Eddie not working on Rasbian/Bullseye/P3B+

[xteve7221 0]

Good day, I have only ever used the Eddie Client on Windows.
Today I am tinkering with an Raspberry Pi 3B+ box that I updated to Debian 11 /Bullseye with a GUI client.
(I have zero previous experience with Linux)
I went to the airvpn.org website, logged in and downloaded the GUI client for the ARM7 (this Pi box).
It appeared to install without issue.
When I clicked on the icon to run it, the hourglass appeared for a bit and then nothing - no sign that I have any VPN running.
I was at least expecting to be asked to login with my credentials - but nothing happened.
Does anyone have any experience or advice with this combination?
All feedback is welcome and most appreciated.
-steve

Specs from a terminal window that I figured out......
PRETTY_NAME="Raspbian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye)"
NAME="Raspbian GNU/Linux"
VERSION_ID="11"
VERSION="11 (bullseye)"
VERSION_CODENAME=bullseye
ID=raspbian
ID_LIKE=debian
HOME_URL="http://www.raspbian.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="http://www.raspbian.org/RaspbianForums"
BUG_REPORT_URL="http://www.raspbian.org/RaspbianBugs"

HARDWARE
cat /proc/cpuinfo
Model        : Raspberry Pi 3 Model B Plus Rev 1.3
ARMv7 Processor rev 4 (v7l)

[OpenSourcerer 1441]

In a terminal window, execute eddie-ui. The output of that would be interesting for troubleshooting.

[xteve7221 0]

13 minutes ago, OpenSourcerer said:

In a terminal window, execute eddie-ui. The output of that would be interesting for troubleshooting.

Thanks for the quick reply - here's what I captured....

=================================================================
    Native Crash Reporting
=================================================================
Got a SIGSEGV while executing native code. This usually indicates
a fatal error in the mono runtime or one of the native libraries 
used by your application.
=================================================================

=================================================================
    Native stacktrace:
=================================================================
     (No frames) 


=================================================================
    Telemetry Dumper:
=================================================================
Pkilling 0x76b33440 from 0x76f0e240
Entering thread summarizer pause from 0x76f0e240
Finished thread summarizer pause from 0x76f0e240.

Waiting for dumping threads to resume

=================================================================
    External Debugger Dump:
=================================================================
[New LWP 1418]
[New LWP 1419]
[Thread debugging using libthread_db enabled]
Using host libthread_db library "/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libthread_db.so.1".
0x76d13034 in __GI___wait4 (pid=1427, stat_loc=0x7edb5688, options=0, usage=0x0) at ../sysdeps/unix/sysv/linux/wait4.c:27
27    ../sysdeps/unix/sysv/linux/wait4.c: No such file or directory.
  Id   Target Id                                  Frame 
* 1    Thread 0x76f0e240 (LWP 1417) "mono"        0x76d13034 in __GI___wait4 (pid=1427, stat_loc=0x7edb5688, options=0, usage=0x0) at ../sysdeps/unix/sysv/linux/wait4.c:27
  2    Thread 0x763ff440 (LWP 1418) "SGen worker" futex_wait_cancelable (private=0, expected=0, futex_word=0x447698) at ../sysdeps/nptl/futex-internal.h:186
  3    Thread 0x76b33440 (LWP 1419) "Finalizer"   futex_abstimed_wait_cancelable (private=0, abstime=0x0, clockid=0, expected=1, futex_word=0x43f73c) at ../sysdeps/nptl/futex-internal.h:323

Thread 3 (Thread 0x76b33440 (LWP 1419) "Finalizer"):
#0  futex_abstimed_wait_cancelable (private=0, abstime=0x0, clockid=0, expected=1, futex_word=0x43f73c) at ../sysdeps/nptl/futex-internal.h:323
#1  do_futex_wait (sem=sem@entry=0x43f73c, abstime=0x0, clockid=0) at sem_waitcommon.c:117
#2  0x76e02c90 in __new_sem_wait_slow (sem=0x43f73c, abstime=0x0, clockid=0) at sem_waitcommon.c:285
#3  0x002c2120 in ?? ()
Backtrace stopped: previous frame identical to this frame (corrupt stack?)

