Mozilla VPN on Debian?

D&P Dimov

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Feb 26, 2021, 1:10:04 PM2/26/21

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Hello,
Mozilla VPN is supposed to work on Ubuntu, but I wonder if it will work on Debian as well, considering that Ubintu is build on Debian. Has anyone tried? (The Mozilla support was not helpful in answering my question).
Thanks,
Luben

Brian

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Feb 26, 2021, 3:10:05 PM2/26/21

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Nothing to do with Debian. How about signing up for the service and
giving us a review of it?

--
Brian.

Dan Ritter

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Feb 26, 2021, 3:20:04 PM2/26/21

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D&P Dimov wrote:
> Hello,
> Mozilla VPN is supposed to work on Ubuntu, but I wonder if it will work on Debian as well, considering that Ubintu is build on Debian. Has anyone tried? (The Mozilla support was not helpful in answering my question).

What protocol is the Mozilla VPN? Most common ones are supported
in Debian.

-dsr-

D&P Dimov

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Feb 26, 2021, 3:50:05 PM2/26/21

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Dan, they use WireGuard.

These are the installation instructions they provide:

Install commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillacorp/mozillavpn
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install mozillavpn

Run command:

mozillavpn

If I try to install it, is there a chance it will screw up my system? If not, I can try it. If it doesn't work, should

apt-get remove mozillavpn

do be able to uninstall/remove it?

Thanks,

Luben

D&P Dimov

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Feb 26, 2021, 4:00:04 PM2/26/21

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Brian, I had signed up, at $5/month. But I need to install it next. On Debian. Hence my question to this list.

Thanks,

Luben

Dan Ritter

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Feb 26, 2021, 4:30:05 PM2/26/21

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D&P Dimov wrote:
>
> On Friday, February 26, 2021, 3:16:03 PM EST, Dan Ritter <d...@randomstring.org> wrote:
> D&P Dimov wrote:
> > Hello,
> > Mozilla VPN is supposed to work on Ubuntu, but I wonder if it will work on Debian as well, considering that Ubintu is build on Debian. Has anyone tried? (The Mozilla support was not helpful in answering my question).
>
> What protocol is the Mozilla VPN? Most common ones are supported
> in Debian.
>

> Dan, they use WireGuard.
>
> These are the installation instructions they provide:
> Install commands:
> sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillacorp/mozillavpn
> sudo apt-get update
> sudo apt-get install mozillavpn
>
> Run command:
> mozillavpn
> If I try to install it, is there a chance it will screw up my system? If not, I can try it. If it doesn't work, should

> apt-get remove mozillavpndo be able to uninstall/remove it?

Maybe. add-apt-repository won't work, that's for sure. You could
look it up and add it in /etc/apt/sources.d/ and then run

apt update
apt show mozillavpn

and look at what it Depends on. If it's self-contained, it will
probably work. If it drags in new versions of libraries, you
could potentially trash your system. The term is FrankenDebian,
to suggest Frankenstein's monster bolted together from spare
parts.

But wireguard is directly supported by Debian; it's in
buster-backports. One option would be to get an Ubuntu system
long enough to acquire the wireguard key -- perhaps in a VM --
and then use the key in a normal /etc/wireguard/wg0.conf setup.

-dsr-

Darac Marjal

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Feb 26, 2021, 5:10:04 PM2/26/21

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On 26/02/2021 21:27, Dan Ritter wrote:
> D&P Dimov wrote:
>>
>> On Friday, February 26, 2021, 3:16:03 PM EST, Dan Ritter <d...@randomstring.org> wrote:
>> D&P Dimov wrote:
>>> Hello,
>>> Mozilla VPN is supposed to work on Ubuntu, but I wonder if it will work on Debian as well, considering that Ubintu is build on Debian. Has anyone tried? (The Mozilla support was not helpful in answering my question).
>> What protocol is the Mozilla VPN? Most common ones are supported
>> in Debian.
>>
>> Dan, they use WireGuard.
>>
>> These are the installation instructions they provide:
>> Install commands:
>> sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillacorp/mozillavpn
>> sudo apt-get update
>> sudo apt-get install mozillavpn
>>
>> Run command:
>> mozillavpn
>> If I try to install it, is there a chance it will screw up my system? If not, I can try it. If it doesn't work, should
>> apt-get remove mozillavpndo be able to uninstall/remove it?
> Maybe. add-apt-repository won't work, that's for sure. You could
> look it up and add it in /etc/apt/sources.d/ and then run

Why not?

