Eddie 2.18.9 Desktop released

[Staff 9972]

Hello!

We're very glad to inform you that a new stable release of Eddie is now available for Linux, Mac and Windows.

Eddie is a free and open source (GPLv3) OpenVPN GUI and CLI by AirVPN with many additional features such as:

• traffic leaks prevention via packet filtering rules
• DNS handling
• optional connections over Tor or a generic proxy
• customizable events
• traffic splitting on a destination IP address or host name basis
• complete and swift integration with AirVPN infrastructure

Eddie 2.18.9 has been extensively rewritten to increase speed, stability, security and compatibility with the latest OS versions. It is the outcome of a massive work which took care to meet  very many requests from our community and got rid of some issues affecting Eddie previous stable release when running in latest OS releases.

Eddie GUI and CLI now run with normal user privileges, while only a "backend" binary, which communicates with the user interface with authentication, gains root/administrator privileges, with important security safeguards in place:

• stricter parsing is enforced before passing a profile to OpenVPN in order to block insecure OpenVPN directives
• external system binaries which need superuser privileges (examples: openvpn, iptables) will not be launched if they do not belong to a superuser
• Eddie events are no more run with superuser privileges: instead of trusting blindly user's responsibility and care when dealing with events, now the user is required to explicitly operate to run something with high privileges, if necessary

Backend binary has been completely rewritten in C++ on all systems (Windows included), making the whole application faster. On top of that various optimizations have been implemented. Now Eddie provides you with higher responsiveness and an improved overall feel and comfort.

CLI version has been improved as well, featuring numerous glitch and bug fixes.

Compatibility for macOS Catalina and latest Linux distributions, including DNS handling, has been enhanced.

Settings, certificates and keys of your account stored on your mass storage can optionally be encrypted on all systems either with a Master Password or a system key-chain if available.

For Windows systems, wintun support has been added. You can now, if you wish so, replace the driver for OpenVPN virtual network interface with the new wintun for higher throughput (OpenVPN 2.5 tech preview required).

In Linux and Mac systems, Eddie can also launch Hummingbird, which is very fast and is based on OpenVPN3-AirVPN library, replacing OpenVPN 2.x. In this way you can have at once a GUI for Hummingbird (which lacks it), the usual great amount of features and options Eddie is packed with, and faster connections/disconnections, as OpenVPN3-AirVPN is exceptionally faster than OpenVPN 2 during connection and disconnection phases.

Eddie 2.18.9 can be downloaded here:
https://airvpn.org/linux - Linux version
https://airvpn.org/macos - Mac version
https://airvpn.org/windows - Windows version

Eddie 2.18.9 is free and open source software released under GPLv3. Source code is available on GitHub: https://github.com/AirVPN/Eddie

Eddie 2.18 changelog shows you the massive work behind it and all those implemented changes that remained necessarily not mentioned in this announcement. Complete changelog can be found here.

Kind regards & datalove
AirVPN Staff

 

Version 2.18.9 (Thu, 02 Apr 2020 12:14:10 +0000)

• [add] - Windows - Added DotNet 4.5 check & install in Installer edition
• [bugfix] - Linux - Resolved an elevation issue in some Linux distribution (Raspbian mainly)
• [bugfix] - Fixed a bug that intermittently ignores --connect

Version 2.18.8 (Thu, 26 Mar 2020 12:59:48 +0000)

• [bugfix] Windows - Support of OpenVPN2.5 tech-preview (also with new wintun driver)
• [bugfix] MacOS - -mmacosx-version-min=10.9 on all binary
• [bugfix] Service reinstalls automatically when version-incompatibility detected
• [change] Code cleanup for stable release
• [change] Enforcement of operation allowed by Elevation
• [change] Enforcement of service checking
• [change] Windows - Elevated converted from C# to C++
• [change] Little score adjustment in UI
• [change] Better feedback in CLI edition (mainly latency check steps)
• [new] Linux - enabled CLI-only packages in all editions
• [change] Minor changes

Version 2.18.7 (Wed, 29 Jan 2020 13:54:35 +0000)

• [bugfix] - Update notification for beta versions
• [bugfix] - Windows - Message when driver installation is denied
• [bugfix] - macOS - Fix of error "hummingbird not allowed: Not owned by root".
• [bugfix] - Linux - Fix of error "Client not allowed: [...] parent process (spot mode)", CLI edition with sudo
• [bugfix] - Fix of error "Failed to connect to ... port 89: Connection refused" when using Hummingbird in SSL/SSH mode
• [bugfix] - Better exception management to avoid some crash (especially when related to Mono)
• [bugfix] - Linux - Arch deployment and AUR management
• [bugfix] - Tor Cookie/Password detection in every supported OS
• [bugfix] - Updated 'curl' binary in Windows and CA file
• [change] - macOS - Minor info.plist update in CLI edition
• [change] - Windows/Linux - OpenVPN Management skip
• [change] - In 'Latency mode', now load and users have minor impact on score.

