Manual VPN installation issues

[e.sparks15]

Hello,

Sorry that this is a bit long, but I've been working on the problem for awhile, and even though I've tried to give the most succinct explanation I can of what I've tried so far, it still takes up some space.

I'm attempting to install expressvpn in a qube designated specifically for that purpose. When I try to install it manually as per the instructions in step two of the Qubes VPN documentation, but the config files I can get from expressvpn don't seem to be in that format. I tried using their manual config process instead, but it's for ubuntu, and since I'm a total linux newb I wasn't able to figure out how to convert it.

I did get as far with express' config as to get the config files in the right place so that I had a vpn connection listed in network manager but it can't connect, probably because when i tried 'sudo dnf-install network-manager-openvpn-gnome' it always said that network-manager-openvpn-gnome was not a valid target. I then contacted expressvpn's tech support and they asked me to reboot and try again. When I did, I found that everything had disappeared. I found some stuff online about a bug on Fedora 24 with non-persistence, but that was awhile ago and it doesn't seem to apply.

There are two things I'll add that might be helpful to people smarter than me. First, I've been getting the following error on startup since I last performed upgrades:

Also, I haven't been able to perform any upgrades since then.

And second, it seems like there are a couple of different places that talk about vpn setup. The documentation above, expressvpn's page, and more Qubes documentation. I think I've kept them all separate and not done myself in by combining multiple methods, but at this point I'm not sure.

Thanks so much for taking the time to read! I greatly appreciate it, and if you can think of anything I should try, I'd greatly appreciate you letting me know that, as well!

Sent with ProtonMail Secure Email.

[unman]

On Fri, Feb 14, 2020 at 11:40:28PM +0000, 'e.sparks15' via qubes-users wrote:
> Hello,
> Sorry that this is a bit long, but I've been working on the problem for awhile, and even though I've tried to give the most succinct explanation I can of what I've tried so far, it still takes up some space.
>

> I'm attempting to install expressvpn in a qube designated specifically for that purpose. When I try to install it manually as per the instructions in step two of the [Qubes VPN documentation](https://github.com/tasket/Qubes-vpn-support), but the config files I can get from expressvpn don't seem to be in that format. I tried using their manual config process instead, but it's for ubuntu, and since I'm a total linux newb I wasn't able to figure out how to convert it.

>
> I did get as far with express' config as to get the config files in the right place so that I had a vpn connection listed in network manager but it can't connect, probably because when i tried 'sudo dnf-install network-manager-openvpn-gnome' it always said that network-manager-openvpn-gnome was not a valid target. I then contacted expressvpn's tech support and they asked me to reboot and try again. When I did, I found that everything had disappeared. I found some stuff online about a bug on Fedora 24 with non-persistence, but that was awhile ago and it doesn't seem to apply.
>
> There are two things I'll add that might be helpful to people smarter than me. First, I've been getting the following error on startup since I last performed upgrades:

There seems to be something missing here.
Did you not include the text of the error?

>
> Also, I haven't been able to perform any upgrades since then.

Did you mean in dom0 or in any of your templates?
If you run `sudo qubes-dom0-update` at the terminal in dom0, what is the
output?

>
> And second, it seems like there are a couple of different places that talk about vpn setup. The documentation above, expressvpn's page, and [more Qubes documentation](https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/vpn/). I think I've kept them all separate and not done myself in by combining multiple methods, but at this point I'm not sure.
>

In general, it's better to use *one* source, rather
than many, as you are more likely to fall in to error.
I've had a quick look at the expressvpn instructions for Linux. You
havent saud which method you are trying to use, and I see there is a
method for NetworkManager which should carry straight across to the
NetworkManager in Fedora (the default template for sys-net).
If you're not able to complete those instructions please explain at what
step you are getting lost.

