Ubuntu/Linux: How to use AirVPN in "daemon" mode

[HugeHedon 6]

A Linux machine can be configured to use openvpn/AirVPN as a "daemon" (or "service"), without using graphical tools. Instructions follow below. They are written specifically for Ubuntu, but should be similar for other distributions.

Using this configuration, the machine will "always" use openvpn to connect to Internet via AirVPN -- whether anyone is logged in to the machine or not. The openvpn daemon will automatically restart if the machine is restarted.

The openvpn daemon can be manually stopped and started from the command line (for example) using:

$ sudo service openvpn stop

$ sudo service openvpn start

Instructions:

Install openvpn, for example like this:

$ sudo aptitude install openvpn

Download the airvpn configuration zip archive, airvpn.zip, and unzip it somewhere.

$ unzip airvpn.zip

Move the unzipped files to the openvpn configuration directory. On Ubuntu (and probably Debian), it's in /etc/openvpn/:

$ sudo mv air.ovpn ca.crt user.crt user.key /etc/openvpn/

Make sure noone else can read the secret file user.key

$ sudo chmod 600 /etc/openvpn/user.key

Append the file suffix ".conf" to the name of the file air.ovpn, so that openvpn will automatically recognize this file as its ".conf"-file

$ sudo mv /etc/openvpn/air.ovpn /etc/openvpn/air.ovpn.conf

Start the whole thing.

$ sudo service openvpn start

Does it seem to work? If you have a graphical environment, you can use a web-browser to browse to e.g. http://my-i-p.com/ and check that your IP and location "appears" to be airvpn in France.

If so, remove the downloaded zip-file (since it contains the secret user.key)

$ rm airvpn.zip

[ekkis 1]

can you please provide a link to the `airvpn.zip`? I've looked on the website and I don't find it

[eyes878 43]

can you please provide a link to the `airvpn.zip`? I've looked on the website and I don't find it

airvpn.zip very likely refers to the archive that is generated when you request multiple configs from the config generator in the client area.