Thread 2 (Thread 0x763ff440 (LWP 1418) "SGen worker"):
#0  futex_wait_cancelable (private=0, expected=0, futex_word=0x447698) at ../sysdeps/nptl/futex-internal.h:186
#1  __pthread_cond_wait_common (abstime=0x0, clockid=0, mutex=0x0, cond=0x447670) at pthread_cond_wait.c:508
#2  __pthread_cond_wait (cond=0x447670, mutex=0x0) at pthread_cond_wait.c:638
#3  0x00327c84 in ?? ()
Backtrace stopped: previous frame identical to this frame (corrupt stack?)

Thread 1 (Thread 0x76f0e240 (LWP 1417) "mono"):
#0  0x76d13034 in __GI___wait4 (pid=1427, stat_loc=0x7edb5688, options=0, usage=0x0) at ../sysdeps/unix/sysv/linux/wait4.c:27
#1  0x0009f73c in ?? ()
Backtrace stopped: previous frame identical to this frame (corrupt stack?)
[Inferior 1 (process 1417) detached]

=================================================================
    Basic Fault Address Reporting
=================================================================
Memory around native instruction pointer (0x76e005c0):0x76e005b0  bc ff ff ea 98 70 00 00 f0 4f 2d e9 14 d0 4d e2  .....p...O-...M.
0x76e005c0  24 50 90 e5 a5 31 b0 e1 28 01 00 0a 00 c0 a0 e1  $P...1..(.......
0x76e005d0  01 50 15 e2 20 30 bc e5 00 e0 a0 e1 80 50 a0 13  .P.. 0.......P..
0x76e005e0  0a 00 00 ea 01 10 83 e3 9f 2f 9c e1 03 00 52 e1  ........./....R.

=================================================================
    Managed Stacktrace:
=================================================================
      at <unknown> <0xffffffff>
      at System.Windows.Forms.Theme:get_MenuAccessKeysUnderlined <0x0000f>
      at System.Windows.Forms.SystemInformation:get_MenuAccessKeysUnderlined <0x00023>
      at System.Windows.Forms.Control:.ctor <0x00287>
      at System.Windows.Forms.Control:.ctor <0x00037>
      at System.Windows.Forms.WindowsFormsSynchronizationContext:.cctor <0x0002b>
      at System.Object:runtime_invoke_void <0x0007b>
      at <unknown> <0xffffffff>
      at System.Windows.Forms.Control:.ctor <0x0004b>
      at System.Windows.Forms.ScrollableControl:.ctor <0x00013>
      at System.Windows.Forms.ContainerControl:.ctor <0x00033>
      at System.Windows.Forms.Form:.ctor <0x000d7>
      at Eddie.Forms.Skin.SkinForm:.ctor <0x00013>
      at Eddie.Forms.Forms.WindowSplash:.ctor <0x00013>
      at Eddie.Forms.Forms.WindowSplash:.ctor <0x00037>
      at Eddie.Forms.UiClient:Init <0x000a7>
      at Eddie.Forms.Linux.Program:Main <0x00243>
      at System.Object:runtime_invoke_void <0x000e3>
=================================================================
/usr/bin/eddie-ui: line 2:  1417 Aborted                 mono /usr/lib/eddie-ui/eddie-ui.exe --path.resources=/usr/share/eddie-ui --path.exec="$0" "$@"
 

[OpenSourcerer 1441]

Can you try the Portable Mono version, please?

[xteve7221 0]

Ok I first uninstalled the existing AirVPN package.
Then I downloaded the Linux/Arm32/Mono/Graphical UI version.
I extracted to its own folder
I double-clicked the eddie-ui.exe - the hourglass/cursor appeared for a few seconds and then nothing visible.
Any thoughts?
Thanks in advance

[OpenSourcerer 1441]

With exe you refer to the Linux binary, right? Which has no .exe extension? Try opening it in a terminal. Is the error the same?