Version 2.18.6 (Fri, 17 Jan 2020 13:46:48 +0000)

• [change] Bug fixes and code cleanup
• [change] OpenVPN 2.4.8
• [change] Windows - Tap driver (Win7-Win10) upgraded from 9.23.3-i601 to 9.24.2-i601
• [new] New option 'Skip promotional messages'.
• [change] macOS - New menubar icons
• [bugfix] macOS - 'Rules not loaded' in some environment
• [change] Hummingbird integration (experimental)

Version 2.18.5 (Wed, 30 Oct 2019 15:03:32 +0000)

• [new] Linux - systemd service
• [change] Code cleanup for stable release
• [bugfix] Windows - Service installation issue in Windows 7
• [bugfix] Windows - SSL connections
• [bugfix] Suppression of some unwanted elevated log
• [bugfix] Windows bug 'Do you want to reset Eddie to default settings?'
• [bugfix] Fix for occasional error on exit, 'Object reference not set to an instance of an object'.

Version 2.18.4 (Wed, 02 Oct 2019 18:20:00 +0000)

• [bugfix] OpenVPN > Error: Not supported OpenVPN config
• [bugfix] Linux - Crash "Unexpected crash of elevated helper:Elevated communication closed" during IPv6 block, if IPv6 not available
• [bugfix] macOS - Autorestart service if upgraded, avoid error "unknown command"
• [bugfix] Enforce Elevated compatibility check
• [change] macOS - KeepAlive in launchd
• [change] Minor changes
• [new] New deploy/build scripts

Version 2.18.3 (Fri, 27 Sep 2019 11:07:42 +0000)

• [change] Switched 'ping' method in Linux and macOS
• [change] Code cleanup
• [change] macOS - Direct invocation with AuthorizationExecuteWithPrivileges for superuser privileges
• [change] Linux - "Minimize to tray" false by default
• [change] Linux - Mono, Portable and AppImage editions
• [change] Minor UI improvements
• [change] Better log of issues
• [change] Better log of dns flush actions
• [bugfix] Linux - Icon and Window glitch in KDE
• [bugfix] macOS - SSH connection
• [bugfix] macOS - Show/Hide Main Window issues
• [bugfix] OS Keyring conflicts with multiple profiles
• [bugfix] Linux - Raspberry, ARMHF build, fixed issue 'file_getasroot'
• [bugfix] Linux - Fixed a fatal crash with some UI tray icon issues
• [bugfix] Linux - Detect and use iptables-legacy (nft transition)
• [bugfix] Linux - Fixed a SSL connection issue (related to error 'Cannot create pid file')
• [bugfix] Parser of OpenVPN version
• [new] Linux - WM_CLASS registration
• [new] Linux - New IPv6 block
• [new] Latency test only about servers in whitelist
• [deprecated] Option "Remove Default Gateway" (routes.remove_default) removed
• [deprecated] Windows - Option "Switch DHCP to Static" (windows.dhcp_disable) removed

Version 2.18.2 (Thu, 12 Sep 2019 15:59:45 +0000)

• [change] Linux - FIxed a Lintian error on some distributions
• [bugfix] Linux - Netlock issue if IPv6 is disabled via GRUB ('Address family not supported by protocol' error)
• [bugfix] Linux - Sometimes Eddie doesn't close
• [bugfix] Linux - Arch issue with elevation, also restored .xz packages
• [bugfix] Windows - Issues with username with spaces
• [bugfix] macOS - Dump PF output and file in logs in case of failure
• [change] macOS - Notifications, better layout with icons
• [change] Added Boost in Libraries
• [bugfix] Minor UI changes

Version 2.18.1 (Wed, 11 Sep 2019 09:11:31 +0000)