[Chris Laprise]

On 2/14/20 6:40 PM, 'e.sparks15' via qubes-users wrote:
> Hello,
> Sorry that this is a bit long, but I've been working on the problem for
> awhile, and even though I've tried to give the most succinct explanation
> I can of what I've tried so far, it still takes up some space.
>
> I'm attempting to install expressvpn in a qube designated specifically
> for that purpose. When I try to install it manually as per the
> instructions in step two of the Qubes VPN documentation

> <https://github.com/tasket/Qubes-vpn-support>, but the config files I

> can get from expressvpn don't seem to be in that format. I tried using
> their manual config process instead, but it's for ubuntu, and since I'm
> a total linux newb I wasn't able to figure out how to convert it.
>
> I did get as far with express' config as to get the config files in the
> right place so that I had a vpn connection listed in network manager but
> it can't connect, probably because when i tried 'sudo dnf-install
> network-manager-openvpn-gnome' it always said that
> network-manager-openvpn-gnome was not a valid target. I then contacted
> expressvpn's tech support and they asked me to reboot and try again.
> When I did, I found that everything had disappeared. I found some stuff
> online about a bug on Fedora 24 with non-persistence, but that was
> awhile ago and it doesn't seem to apply.

That sounds like you installed to an AppVM instead of a template; that
can make something you installed disappear. In Qubes, you would go into
the template to have an app installation persist, but for user data to
persist you would add it to an AppVM.

>
> There are two things I'll add that might be helpful to people smarter
> than me. First, I've been getting the following error on startup since I
> last performed upgrades:
>
>
>

> Also, I haven't been able to perform any upgrades since then.
>
> And second, it seems like there are a couple of different places that
> talk about vpn setup. The documentation above, expressvpn's page, and

> more Qubes documentation <https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/vpn/>. I think

> I've kept them all separate and not done myself in by combining multiple
> methods, but at this point I'm not sure.
>
> Thanks so much for taking the time to read! I greatly appreciate it, and
> if you can think of anything I should try, I'd greatly appreciate you
> letting me know that, as well!
>

There are two expressvpn links you should look at, which correspond to
the two different configuration methods you can choose from in the Qubes
vpn doc. The first is using Network Manager, and the second is for using
shell scripts:

https://www.expressvpn.com/support/vpn-setup/manual-config-for-linux-ubuntu-with-openvpn/

https://www.expressvpn.com/support/vpn-setup/manual-config-for-linux-with-openvpn/#download

If the process seems too complicated, you can try my VPN support tool,
which automates most of the steps (you would download the config files
from the second link to use with this):

https://github.com/tasket/Qubes-vpn-support

--
Chris Laprise, tas...@posteo.net
https://github.com/tasket
https://twitter.com/ttaskett
PGP: BEE2 20C5 356E 764A 73EB 4AB3 1DC4 D106 F07F 1886

[tetra...@danwin1210.me]

On Sun, Feb 16, 2020 at 10:50:55AM -0500, Chris Laprise wrote:
>If the process seems too complicated, you can try my VPN support tool,
>which automates most of the steps (you would download the config files
>from the second link to use with this):
>
>https://github.com/tasket/Qubes-vpn-support
>
>--
>Chris Laprise, tas...@posteo.net
>https://github.com/tasket
>https://twitter.com/ttaskett
>PGP: BEE2 20C5 356E 764A 73EB 4AB3 1DC4 D106 F07F 1886

Unfortunately the PGP key in your signature doesn't match the GPG key
used to sign your Git commits for Qubes-vpn-support:

gpg: Signature made Fri 05 Jul 2019 05:15:24 AM UTC
gpg: using RSA key
0573D1F63412AF043C47B8C8448568C8B281C952

Assuming nothing's terribly wrong, it may be worth posting your public
key fingerprint used for code signing somewhere!

[Chris Laprise]

The B281C952 key is a subkey of F07F1886; Import both and the former
will be listed under the latter.

[tetra...@danwin1210.me]

On Tue, Mar 03, 2020 at 09:18:54AM -0500, Chris Laprise wrote:
>>Assuming nothing's terribly wrong, it may be worth posting your public
>>key fingerprint used for code signing somewhere!
>
>The B281C952 key is a subkey of F07F1886; Import both and the former
>will be listed under the latter.

Ok, thanks for clarifying!