./eddie-ui

.

[xteve7221 0]

18 hours ago, OpenSourcerer said:

With exe you refer to the Linux binary, right? Which has no .exe extension? Try opening it in a terminal. Is the error the same?

./eddie-ui

.

Apologies for my unfamiliarity with Linux getting the way here. 
I wasn't aware of that. 
when I downloaded the Mono package, I extracted it as below. I'm unsure as to what the executable is that I should be running
Your assistance and patience is appreciated. 

steven@raspberrypi:~/Downloads/EDMono $ ls -R
.:
eddie-cli

./eddie-cli:
bundle  default.profile  eddie-cli

./eddie-cli/bundle:
default.profile                libdbusmenu-gtk3.so.4
eddie-cli-elevated             libLib.Platform.Linux.Native.so
eddie-cli.exe                  liblzo2.so.2
hummingbird                    libpkcs11-helper.so.1
libayatana-appindicator3.so.1  Lib.Platform.Linux.dll
libayatana-ido3-0.4.so.0       libssl.so.1.1
libayatana-indicator3.so.7     openvpn
Lib.Core.dll                   res
libcrypto.so.1.1               stunnel
libdbusmenu-glib.so.4

./eddie-cli/bundle/res:
cacert.pem     icon_gray.png  iso-3166.json  manifest.json  tray.png
gpl3.txt       icon.png       lang           providers
icon-cli.icns  icon-ui.icns   libraries.txt  tray_gray.png

./eddie-cli/bundle/res/lang:
inv.json

./eddie-cli/bundle/res/providers:
AirVPN.json  OpenVPN.json  WireGuard.json
 

[OpenSourcerer 1441]

You chose the CLI version. When downloading the bundle, make sure you select Graphical UI. There you'll have a different tree, along with a eddie-ui binary. Execute this binary in the terminal.

$ exa -T
.
├── bundle
│  ├── eddie-cli-elevated
│  ├── eddie-tray
│  ├── eddie-ui.exe
│  ├── hummingbird
│  ├── Lib.Core.dll
│  ├── Lib.Forms.dll
│  ├── Lib.Forms.Skin.dll
│  ├── Lib.Platform.Linux.dll
│  ├── libayatana-appindicator3.so.1
│  ├── libayatana-ido3-0.4.so.0
│  ├── libayatana-indicator3.so.7
│  ├── libcrypto.so.1.1
│  ├── libdbusmenu-glib.so.4
│  ├── libdbusmenu-gtk3.so.4
│  ├── libLib.Platform.Linux.Native.so
│  ├── liblzo2.so.2
│  ├── libpkcs11-helper.so.1
│  ├── libssl.so.1.1
│  ├── openvpn
│  ├── res
│  │  ├── cacert.pem
│  │  ├── gpl3.txt
│  │  ├── icon-cli.icns
│  │  ├── icon-ui.icns
│  │  ├── icon.png
│  │  ├── icon_gray.png
│  │  ├── iso-3166.json
│  │  ├── lang
│  │  │  └── inv.json
│  │  ├── libraries.txt
│  │  ├── manifest.json
│  │  ├── providers
│  │  │  ├── AirVPN.json
│  │  │  ├── OpenVPN.json
│  │  │  └── WireGuard.json
│  │  ├── tray.png
│  │  └── tray_gray.png
│  └── stunnel
└── eddie-ui
 

.

[xteve7221 0]

Ok, I just did that, here's my Bundle folder listing
steven@raspberrypi:~/Downloads/EDMonoGUI/eddie-ui/bundle $ ls
eddie-cli-elevated             Lib.Forms.dll
eddie-tray                     Lib.Forms.Skin.dll
eddie-ui.exe                   libLib.Platform.Linux.Native.so
hummingbird                    liblzo2.so.2
libayatana-appindicator3.so.1  libpkcs11-helper.so.1
libayatana-ido3-0.4.so.0       Lib.Platform.Linux.dll
libayatana-indicator3.so.7     libssl.so.1.1
Lib.Core.dll                   openvpn
libcrypto.so.1.1               res
libdbusmenu-glib.so.4          stunnel
libdbusmenu-gtk3.so.4