• [change] Core Engine partially rewritten
• [new] UI doesn't run as root anymore in every OS
• [new] Profile data encryption in any OS, either through OS keychain if available or "master" password
• [bugfix] Linux - DNS resolv.conf issue
• [change] New formula to compute "best server"
• [bugfix] Windows - Windows10 SSH
• [new] No log for inconsistent cipher or keysize directives when used with custom Data Channel cipher
• [bugfix] Linux - Flush DNS with systemd-resolve
• [change] Linux - Better performance when netlock is activated at application start
• [change] Windows - Tun driver updated to 9.23.3
• [change] OpenVPN 2.4.7
• [change] Removed TOS window.
• [removed] Linux - resolvconf DNS switch method
• [removed] Insecure OpenVPN directives
• [new] binaries run with root privileges must belong to superuser

Version 2.17.2 (Sun, 23 Sep 2018 11:55:26 +0000)

• [bugfix] macOS/Linux - Crash at boot if Network Lock is active

Version 2.17.1 (Sat, 22 Sep 2018 13:19:08 +0000)

• [change] Better Lifebelt Test network report
• [bugfix] Windows - Recovery issue about routes (slowdown, no security issue)
• [bugfix] Misc UX fixes
• [bugfix] IPv6 route check failure with OpenVPN versions older than 2.4
• [change] Force usage of .Net Framework >=4 in every Windows OS
• [bugfix] Improved check of custom directive names
• [new] New option "netlock.allow_dhcp" true by default
• [bugfix] Multiple "Bootstrap failed" windows
• [new] New Eddie version notification
• [change] Linux - Faster Network lock (build iptables-save format and apply directly)
• [bugfix] Linux - Flush DNS in some distro
• [bugfix] Linux - Glitch on black window when minimized in some distro (tested in Ubuntu 18.04)
• [change] macOS - Better detection of DNS servers in DHCP mode

[whiskey_76 6]

Love it working perfect on Debian so far. 

[BengChai 2]

Hi, I was having 'eddie connection loop' errors. I downloaded the latest version (2.18.9) today, restarted and worked fine. Shut down laptop, came back 2 hours later and I now have following errors:
- checking route IPV6 failed
- OpenVPN > ERROR: Windows route add IPV6 command failed: returned error code 1

I am using Dell Inspiron 5567, Windows 10 home, OS build 18363.720

I have checked the AirVPN Guide and tried (different protocols, at Eddie>Menu>Preferences>Protocols>Uncheck "Automatic">Select a protocol, such as SSL or TCP 443> Save>re-connect to an Air server.)

Log attached. Eddie_20200404_171532.txt

Appreciate any help to resolve. 
  

[kbps 29]

Thanks for the new release.

I am however not able to use custom DNS servers.  I have set them up in exactly the same way as the previous version but the settings are never used.  I am on Windows 10.

[m2ecomm 0]

I tried installing Eddie on Ubuntu 19.10 but it stopped at 18%, then I aborted and tried again, this time it stopped at 28%, now I got it to 39% but it doesn't seem to move further. Any ideas what could cause this?

[ntropia 0]

Hi, thanks for the new version, very much appreciated!
It look slicker and appears to be much faster than the previous one, so kudos to the developers.
One problem that it seems to have with respect to the previous one is that it gets easily stuck when checking the speed of the servers when connecting.
The only way I found so far to make it work seems to be to close it and re-open it a few times, until all servers are tested.
Thanks!

[airliner 1]

I am on Debian 10 Xfce and I noticed that Eddie 2.18.9 can't be send/minimized to the tray. The tray icon shows up just fine but Eddie is also still present on the panel.

Edited ... by airliner

[Nasdaq 10]

Thanks to the developers for the good work.

I'm on Windows 8.1. So, which version shlould I use ? The one for Windows 10 or the one for Winbdows 7/8.

I tried the one for Windows 10, but each time I start Eddy, a window appears saying that an error occured when upgrading the Tap driver, 9.21.2 to 9.24.2

Thanks for your help and, believe me,  I'm very sorry to bother you for so small (probably stupid) problem

[whiskey_76 6]

Okay so I just ran into two issues today and I am the new Eddie Client on Debian Linux.

1.  When I have my UFW firewall rules to deny incoming and outgoing connections,  after I open the Eddie Client it will automatically turn on network lock which is what I want to do. After that point for some reason it is having trouble verifying my AIRVPN credentials and I get the boot strap error. Oddly, if I switch my UFW rules before opening AIRVPN, to deny incoming but allow outgoing none of that happens? I do not understand why this would be doing anything as I thought eddie's ip table rules always overrides UFW anyways? And I always had my firewall set to deny incoming and outgoing connections before Eddie's rules took over with the previous client... (it gave some error with CURL one of the times too)
2. A few times today it had trouble with the latency tests and got really hung up. 

