Good morning. I am Italian. In the past, having lived in a country where only Spanish was spoken, I learned the language decently. Then I lived in French-speaking countries and started with French. Now I have almost completely lost the use of these beautiful languages, but surely for me, they are much easier than English. I will try to explain my problem. My favorite OS is Slowroll and I have 2 VirtualBox VMs with XFCE desktop. I also had an old Acer 6293 laptop with an Intel Core2Duo P8400, 4GB of RAM (the maximum supported by the system), and a recent 120GB Samsung SSD. After many configuration problems and crashes, I had to switch to Linux Mint 22 XFCE, which works quite well. But it is not my favorite. The main problem is my inexperience, my not-so-young age, and networks. I can’t configure Proton VPN on my Slowroll. If I try, within 2 days I block the network and can’t restore it even with Snapper. I couldn’t find a VPN provider alternative to Proton, and the support from Proton and others I contacted always tells me that their product does not directly support openSUSE. My request: does anyone know how I can integrate Proton into Slowroll? I repeat that I am very inexperienced.
Thank you in advance.
Best Redards,
Mauro
I am not using Proton VPN but sometimes using a VPN and doing that using the Network Manager.
Also Proton VPN can be configured using the Network Manager:
Pretty simple, get a configuration file and import it in Network Manager and done.
Hi @marel Thanks for your help. I will definitely try. In the meantime I would like to clarify: my current vpn provider does not support linux. so for another 6 months I am still covered with vpn for windows, ipad and android, linux excluded. so if you have a suggestion for a not expensive but decent vpn provider… it is welcome from my side.
I think that is a conceptual error, there is no need for a VPN provider to support Linux. Just like with a Linux computer you can access any website, also VPN connections are set up using standard protocols and Linux does support these standard protocols.
Some VPN Apps are providing as is an easier way to change VPN endpoint etc. but as long as you do not need that frequently why bother with propriety software?
Ciao @marel
I anticipated that I am inexperienced. Also I am very busy at work and I am a PC user. I can easily assemble a PC and install any OS. I can not understand networks and these are far from my possibilities. I just need a simple VPN to configure…:)
I am also considering PIA VPN. Does anyone have experience with PIA VPN installed on slowroll? I need a simple and lightweight GUI, and after the initial setup, I don’t want to configure the network.
Thanks
Most VPN providers let you install the OpenVPN/Wireguard configuration files that can be imported from the Network Settings, the suggestion @marel wrote is the quickest way to get your VPN working in your machine without installing additional software.
If you are using OpenSUSE Slowroll, it should already have the required packages.
If you are using XFCE the proper place to import the openvpn files is inside the Network applet:
I cannot paste more than one image per post, but I found a guide similar to the proton one. Get your files from proton and switch guides to find the same options but in the XFCE user interface.
Hallo @TacosDePapaya thanks. This guide seems possible for an inexperienced like me. Thank you very much to both !!!
Tonight I have only the laptop with me with Linux Mint 22 XFCE. The Proton-Vpn Gui per Mint package, downloaded from the Proton website, is different from the one in the Opensuse Slowroll repositories. I also tried Repos Avicenzi; Same problem. In the Deb package menu, which works very well, has settings such as the Kill-Switch that I could not find in the Opensuse package. On Monday evening I try to follow your indications in VM.
Thank you
Given that you write you “can not understand networks”, what is it that you search in a VPN?
The simplest VPN is no VPN and maybe, based on what you need, that is enough.
Hello @marel , I use VPNs on all my devices, including my Android smartphone. I have always used VPNs for legitimate activities: internet browsing security and privacy. Over 20 years ago, I was scammed online for a significant amount of money. It took me some time to recover my money. Now I am looking for ways to increase the security layers of my devices.
If Internet browsing security and even privacy is your concern a VPN will likely not help:
- Nowadays almost all connections are https meaning that the traffic between you computer and the server is pretty well encrypted, that is why you can communicate with your bank.
- Living in Italy/the EU it is questionable if the can trust your VPN provider (incl. it’s Internet connection) can be more trusted then that of your ISP or you mobile Internet provider.
- You could argue that using a VPN makes you suspected as “normal” people do not use a VPN.
What is much more important is:
- Do not click unfamiliar links or ads
- Check the address bar of your browser to see check the connection is secured and the the address is correct (not with a spelling error o.i.d)
- Do not install untrusted software
For privacy, cookies, browser fingerprinting, tracking pixels/scripts are way more important then what a VPN can provide. And the only good solution I think there is is regulation, so supporting an organization that fights for this makes sense.
Also keep in mind that VPN providers are also companies that want to make money, they are more then happy to sell you things you do not need.
Hi @marel I think your theories are quite consistent. I am using VPN only for many articles read. If you ask an AI copilot / gemini etc. what they always say is that VPN is now indispensable. The belief that VPN is indispensable, as a Windows user, was instilled in me. Honestly I don’t know how useful it can be. I only know that in case of checks I have nothing to hide from the authorities!
Thanks
Hi Keyran17, I have been using Proton VPN on Tumbleweed for about 3 months. The only issue I have had is that once or twice I have had to open the network settings and delete the killswitch profile. There is no configuring I have had to do, just sign in, go to the settings in the Proton VPN app and set my autoconnect to FASTEST.
It sounds like you have an older, abandoned version of the ProtonVPN app. Check zypper and make sure you are using proton-vpn and not protonvpn-gui.
I have not used Slowroll, but the openSUSE software search shows that it is available via community repository.
https://software.opensuse.org/package/proton-vpn
Hi @Capistro thanks for the advice. Unfortunately my limit is that I am inexperienced. In my last installations I used that avicenzi repositoty but always with gui. I tried with cli but after days of attempts the only result is always a blocked network connection and the impossibility of restoring even from snapshot…
Thanks anyway.