When I type eddie_ui at the prompt, I get "command not found" even though I'm sitting IN that folder.
I'm from the Windows/DOS world, so if there's a different way I'm supposed to execute it, could you please explain?
Also, if I could indulge on you to share some recommended reading to help me get up to speed on simple things like this in Linux?  I've downloaded some ebooks and will be viewing some YouTube to try to come up to speed faster. 
Thanks
-Steve

[OpenSourcerer 1441]

12 hours ago, xteve7221 said:

When I type eddie_ui at the prompt, I get "command not found" even though I'm sitting IN that folder.

That's what the ./ is there for.
Without it, the shell checks a variable called PATH for paths containing binaries, then tries to find what you entered in those paths. Since it's not installed (traditionally, installed packages place either a link or a binary in one of these paths), it cannot be found.
With it, it checks for whatever you entered in the directory you are in (. = shorthand for current working directory).
 

12 hours ago, xteve7221 said:

Also, if I could indulge on you to share some recommended reading to help me get up to speed on simple things like this in Linux?

https://linuxjourney.com/

Oh, and:

Quote

steven@raspberrypi:~/Downloads/EDMonoGUI/eddie-ui/bundle $ ls

The eddie-ui binary is not in bundle, but in the directory above it.

[xteve7221 0]

Wow, Interesting nuance. I am showing my age when I say I first cut my PC-teeth on MS-DOS 2.1 and 5.25" floppy diskettes. 
So I didn't see the "./" coming. 
Thanks for this and the reference - very much appreciated.
Ok, so I just tried it in the terminal window and got it to run with the following results: 

steven@raspberrypi:~/Downloads/EDMonoGUI/eddie-ui $ ./eddie-ui

=================================================================
    Native Crash Reporting
=================================================================
Got a SIGSEGV while executing native code. This usually indicates
a fatal error in the mono runtime or one of the native libraries 
used by your application.
=================================================================

=================================================================
    Native stacktrace:
=================================================================
     (No frames) 


=================================================================
    Telemetry Dumper:
=================================================================
Pkilling 0x74b23440 from 0x76fca240
Entering thread summarizer pause from 0x76fca240
Finished thread summarizer pause from 0x76fca240.

Waiting for dumping threads to resume

=================================================================
    External Debugger Dump:
=================================================================
[New LWP 1434]
[New LWP 1435]
[Thread debugging using libthread_db enabled]
Using host libthread_db library "/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libthread_db.so.1".
0x76dcf034 in __GI___wait4 (pid=1446, stat_loc=0x7ea3c658, options=0, usage=0x0) at ../sysdeps/unix/sysv/linux/wait4.c:27
27    ../sysdeps/unix/sysv/linux/wait4.c: No such file or directory.
  Id   Target Id                                  Frame 
* 1    Thread 0x76fca240 (LWP 1433) "mono"        0x76dcf034 in __GI___wait4 (pid=1446, stat_loc=0x7ea3c658, options=0, usage=0x0) at ../sysdeps/unix/sysv/linux/wait4.c:27
  2    Thread 0x767ff440 (LWP 1434) "SGen worker" futex_wait_cancelable (private=0, expected=0, futex_word=0x447698) at ../sysdeps/nptl/futex-internal.h:186
  3    Thread 0x74b23440 (LWP 1435) "Finalizer"   futex_abstimed_wait_cancelable (private=0, abstime=0x0, clockid=0, expected=1, futex_word=0x43f73c) at ../sysdeps/nptl/futex-internal.h:323

Thread 3 (Thread 0x74b23440 (LWP 1435) "Finalizer"):
#0  futex_abstimed_wait_cancelable (private=0, abstime=0x0, clockid=0, expected=1, futex_word=0x43f73c) at ../sysdeps/nptl/futex-internal.h:323
#1  do_futex_wait (sem=sem@entry=0x43f73c, abstime=0x0, clockid=0) at sem_waitcommon.c:117
#2  0x76ebec90 in __new_sem_wait_slow (sem=0x43f73c, abstime=0x0, clockid=0) at sem_waitcommon.c:285
#3  0x002c2120 in ?? ()
Backtrace stopped: previous frame identical to this frame (corrupt stack?)