Besides those two issues I experienced a few times today the client is working perfectly and network lock is functioning as expected, I've been double checking it with test pages. 

[monstrocity 31]

13 hours ago, Nasdaq said:

Thanks to the developers for the good work.

I'm on Windows 8.1. So, which version shlould I use ? The one for Windows 10 or the one for Winbdows 7/8.

I tried the one for Windows 10, but each time I start Eddy, a window appears saying that an error occured when upgrading the Tap driver, 9.21.2 to 9.24.2

Thanks for your help and, believe me,  I'm very sorry to bother you for so small (probably stupid) problem

The last time I ran Eddie on W8.1 (about 13-14 months ago), I used the 2.16.3 client (grab it from the other versions in the download section).  Leave the Tap driver at 9.21.2.  It should work.  Later versions of Eddie are only going to be optimized for W10.

[BengChai 2]

On 4/4/2020 at 5:20 PM, BengChai said:

 

On 4/4/2020 at 5:20 PM, BengChai said:

Resolved. Preferences > Networking > Internet protocol used for connections > IPv4 only

[Nasdaq 10]

2 hours ago, monstrocity said:

15 hours ago, Nasdaq said:

Thanks to the developers for the good work.

I'm on Windows 8.1. So, which version shlould I use ? The one for Windows 10 or the one for Winbdows 7/8.

I tried the one for Windows 10, but each time I start Eddy, a window appears saying that an error occured when upgrading the Tap driver, 9.21.2 to 9.24.2

Thanks for your help and, believe me,  I'm very sorry to bother you for so small (probably stupid) problem

The last time I ran Eddie on W8.1 (about 13-14 months ago), I used the 2.16.3 client (grab it from the other versions in the download section).  Leave the Tap driver at 9.21.2.  It should work.  Later versions of Eddie are only going to be optimized for W10.

Thanks for your answer and your help Monstrocity!
That's what I had to do. I tried v2.18.9 for Win 10 and Win 7/8 and no one works correctly. The one for Win 10 has some problem to upgrade Tap driver and the one for Win 7/10 refuse to connect to any server. So, I had to roll back to v2.16.3 with the Tap driver v9.21.2.

It's sad

[dschubba 0]

This new version is faster is every aspect. Much appreciated. 🤩
I've found 2 bugs though (Windows 7 64bit) :
1) Routes: custom routes aren't saved properly. I don't know how to reproduce the bug but sometimes one of the rule disappear from the list. Sometimes it's all the routes. As if the custom routes were saved on a per server basis (?)
2) Network lock: same problem with the IPs allowed (incoming/outgoing) ; the custom IPs tend to disappear after the client is closed or the computer is rebooted.

[quanthenys 1]

On 4/4/2020 at 8:50 PM, Nasdaq said:

I'm on Windows 8.1. So, which version shlould I use ? The one for Windows 10 or the one for Winbdows 7/8.

I tried the one for Windows 10, but each time I start Eddy, a window appears saying that an error occured when upgrading the Tap driver, 9.21.2 to 9.24.2

The version for Windows 7/8 is working fine for Windows 8.1.

You can get TAP driver 9.24.2 installed this way:

1. Go to https://openvpn.net/community-downloads/ and download version 2.4.8 installer for WINDOWS 7/8/8.1/SERVER 2012R2 INSTALLER (NSIS).
2. Uninstall all previous TAP drivers from the system. Open 'Programs and features' in Windows, choose TAP driver, uninstall.
3. Run the OpenVPN 2.4.8 installer and make sure the TAP driver box is also selected on the components list.
4. Run the Eddie 2.18.9 installer.

[Clodo 176]

On 4/4/2020 at 11:43 AM, kbps said:

Thanks for the new release.

I am however not able to use custom DNS servers.  I have set them up in exactly the same way as the previous version but the settings are never used.  I am on Windows 10.

Confirmed, will be fixed as soon as possible.

[Clodo 176]

11 hours ago, quanthenys said:

The version for Windows 7/8 is working fine for Windows 8.1.

You can get TAP driver 9.24.2 installed this way:

1. Go to https://openvpn.net/community-downloads/ and download version 2.4.8 installer for WINDOWS 7/8/8.1/SERVER 2012R2 INSTALLER (NSIS).
2. Uninstall all previous TAP drivers from the system. Open 'Programs and features' in Windows, choose TAP driver, uninstall.
3. Run the OpenVPN 2.4.8 installer and make sure the TAP driver box is also selected on the components list.
4. Run the Eddie 2.18.9 installer.