❯ dpkg -S add-apt-repository
software-properties-common: /usr/bin/add-apt-repository
software-properties-common: /usr/share/man/man1/add-apt-repository.1.gz

❯ apt policy software-properties-common
software-properties-common:
Installed: 0.96.20.2-2.1
Candidate: 0.96.20.2-2.1
Version table:
*** 0.96.20.2-2.1 990
        990 http://deb.debian.org/debian testing/main amd64 Packages
        990 http://deb.debian.org/debian testing/main i386 Packages
        500 http://deb.debian.org/debian unstable/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://deb.debian.org/debian unstable/main i386 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     0.96.20.2-2 500
        500 http://deb.debian.org/debian stable/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://deb.debian.org/debian stable/main i386 Packages

So add-apt-repository is in debian. The man page even mentions that it
handles "ppa:<user>/<ppa-name>" repositories, so I don't see what's so
"for sure" about it not working.

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Anssi Saari

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Feb 27, 2021, 5:50:05 AM2/27/21

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I don't think I will sign up for it but with a quick look, Wireguard
should be possible to configure even in NetworkManager. Although not
with NetworkManager 1.14 in Debian Buster. But there are wireguard
packages for Buster.

However, if whatever parameters wireguard happens to need can be pried
from Mozilla then there should be no need to bother with their client?
Which is at least open source and available from
https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/mozilla-vpn-client

And in fact, Mullvad, which is the actual VPN provider for Mozilla,
makes a Wireguard config available on their web page. At least if you
have an account with them. No idea if that works if you bought from
Mozilla and not Mullvad.

D&P Dimov

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Feb 27, 2021, 1:00:04 PM2/27/21

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-dsr-

------------------------------

REPLY:

Dan, (sorry that yahoo mail won't format the reply as inline with the chevrons>)

I definitely don't want FrankenDebian as this is my main system, and don't want any proprietary software.

Unfortunately some of your suggestions are over my head. I think I will wait in the hopes that Mozilla starts supporting Debian stable as well.

In the meanwhile, I might download and install another Debian stable as a virtual machine and test the Mozilla steps for Ubuntu there, so if I mess it up, it only messed up the virtual machine.

As for dependencies, according to this: https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/mozilla-vpn-client/blob/main/README.md :

"On linux, the compilation of MozillaVPN is relative easy. You need the following dependencies:

Qt5 >= 5.15.0
libpolkit-gobject-1-dev >=0.105
wireguard >=1.0.20200513
wireguard-tools >=1.0.20200513
resolvconf >= 1.82"

Apparently the the Mozilla VPN can be build from source for non-Ubintu distros from source here https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/mozilla-vpn-client/ using the instructions here https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/mozilla-vpn-client/blob/main/README.md but there are a couple of places where I don't understand what to do, so I will wait till they make it easier to install on Debian.

Thanks!

Luben

Anyone has recommendations for VPN service that would work on Debian, be legit, and not require proprietary software?

D&P Dimov

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Feb 27, 2021, 1:30:05 PM2/27/21

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-------------------------------

REPLY:

Anssi,

(Sorry yahoo won't format the reply inline with ">)

My Debian stable does have network-manager 1.14. And I don't know that I'd be able to pry the the parameters needed.

Also, you are right about Mullvad, and I see that if I get the service from Mullvad, instead of from Mozilla (for a slightly higher price), they do provide an installation file for Debian:

wget --content-disposition https://mullvad.net/download/app/deb/latest
sudo apt-get -y install gdebi-core && sudo gdebi MullvadVPN-XXXX.X_amd64.deb

and it seems to be GPL licensed: https://github.com/mullvad/mullvadvpn-app/blob/master/LICENSE.md

I think this is the easiest way to for me to go.

And since you mentioned that you wouldn't sign up for it, do you have another VPN provider/service that you would recommend that works in Debian Buster (stable) with just free software?

Thanks!

Luben

Anssi Saari

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Feb 28, 2021, 10:20:04 AM2/28/21

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D&P Dimov <ldd...@yahoo.com> writes:

> And since you mentioned that you wouldn't sign up for it, do you have another VPN
> provider/service that you would recommend that works in Debian Buster (stable) with just free
> software?

I've used AirVPN before (https://airvpn.org/), they have a web page for
generating a configuration file for openvpn.