Thread 2 (Thread 0x767ff440 (LWP 1434) "SGen worker"):
#0  futex_wait_cancelable (private=0, expected=0, futex_word=0x447698) at ../sysdeps/nptl/futex-internal.h:186
#1  __pthread_cond_wait_common (abstime=0x0, clockid=0, mutex=0x0, cond=0x447670) at pthread_cond_wait.c:508
#2  __pthread_cond_wait (cond=0x447670, mutex=0x0) at pthread_cond_wait.c:638
#3  0x00327c84 in ?? ()
Backtrace stopped: previous frame identical to this frame (corrupt stack?)

Thread 1 (Thread 0x76fca240 (LWP 1433) "mono"):
#0  0x76dcf034 in __GI___wait4 (pid=1446, stat_loc=0x7ea3c658, options=0, usage=0x0) at ../sysdeps/unix/sysv/linux/wait4.c:27
#1  0x0009f73c in ?? ()
Backtrace stopped: previous frame identical to this frame (corrupt stack?)
[Inferior 1 (process 1433) detached]

=================================================================
    Basic Fault Address Reporting
=================================================================
Memory around native instruction pointer (0x76ebc5c0):0x76ebc5b0  bc ff ff ea 98 70 00 00 f0 4f 2d e9 14 d0 4d e2  .....p...O-...M.
0x76ebc5c0  24 50 90 e5 a5 31 b0 e1 28 01 00 0a 00 c0 a0 e1  $P...1..(.......
0x76ebc5d0  01 50 15 e2 20 30 bc e5 00 e0 a0 e1 80 50 a0 13  .P.. 0.......P..
0x76ebc5e0  0a 00 00 ea 01 10 83 e3 9f 2f 9c e1 03 00 52 e1  ........./....R.

=================================================================
    Managed Stacktrace:
=================================================================
      at <unknown> <0xffffffff>
      at System.Windows.Forms.Theme:get_MenuAccessKeysUnderlined <0x0000f>
      at System.Windows.Forms.SystemInformation:get_MenuAccessKeysUnderlined <0x00023>
      at System.Windows.Forms.Control:.ctor <0x00287>
      at System.Windows.Forms.Control:.ctor <0x00037>
      at System.Windows.Forms.WindowsFormsSynchronizationContext:.cctor <0x0002b>
      at System.Object:runtime_invoke_void <0x0007b>
      at <unknown> <0xffffffff>
      at System.Windows.Forms.Control:.ctor <0x0004b>
      at System.Windows.Forms.ScrollableControl:.ctor <0x00013>
      at System.Windows.Forms.ContainerControl:.ctor <0x00033>
      at System.Windows.Forms.Form:.ctor <0x000d7>
      at Eddie.Forms.Skin.SkinForm:.ctor <0x00013>
      at Eddie.Forms.Forms.WindowSplash:.ctor <0x00013>
      at Eddie.Forms.Forms.WindowSplash:.ctor <0x00037>
      at Eddie.Forms.UiClient:Init <0x000a7>
      at Eddie.Forms.Linux.Program:Main <0x00243>
      at System.Object:runtime_invoke_void <0x000e3>
=================================================================
Aborted
 

[OpenSourcerer 1441]

Hm. Your OS on the Pi is up-to-date, right?

[xteve7221 0]

I believe so - after I received this error, I ran the "sudo apt upgrade" and it updated a couple of files and then I ran the ./eddie-cli again and received the same error.
Is there any other command I need to run to do other updates?
 

