openvpn3-applet (for Linux)

This tool exists because NetworkManager does not support OpenVPN 3 yet, see issue #69 in the official OpenVPN repository. We wrote this applet as we want to connect to the OpenVPN CloudConnexa offering which prompts the user to follow an authentication flow in the browser.

This applet currently supports SAML authentication only. PR to support more auth methods welcome. You need to set a default browser, e.g. using the BROWSER env variable.

Update: There is a new official project by OpenVPN: openvpn3-indicator which has better dbus and gnome integration and is hopefully better maintained overall.

Prerequisites:

• openvpn3-linux (https://github.com/OpenVPN/openvpn3-linux)
  • Debian/Ubuntu: https://openvpn.net/cloud-docs/openvpn-3-client-for-linux/#installation-for-debian-and-ubuntu
  • Arch: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/openvpn3
  • Red Hat/Centos: https://openvpn.net/cloud-docs/openvpn-3-client-for-linux/#installation-for-fedora-red-hat-enterprise-linux-centos-or-scientific-linux
• yad (https://github.com/v1cont/yad)
  • Debian/Ubuntu: https://wiki.ubuntuusers.de/yad/
  • Arch: https://archlinux.org/packages/community/x86_64/yad/

Install (NixOS)

nix profile install 'git+https://github.com/nesto-software/openvpn3-applet'

You can then add the openvpn3-applet.desktop to your desktop manager's autostart config, e.g. for a working GNOME config using home-manager:

let
  openvpn3-applet-pkg = openvpn3-applet.defaultPackage.${system};
in
 home-manager.users.your-user = { lib, pkgs, ... }: {
    home = {
      file = {
        ".config/autostart/openvpn3-applet.desktop" = {
          source = (openvpn3-applet-pkg + "/share/applications/openvpn3-applet.desktop");
          target = ".config/autostart/openvpn3-applet.desktop";
        };
      };
      packages = [
        openvpn3-applet-pkg
      ];
    };
};

Note: You need to pass the applet's flake as openvpn3-applet and the system.

Install (others)

• Download the script: git clone https://github.com/nesto-software/openvpn3-applet.git /tmp/openvpn3-applet
• Install the script: cp -R /tmp/openvpn3-applet/src/. ~/.openvpn3-applet
• Add to autostart: cp /tmp/openvpn3-applet/xdg-config/autostart/openvpn3-applet.desktop ~/.config/autostart/

Note: Your desktop environment must support XDG Autostart for this to work.

Alternatively, to start the applet manually, launch the script: ~/.openvpn3-applet/openvpn3applet.sh.

To run the script on XWayland, set the environment variable: GDK_BACKEND=x11.

Limitations

We currently support one concurrent connection. Only click "connect" once and wait for the browser to open. Otherwise, the applet attempts to open a second session which is unintended and will be fixed in the future.

Preview

Icon shows connection status

• red -> disconnected
• green -> connected
• blue -> connecting

Popup Menu to manage the connection when clicking on the icon

Applet controls the openvpn3 binary which opens the browser for sso

Author

Caro <caroline.hemberger@nesto-software.de>

License: MIT

Contributors

• Martin <martin.loeper@nesto-software.de>
• Feel free to open an issue or PR if you have any proposal...