Nordvpn can no longer connect after update today [Solved]

[mikech]

I don't see anyone else complaining so maybe its just me. So Nordvpn was part of today's update along with some Linux headers. After I restarted my computer this evening Nordvpn once again stopped working just like it always does after an update. But this time I went into Synaptic and removed the Nordvpn repository (maybe it reinstalls itself with every update?).

So usually all I have to do is reinstall the Nordvpn scripts from MX Installer and usually everything is fine after that. Only this time it didn't work. I still cannot connect. The error:

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The VPN connection has failed. Please check your internet connection and try connecting to the VPN again. If the issue persists, contact our customer support.

So this is what I tried:

• I restarted the Nordvpn daemon.
  I logged out and then back in.
  I restarted my computer and then reinstalled the MX installer scripts for Noprdvpn again.
  I downloaded and reinstalled Nordvpn from their website and then installed the MX Installer Nordvpn scripts on top of that.
  I restarted the daemon again.
  I reread Fehlix's fix in 2021 but all I did was restart the daemon because I don't want to run without a password.

That's it. I did not bother with NordVPN support because its just "zendesk" and you always end up with unqualified people that don't really know anything. Its a total waste of time every time. Plus it takes them a very long time to respond so the useless conversation can be drawn out for weeks,

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Snapshot created on: 20230315_2318
System:    Kernel: 5.10.0-27-amd64 [5.10.205-2] x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.1 
           parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.10.0-27-amd64 root=UUID=<filter> ro quiet splash 
           Desktop: Xfce 4.18.1 tk: Gtk 3.24.24 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm 4.18.0 vt: 7 
           dm: LightDM 1.26.0 Distro: MX-21.3_x64 Wildflower March 15  2023 
           base: Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye) 
Machine:   Type: Desktop System: Gigabyte product: Z390 AORUS PRO WIFI v: N/A serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: Gigabyte model: Z390 AORUS PRO WIFI-CF serial: <filter> UEFI: American Megatrends 
           v: F12 date: 11/05/2021 
Battery:   Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech M720 Triathlon Multi-Device Mouse 
           serial: <filter> charge: 55% (should be ignored) rechargeable: yes status: Discharging 
CPU:       Info: 6-Core model: Intel Core i5-9600K bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Kaby Lake note: check 
           family: 6 model-id: 9E (158) stepping: D (13) microcode: FA cache: L2: 9 MiB 
           flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 44398 
           Speed: 800 MHz min/max: 800/4600 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 800 2: 800 3: 800 4: 800 
           5: 800 6: 800 
           Vulnerabilities: Type: gather_data_sampling mitigation: Microcode 
           Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled 
           Type: l1tf status: Not affected 
           Type: mds status: Not affected 
           Type: meltdown status: Not affected 
           Type: mmio_stale_data mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT disabled 
           Type: retbleed mitigation: Enhanced IBRS 
           Type: spec_rstack_overflow status: Not affected 
           Type: spec_store_bypass 
           mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp 
           Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
           Type: spectre_v2 
           mitigation: Enhanced IBRS, IBPB: conditional, RSB filling, PBRSB-eIBRS: SW sequence 
           Type: srbds mitigation: Microcode 
           Type: tsx_async_abort mitigation: TSX disabled 
Graphics:  Device-1: NVIDIA TU106 [GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER] vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: nvidia 
           v: 470.199.02 bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:1f06 class-ID: 0300 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 compositor: xfwm4 v: 4.18.0 driver: loaded: nvidia 
           display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1 
           Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 508x286mm (20.0x11.3") 
           s-diag: 583mm (23") 
           Monitor-1: HDMI-0 res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 40 size: 1209x680mm (47.6x26.8") 
           diag: 1387mm (54.6") 
           OpenGL: renderer: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 470.199.02 
           direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel Cannon Lake PCH cAVS vendor: Gigabyte driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
           alternate: snd_soc_skl,snd_sof_pci bus-ID: 00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:a348 class-ID: 0403 
           Device-2: NVIDIA TU106 High Definition Audio vendor: Micro-Star MSI 
           driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 01:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:10f9 class-ID: 0403 
           Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.10.0-27-amd64 running: yes 
           Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 14.2 running: yes 
           Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.19 running: no 
Network:   Device-1: Intel Cannon Lake PCH CNVi WiFi driver: iwlwifi v: kernel modules: wl 
           bus-ID: 00:14.3 chip-ID: 8086:a370 class-ID: 0280 
           IF: wlan0 state: down mac: <filter> 
           Device-2: Intel Ethernet I219-V vendor: Gigabyte driver: e1000e v: kernel port: efa0 
           bus-ID: 00:1f.6 chip-ID: 8086:15bc class-ID: 0200 
           IF: eth0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
Bluetooth: Device-1: Intel Bluetooth 9460/9560 Jefferson Peak (JfP) type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8 
           bus-ID: 1-14:5 chip-ID: 8087:0aaa class-ID: e001 
           Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 1 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 3.0 lmp-v: 5.1 
           sub-v: 100 hci-v: 5.1 rev: 100 
           Info: acl-mtu: 1021:4 sco-mtu: 96:6 link-policy: rswitch sniff link-mode: slave accept 
           service-classes: rendering, capturing, audio 
RAID:      Hardware-1: Intel SATA Controller [RAID mode] driver: ahci v: 3.0 port: 5020 
           bus-ID: 00:17.0 chip-ID: 8086.2822 rev: 10 class-ID: 0104 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 9.12 TiB used: 1.44 TiB (15.8%) 
           SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required. 
           ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: A-Data model: SX8200PNP size: 953.87 GiB 
           block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 type: SSD 
           serial: <filter> rev: 42AZS6AC temp: 35.9 C scheme: GPT 
           ID-2: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Western Digital model: WD4002FYYZ-01B7CB0 
           size: 3.64 TiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: HDD 
           rpm: 7200 serial: <filter> rev: 1M02 scheme: GPT 
           ID-3: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 vendor: Western Digital model: WD40EZRZ-00GXCB0 
           size: 3.64 TiB block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: HDD 
           rpm: 5400 serial: <filter> rev: 0A80 scheme: GPT 
           ID-4: /dev/sdc maj-min: 8:32 vendor: Samsung model: SSD 860 QVO 1TB size: 931.51 GiB 
           block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: SSD serial: <filter> 
           rev: 1B6Q scheme: MBR 
Partition: ID-1: / raw-size: 945.61 GiB size: 929.7 GiB (98.32%) used: 23.93 GiB (2.6%) fs: ext4 
           dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2 
           ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 256 MiB size: 252 MiB (98.46%) used: 423 KiB (0.2%) fs: vfat 
           dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 maj-min: 259:1 
           ID-3: /home raw-size: 3.64 TiB size: 3.58 TiB (98.43%) used: 340.69 GiB (9.3%) fs: ext4 
           dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1 
Swap:      Kernel: swappiness: 5 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default) 
           ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 8 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 
           dev: /dev/nvme0n1p3 maj-min: 259:3 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 54.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: nvidia temp: 39 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 0 fan-2: 0 fan-3: 0 gpu: nvidia fan: 32% 
           Power: 12v: N/A 5v: N/A 3.3v: 3.38 vbat: 3.21 
Repos:     Packages: note: see --pkg apt: 3569 lib: 1738 
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bullseye-updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bullseye main contrib non-free
           2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security/ bullseye-security main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list 
           1: deb http://mirrors.rit.edu/mxlinux/mx-packages/mx/repo/ bullseye main non-free
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nordvpn.list 
           No active dnf repos in: /etc/dnf/dnf.conf 
Info:      Processes: 258 Uptime: 58m wakeups: 14 Memory: 62.72 GiB used: 4.16 GiB (6.6%) 
           Init: SysVinit v: 2.96 runlevel: 5 default: 5 tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 10.2.1 
           alt: 10 Client: shell wrapper v: 5.1.4-release inxi: 3.3.06 
Boot Mode: UEFI

