On Thu, 3 Apr 2025 15:16:58 -0400
Haines Brown via Dng <dng@???> wrote:

> > Hi,
> > you don't need Networkmanager to run a vpn (even if it makes 
> > it more comfortable at a first glance). Running a vpn is as easy as:
> > 1) open a terminal
> > 2) get root permissions with su or use sudo
> > 3)  run:  "openvpn --config /home/somedir/somefile.ovpn"
> > 4) when you are done with the vpn hit Ctrl-C in the terminal 
> >     and everything (routing , etc...) will be reset  as before.  

>
> Tito, thanks for the encouragement. I installed openvpn, created
> ~/openvpn/config.ovpn (I inferrfed that the location and the name of
> the .ovpn file is arbitary). I then do # openvpn --config
> /home/openvpn/config.vpn. But command unknown.


FWIW, after installation, I put all the openvpn configs, scripts and
other stuff into /etc/openvpn because any vpn affects the whole system
and not just the user.

Usually I pop an xterm box and
cd /etc/openvpn
sudo openvpn portal.openvpn

Portal.openvpn is the config/details for the portal you want to connect
too.

The xterm allows you to watch for any errors that pop up.

In another xterm, for the first few times, you may want to follow
resolv.conf changes and other stuff via 'ip route' or better and
easier to follow 'sudo ifconfig'.

YMMV
One day I'll learn how to shut it down properly but as I have a
standalone vpn computer, it is just easier to 'sudo reboot' and know
exactly what status everything is rather than wonder about weird hole
is still there.

CAVEAT: my LAN is fully static so the vpn computer knows how to contact
the other systems on the LAN directly.