-shot" auto connect and then manage any further interaction with the CLI.

If this is resolved, please close the issue :)

[sojusnik]

I take my words back!

[Unit]
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target

or

[Unit]
After=network-online.target
Requires=network-online.target

only work with an already established internet connection at startup. With a cold boot I still get this error message, because I don't have an internet connection when booting.

I've tried

[Unit]
After=NetworkManager-wait-online.service
Requires=NetworkManager-wait-online.service

and

[Unit]
After=systemd-networkd-wait-online.service
Requires=systemd-networkd-wait-online.service

, but only the hackish

[Service]
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=3

works. But my aim is to connect to the internet only through a VPN, without ever to reveal my true IP. Any ideas how to accomplish that?

[Rafficer]

As said before, you need a working internet connection before being able to start ProtonVPN-CLI. There is currently no "waiting for connection". I think adding this however makes sense, so I will keep this issue open and hopefully get to this in the near future.

[theo-dep]

Thanks!
On Ubuntu 18.04, I need to add this lines to the tutorial. Otherwise, the protonvpn service ran before the network.

[Unit]
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target

[Hofer-Julian]

Adding

[Unit]
Description=ProtonVPN
After=syslog.target network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target

did the trick! Kudos to @Hofer-Julian!

With Restart=always adding

ExecStop=/usr/local/bin/protonvpn d
ExecReload=/usr/local/bin/protonvpn r

is not necessary?

I just searched for a problem I had with the new protonvpn cli, just to find my name mentioned together the solution.

On Fedora 31 I also had to add

After=network-online.target

for it to work.

[Rafficer]

This should generally be fixed when #46 is merged and released :)

[Rafficer]

With the merge of #46 this should no longer be an issue. Wait for the next version to be released (hopefully by the end of this week) and then use the PVPN_WAIT feature :)

[dsx12]

For people who are having issues installing protonvpn to start at boot I wrote a simple python script to take care of the work for you:

https://github.com/dsx12/ProtonVpn-Installer/