The download 2.4.8 installer for Windows 7/8/8.1 from OpenVPN website has exactly the same tap-windows.exe (575288 bytes) of Eddie 2.18.9 Windows 7/8.
The issue is anyway under investigation, thanks

[hanswurst77 1]

i have an issue, too.
i'm running the latest eddie version on linux mint 19.3 cinnamon 64 bit  and have it configured to start without password when the system boots, to activate network lock and then automatically connect to a recommended server.
however, eddie gets stuck at the latency test. sometimes at three to go, today it was one. i waited some time and when i returned to my computer, it showed 101 to go but seemed to be stuck there, too.
when i cancel the process and hit "connect to recommended server", it goes back to latency tests. i have to cancel again and pick a server manually.

eddie_2020-04-06.log

[m2ecomm 0]

Is there a way to download the previous version of the client for testting purposes? When I click the link behind Version: 2.18.9 - Changelog - Signatures - Other versions I only see the following selection:
2.18.9 - 2020-04-03 - Latest stable2.16.3 - 2018-08-102.15.2 - 2018-06-202.14.5 - 2018-06-062.13.6 - 2017-09-19ExperimentalOlder versions are not available anymore for security reasons
but according to the Changelog there should be Version 2.18.8 (Thu, 26 Mar 2020 12:59:48 +0000), 2.18.7, 2.18.6 etc. for example.

I would like to see if I can install 2.18.8 under Ubuntu 19.10.

[Clodo 176]

3 hours ago, m2ecomm said:

Is there a way to download the previous version of the client for testting purposes? When I click the link behind Version: 2.18.9 - Changelog - Signatures - Other versions I only see the following selection:
2.18.9 - 2020-04-03 - Latest stable2.16.3 - 2018-08-102.15.2 - 2018-06-202.14.5 - 2018-06-062.13.6 - 2017-09-19ExperimentalOlder versions are not available anymore for security reasons
but according to the Changelog there should be Version 2.18.8 (Thu, 26 Mar 2020 12:59:48 +0000), 2.18.7, 2.18.6 etc. for example.

I would like to see if I can install 2.18.8 under Ubuntu 19.10.

No, sorry. You need to be able to download the 2.18.9. 

On 4/4/2020 at 4:04 PM, m2ecomm said:

I tried installing Eddie on Ubuntu 19.10 but it stopped at 18%, then I aborted and tried again, this time it stopped at 28%, now I got it to 39% but it doesn't seem to move further. Any ideas what could cause this?

What package? .deb ? what you mean with "18%", apt-get ? curl? your browser download?
You can try other kind of package, like portable or AppImage?
Thx

[debu 4]

Quote

Resolved. Preferences > Networking > Internet protocol used for connections > IPv4 only

Same problem as BengChai above on Win7 32 bit machine from time to time but especially when trying to re-connect after waking up from sleep condition.

Seem to have resolved the problem by, in addition to BengChai's suggestion:

Preferences > Networking > Layer IPv6 > Outside tunnel

Hope this hasn't comprised security/privacy. Assume not if connections are limited to IPv4 only.  Any advice gratefully received. Edited ... by debu
spelling

[Korch 0]

Thanks for your work, very happy to see new releases. Eddie GUI with Hummingbird works lightening fast!

[Peter Pumpkinhead 0]

On 4/4/2020 at 6:43 PM, airliner said:

I am on Debian 10 Xfce and I noticed that Eddie 2.18.9 can't be send/minimized to the tray. The tray icon shows up just fine but Eddie is also still present on the panel.

I'm having the same issue using Manjaro KDE, Eddie 2.16.3 minimised to the tray as expected.

[Clodo 176]

On 4/4/2020 at 11:43 AM, kbps said:

I am however not able to use custom DNS servers.  I have set them up in exactly the same way as the previous version but the settings are never used.  I am on Windows 10.

A new beta version released here addresses an urgent issue on older macOS and Custom DNS under Windows.

Other feedback is under investigation. Thanks to all.

[LandShark22 0]

I'm on Win 8.1.
Client stopped connecting the other day so I upgraded to 2.18.9.
Now whenever I try to connect I get the error:
OpenVPN > ERROR: netsh command failed: returned error code 1
 

[kbps 29]

On 4/8/2020 at 12:09 PM, Clodo said:

A new beta version released here addresses an urgent issue on older macOS and Custom DNS under Windows.

Other feedback is under investigation. Thanks to all.

Thanks.