I have trouble sometimes navigating network connectivity using Arch. The OS doesn’t really have an issue getting out to networks, I just seem to not remember what to do in a time of need. Unfortunately, it is usually the first thing you need to do to begin the problem solving process.
It is not lost on me that I am posting this article on the Internet. You’ll find it after you get in to trouble.
This is pretty much taken from Patrick Connelly’s super helpful article about the same thing. I just want the notes locally.
Get you a VPN
I like ExpressVPN. I’ve heard good things about NordVPN too.
Get a file
You’ll need an .ovpn file to do this part.
Express provides them on their site under “Manual Configuration”.
You’ll also need the associated credentials.
Import the settings
nmcli connection import type openvpn file my_expressvpn_usa_-_los_angeles_-_3_udp.ovpn
nmcli c modify my_expressvpn_usa_-_los_angeles_-_3_udp connection.id "Los Angeles 3 ExpressVPN"
You should now see the connection. And we renamed it to make it easier to work with.
nmcli connection show
[or]
nmcli c
Adding Credentials
You should have gotten the username and password for your account, you’ll need them to automatically connect to the VPN.
You also need sudo.
sudo vi /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/Los\ Angeles\ 3\ ExpressVPN
The following is copied directly from Patrick’s article.
#Change this from 1 to 0 so that it doesn't try to load the keyring
password-flags=0
#Add this under the [vpn] section
username=johnnyeveryteen@usenetserver
[vpn-secrets]
password=MarilynMonroe-bot
Reload
nmcli connection reload "Los Angeles 3 ExpressVPN"
GO!
nmcli connection up "Los Angeles 3 ExpressVPN"