[siamhie]

No problems here after the latest update. ( I do boot systemd but I'm not sure if that's any different)

quickshot_240117_212834.jpg

[mw1649]

No problem here using sysvinit, didn't even have to login again.

[asqwerth]

Same as mw1649.

I'm currently on MX21 but there was indeed an update for Nordvpn which I applied, and I have just connected to the vpn to test it.

No issues on sysvinit, didn't need any restart/relogin of my MX system.

[mikech]

I thought it was because I do not use SystemD but apparently that's not it.

OK. Then its just me and something about my setup. I may have to do the unthinkable and go to Nordvpn support. I would rather pull out my toenails! :-)

So the first step would be to turn off the firewalls on my router and my computer temporarily and try again. If it works then I will have to figure out whats wrong. I have all ports I am not using closed and stealthed. It could be that this new update has Nordlynx using different ports from the last. Last time, this happened, NordVPN refused to give me a list of which ports it was using and it took me days to learn enough to figure it out without their help. I doubt it was the firewall because it worked fine until I turned the computer off after the update.

If the problem is not the firewall I will try going back to a previous snapshot and then not update.

Of course I could do what I did the last time NordVPN refused to work and their technical support was completely worthless. I can simply access their servers using OpenVPN that I setup manually. I don't remember how to do that so I will have to relearn everything! My one remaining brain cell is not happy about that!

You can't get your money back from Nordvpn but it didn't cost much because it was on sale. I have never ever had any problem with Express VPN in MX Linux. I may go back to them even though Opensnitch was warning me that Microsoft servers were accessing my computer 4000 times a day meaning that the servers had a record of my actual IP address! Using Wireshark, I found out that it was the Microsoft servers that Express VPN uses and Express confirmed that when I called them.. I guess they don't understand that anything from Microsoft calls home constantly which is why I use Linux even though it is much more work. But I guess I can live with that. I am not actually a criminal but simply grossed out by the lack of privacy using the internet.

[mikech]

For those who may have a similar problem in the future.

I have determined that the current version of NordVPN does not play nice with my modem/router. I have Centurylink as my phone/ISP company and I am required by the state to use them for my ISP as well. New Mexico basically gave them a monopoly in my area. I am required by Centurylink to use a Zyxel C3000Z (one that is not commercially available and uses Centurylink's proprietary software so I cannot use Zyxel support). Centurylink support is virtually nonexistant. They are very cozy with the regulators.

So I had to set the security level for "private IP addresses" to "low" and set port stealth to "disable" to make NordVPN work. The security setting had previously been medium with the ports set to "stealth enable" and that prevented NordVPN from working. I could have gone through all the ports and tested them one by one but life is too short and I am too old! I found though that I could leave the "public IP addresses" set to "stealth" and the security level to "medium" with all my unused ports closed and NordVPN will still work. Of course this was all working perfectly prior to the NordVPN update.

Additionally I cannot have my Zyxel router web interface open. Once I start NordVPN I can no longer access the Zyxel Router web interface. In fact I cannot even ping it. Because I made no changes to the router settings prior to this problem it is obvious that NordVPN made changes that are not compatible with a small percentage of all the Centurylink Zyxel modem/routers in the entire southwestern US. Very few people have this router though because it is the high-end router I needed for a large house so I could use my laptop on the porch (even with that I need a repeater).