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

[galaxysurfer]

I don't know your use case hardware & space wise. Is it for a laptop or a desktop?

At home I connect to Vpn via my router. I use an Asus router with Asuswrt-merlin installed, custom scripts & an ethernet hub.
This gives me the best of both worlds as needed; wireless & wired connection points.

I like My Asus router software combo since it makes managing my home network a breeze.
As to the user friendliness or lack there of, with Protonvpn, I have never used it. Sorry can help from that end of things.

[MarieSophie]

I don't know your use case hardware & space wise. Is it for a laptop or a desktop?

At home I connect to Vpn via my router. I use an Asus router with Asuswrt-merlin installed, custom scripts & an ethernet hub.
This gives me the best of both worlds as needed; wireless & wired connection points.

I like My Asus router software combo since it makes managing my home network a breeze.
As to the user friendliness or lack there of, with Protonvpn, I have never used it. Sorry can help from that end of things.

TY for your input,
I have a mini-PC ready to receive OpenSense, but I'm not there yet ...

[MarieSophie]

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

Found an entry in FlatPack: "www.protonvpn.com" and installed it (I should have created a TimeShift entry before doing so ..)
THEN I will re-do the install process from ProtonVPN page, which add these:

Code: Select all

sudo apt install proton-vpn-gnome-desktop
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
  gir1.2-nm-1.0 libcairo-script-interpreter2 libcloudproviders0 libgraphene-1.0-0 libgtk-4-1 libgtk-4-common libnma-common libnma-gtk4-0 libnma0
  network-manager-openvpn-gnome proton-vpn-gtk-app python3-aiohttp python3-aiosignal python3-async-timeout python3-attr python3-bcrypt
  python3-charset-normalizer python3-frozenlist python3-gnupg python3-importlib-metadata python3-jaraco.classes python3-jeepney python3-jinja2
  python3-keyring python3-markupsafe python3-more-itertools python3-multidict python3-nacl python3-openssl python3-proton-core
  python3-proton-keyring-linux python3-proton-keyring-linux-secretservice python3-proton-vpn-api-core python3-proton-vpn-connection
  python3-proton-vpn-killswitch python3-proton-vpn-killswitch-network-manager python3-proton-vpn-logger python3-proton-vpn-network-manager
  python3-proton-vpn-network-manager-openvpn python3-requests python3-secretstorage python3-sentry-sdk python3-urllib3 python3-yarl python3-zipp
Suggested packages:
  gvfs libgtk-4-media-gstreamer | libgtk-4-media-ffmpeg libayatana-appindicator3-1 gir1.2-ayatanaappindicator3-0.1 python-attr-doc python-jinja2-doc
  gir1.2-secret-1 python3-keyrings.alt python-nacl-doc python-openssl-doc python3-openssl-dbg python3-socks python-requests-doc python-secretstorage-doc
  python3-brotli
Recommended packages:
  libgtk-4-bin libjs-jquery python3-babel python3-tabulate

[MarieSophie]

And now I'm back to the initial problem,
I click on PVPN, it shows the icon in the taskbar for a second or two, then disappear.
What CLI should I use to start it and trace it so I can post here for debug ?

[fehlix]

And now I'm back to the initial problem,
I click on PVPN, it shows the icon in the taskbar for a second or two, then disappear.
What CLI should I use to start it and trace it so I can post here for debug ?

Maybe read my post above. In case something was unclear let me know.

[MarieSophie]

And now I'm back to the initial problem,
I click on PVPN, it shows the icon in the taskbar for a second or two, then disappear.
What CLI should I use to start it and trace it so I can post here for debug ?

Maybe read my post above. In case something was unclear let me know.

I did ! and I thank you (and the others) for your input, but I got lost in too much information ... it's a mix of *install*, *configure* and keyrings
I'm not sure which part is usable in my situation, as the install is done, but I can't open it, and therefore can't configure it ... I'M just in-between
And I would like to know what's the problem, (what command should I use to trace the behavior) rather than just uninstall and reinstall until it work.
Note: Kwallet is installed and setup, gnome-keyring is installed but don't know how to set it up if even required ? in the menu, when I type keyring, I have no GUI hence not able to check and compare to the picture provided

EDIT:
In my Kwallet, I don't have the same entries, I'm missing "secret services":

[fan_of_LTS]

I am following this thread as I have the same problem on Xfce. It worked fine right up until the update to 4.3.2.

All I can say is that after noticing more than normal drops of ntp and dns in my firewall (I only allow those to servers on my allowed lists) I tried Proton VPN again without the firewall (I am behind a router) and still no connect. So maybe we can rule that out.

[MarieSophie]

I am following this thread as I have the same problem on Xfce. It worked fine right up until the update to 4.3.2.

All I can say is that after noticing more than normal drops of ntp and dns in my firewall (I only allow those to servers on my allowed lists) I tried Proton VPN again without the firewall (I am behind a router) and still no connect. So maybe we can rule that out.

TY ... and sorry you are experiencing the same troubles.
My FW is for on "default" with no filter, so basically the same as no FW

[CharlesV]

In trying to debug things, one of the first things to try is to launch it from a CLI and see what messages are being brought up.

I can later today I will get one of my test rigs up and do the install from scratch - I dont use flatpak's, so I know that was not the answer for me - the lsat one I installed vpn on it was 'install from the mx package manager and then one install the one from proton. (the deb) I dont recall having to do anything else.

(And fyi - PIA (Private Internet Access ) is my regular VPN of this type, runs smooth and trouble free.)

[fehlix]

And now I'm back to the initial problem,
I click on PVPN, it shows the icon in the taskbar for a second or two, then disappear.
What CLI should I use to start it and trace it so I can post here for debug ?

Maybe read my post above. In case something was unclear let me know.

I did ! and I thank you (and the others) for your input, but I got lost in too much information ... it's a mix of *install*, *configure* and keyrings
I'm not sure which part is usable in my situation, as the install is done, but I can't open it, and therefore can't configure it ... I'M just in-between
And I would like to know what's the problem, (what command should I use to trace the behavior) rather than just uninstall and reinstall until it work.
Note: Kwallet is installed and setup, gnome-keyring is installed but don't know how to set it up if even required ? in the menu, when I type keyring, I have no GUI hence not able to check and compare to the picture provided

EDIT:
In my Kwallet, I don't have the same entries, I'm missing "secret services":

Suggest,do a simple install without any fancy stuff, maybe just update/ugprade.

Next the simplest might be run the above install-proton-vpn.sh:
Open terminal as normal user and run the script.
The script will enable proton's deb-repository,
and install the needed packages (as decribed with my post above).
Don' install gnome-keyring it's not needed for proton-vpn on Kde.
On Xfec gnome keyring is already up and running.

When done,
Open Kwallet and setup a "default" Wallet (I choose lower case just in case it matters) wallet,
choose the simple encryption for now - to keep it simple.
Keep the wallet open.
Now click on proton-starter, after while you get ask for your proton username/password.
The quick connect should list locations to select from.
Connect. After connection made, two connection-secrets get stored into the wallet.
No sure why you try to install Gnome-keyring, when Kde's native Kwallet is working.
In case you do something differently, maybe you tell us,
otherwise, I'm afraid the success of any help-attempt might be vanish.