Installing ProtonVPN on MX KDE, step by step [Solved]

[MXRobo]

For clarification: And I defer you the dev's and other's linux knowledge.

In this link, viewtopic.php?p=774520#p774520
I stated that I contacted ProtonVPN, their response was essentially (see link for quote) systemd is required.

Again, they have several methods (at least webpages) of installing, and one page states that the preferred method is to install the ProtonVPN App, yet they have a page that is more specific for installing on MX-Linux – and one would assume takes precedence.
They also have instructions for installing on Debian, and they have browser extensions.

To put it euphemistically, it's a little disorganized.

IIRC - others have installed it from MXPI>Enabled Repos - ProtonVPN - - not sure which one.
==============================================================================

ALSO – just yesterday I was going to mark that post (and probably another post) as solved as I haven't seen the ProtonVPN Popup Pwd Windows & error msgs for months, but coincidentally, yesterday I received several "Authentication Required, A password is required, Password (box with hidden password), popup" messages, that even continued to occur after logging out and rebooting, but soon disappeared after rebooting.

++EDIT - there have been several/many updates in the past months, so they have/are removing the "wrinkles".



I am also - like many others - running it on SysVinit.

I mention this - and although it's functional now, it still had that problem yesterday – because of fehlix's quote:

Hmme, seems to work here - kind of out of the box -

Which I could possibly interpret to be:

Hmme, seems to work here - kind of - out of the box.

With regards to:

maybe we add an entry
to MXPI->Network->Proton VPN

By the way, which method did you install it?

Cheers People!

[CharlesV]

As MXRobo suggests, I have installed ProtonVPN on several machines using the MX Package Installer, and THEN installing the ProtonVPN GUI (from Proton ) .

I have not had to go into systemd to install or run it - on any machine.

And for the record... I have only every had to go into systemd once to install a very nasty piece of software that worked on Wifi systems and 'required' that for the database part. I later found the why and have verified that it can be done manually NOT in systemd.

And the iDrive backup system installed, but failed to hook into the cron system properly on install. One ticket with them and they sent me a new install that worked perfectly under sysvinit.

The point, I am sure there ARE some apps that require systemd, but I have not run across any that a work around could not be found.

[fehlix]

After having setup their repository,
these two commands made it install and running in both Kde and Xfce:

Code: Select all

sudo apt install --install-recommends gir1.2-ayatanaappindicator3-0.1  proton-vpn-gnome-desktop

and if running in plasma additionally this

Code: Select all

pgrep -x plasmashell && sudo apt install libkf5wallet-bin

(which may have not been needed, b/c it's preinstalled already.)

Note, the connections do require to get the secrects stored
within either of the "Secret Storage" available, which is on Plasma KWallet
and otherwise Gnome Keyring.
Here shown with Gnome-keyring:

proton-sso-secrets.jpg

KWallet would have a similar picture, like this:

proton-sso-secrets-kwallet.jpg

If no Secret Storage have been enabled (or the dbus query to the storage hangs) it may
hang with an authenticantion popup, get manually entered the secret-connection key.

FWIW, just in case, a script to install Proton VPN on MX Linux:

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash

# Script to install Proton VPN on MX Linux
#
# File: install-proton-vpn.sh
# Date: Wed Jun 26, 2024
# fehlix at mxlinux
# MX Linux forum: 
# https://forum.mxlinux.org/viewtopic.php?p=780943#p780943
#
VERSION="240626-02"

# check root
(( $(id -u) )) && exec sudo "$0"
# use nala if available
command -v nala && APT=nala || APT=apt

# some temp stuff
APT_TMP_DIR=$(mktemp -d /tmp/protonvpn-stable-tempdir_XXXXXXXXXXXXX)
APT_TMP_LST=$(mktemp  /etc/apt/sources.list.d/protonvpn-stable-temp_XXXXXXXXXXXXX.list)
chmod 755 ${APT_TMP_DIR}
tidy_up() {
    rm -r $APT_TMP_DIR 2>/dev/null
    rm    $APT_TMP_LST 2>/dev/null
    }
trap tidy_up EXIT

TMP_PUBLIC_KEY=${APT_TMP_DIR}/public_key.asc
curl -RLJ -o ${TMP_PUBLIC_KEY} https://repo.protonvpn.com/debian/public_key.asc
$APT update
dpkg -l | grep -q protonvpn-stable-release && apt purge  protonvpn-stable-release --yes
[ -f /etc/apt/sources.list.d/protonvpn-stable.list ] && rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/protonvpn-stable.list
echo "deb [arch=all signed-by=${TMP_PUBLIC_KEY}] https://repo.protonvpn.com/debian stable main" | tee ${APT_TMP_LST}

$APT update
$APT install protonvpn-stable-release
rm ${APT_TMP_LST}
$APT update

$APT install --install-recommends gir1.2-ayatanaappindicator3-0.1  proton-vpn-gnome-desktop
# Kde/Plasma
pgrep -x plasmashell && $APT install libkf5wallet-bin

exit

Also as zip file attached: install-proton-vpn-240626-02.zip

install-proton-vpn-240626-02.zip

[aika]

... however, if you feel the urge to say that... dont bother posting.

Sorry, that was just irony and not an emotional reaction.

[Eadwine Rose]

... however, if you feel the urge to say that... dont bother posting.

Sorry, that was just irony and not an emotional reaction.

Irony or not, that comment crossed a line which shouldn't have been crossed. Just don't let it happen again, thanks.

[aika]

... that comment crossed a line which shouldn't have been crossed ...

Those were only four letters, that's not a crime, we Germans ironically interpret the f as fine, because the other interpretation only exists as an English term.

[richb]

This topic has veered away from the users intent. Let's get back on topic. The term used has clearly been tagged as unwelcome. The easy solution is to accept the admonishment not to use it and move on.

[MarieSophie]

... I've installed ProtonVPN several times, and sometimes it works ...

RTFM => https://protonvpn.com/support/official- ... bian/#beta

Do they air good music on that FM station ?

[MarieSophie]

Note to all the "wannabe smart" out there, don't bother posting the link to the protonvpn page, that's not helping and just show that you don't "get" the problem (and actually didn't read the OP posts)

I've installed PVPN several times on MX, and sometimes it works just fine right away, sometimes it's a pain,
This is one of these pain

And since MX is behaving strange, I guess my install didn't go as right as I thought, but I still don't know what went wrong

[MarieSophie]

See the links at the very bottom of this post, they have many ways of installing it, or at least many pages.
FYI – I didn't find the MX-Linux installation link until months later, so there site doesn't seem overly organized.

++EDIT I didn't know what the password was (actually, at first, I didn't even know it was for ProtonVPN), but this post viewtopic.php?p=747967#p747967 regarding KDE states:

Protonvpn behaves differently for me on XFCE than it does on KDE. On KDE it asks me for a password every time (the password that is on my accounts page not my general proton password) while on XFCE it just has me login with my normal proton password. I have it installed without their app on both. I tried the app on KDE and it was a mess for me, just getting rid of it and using the cli was easier for me. I've read that their app is hit or miss in several places. I'm coming up on my renewal time for the sub and I'm willing to try alternatives.

They state that they don't officially support MX, but as a Debian, it does work (sometimes) using the Debian guide, that's what I go for, but this time it doesn't.

The OpenVPN password .. yes, I've had that one previous try, and it would ask me for that PW every single connection, even just changing server, that was annoying but at least it worked.

I think my MX is corrupted somehow, and about to reinstall. But iT,s a pity as I will never know what went wrong where :/

and all these comments completely ruined the "reference post" I intended to do in the first place :(