[OpenSourcerer 1441]

I'd run a dist-upgrade. "Normal" upgrades don't touch dependencies, while dist-upgrade also upgrades packages of which the dependencies require new packages to be installed or old packages to be removed. Maybe Mono is being held back from being upgraded because of such a change, so you're running a buggy version while APT "calms you down" with saying you're up-to-date while you're not. I'd recommend this:

$ sudo apt full-upgrade

.

[xteve7221 0]

Thanks, I just ran it - looks clean

steven@raspberrypi:~/Downloads/EDMonoGUI/eddie-ui $ sudo apt full-upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  ca-certificates-mono cli-common easy-rsa libayatana-appindicator3-1 libdbusmenu-glib4
  libdbusmenu-gtk3-4 libgdiplus libmono-accessibility4.0-cil libmono-btls-interface4.0-cil
  libmono-corlib4.5-cil libmono-corlib4.5-dll libmono-i18n-west4.0-cil libmono-i18n4.0-cil
  libmono-posix4.0-cil libmono-security4.0-cil libmono-system-configuration4.0-cil
  libmono-system-core4.0-cil libmono-system-data4.0-cil libmono-system-drawing4.0-cil
  libmono-system-enterpriseservices4.0-cil libmono-system-numerics4.0-cil
  libmono-system-runtime-serialization-formatters-soap4.0-cil libmono-system-security4.0-cil
  libmono-system-transactions4.0-cil libmono-system-windows-forms4.0-cil libmono-system-xml4.0-cil
  libmono-system4.0-cil libmono-webbrowser4.0-cil libmonoboehm-2.0-1 libpkcs11-helper1
  libsecret-tools mono-4.0-gac mono-gac mono-runtime mono-runtime-common mono-runtime-sgen
  mono-utils opensc opensc-pkcs11 openvpn stunnel4
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.


But now when I run ./eddie-cli, I receive  

steven@raspberrypi:~/Downloads/EDMonoGUI/eddie-ui $ ./eddie-ui
./eddie-ui: 3: mono: not found

Is that my problem? Mono not even installed?

 

[OpenSourcerer 1441]

It shouldn't be displayed if you chose the Mono Portable package on the Downloads page.

[xteve7221 0]

Ahh, ok. I may have over-reached in this case.
I ran
mono -V and it said command not found, so in trying to be proactive and self-help, I googled how to install mono and ran
sudo intall mono-complete....which it did.....and didn't help.

I'm puzzled about this since I used the Windows app "Raspberry Pi Imager" to create this image and would have thought it would be sound and robust.
Any other suggestions?
 

[OpenSourcerer 1441]

I mean… there are two portable packages you can download, one with Mono packaged and one without. The one without will need Mono installed locally (-> the mono-complete package). In the one with Mono bundled Mono is found in the bundle directory. You simply execute ./eddie-ui, as before. I suspect you downloaded the portable without Mono, so it'd be natural Mono can't be found.
 

26 minutes ago, xteve7221 said:

I'm puzzled about this since I used the Windows app "Raspberry Pi Imager" to create this image and would have thought it would be sound and robust.

It's got nothing to do with the image or the OS. You're simply missing dependencies for that one program.

[xteve7221 0]

I got it to work with a working connection!
In a terminal window, I used the Portable Mono Command Line download.
First time, it prompted me for command line parameters for User/pwd which I re-ran with.
Then after lots of data, it ended up with "Connected" line.
I went to confirm via WhatIsMyIp and it verified I was now connected to a different server.

Is that how I have to run it from now on, or is there a way to get the GUI version running?
(or should I "leave well-enough alone"?)

Regardless, I wouldn't have even made it this far without your time, patience and support and thank you again.
-steve

[OpenSourcerer 1441]

1 hour ago, xteve7221 said:

Is that how I have to run it from now on, or is there a way to get the GUI version running?

If you download the CLI version, you won't be getting the GUI version. This is the link to the download you need.

[xteve7221 0]

I have one last (hopefully) question for you.
I downloaded the tar file that you shared.
In the Windows world, I would normally extract that to a tmp folder, and then run the SETUP/INSTALL from there and Windows would move it to appropriate folders, setup icons etc.
How does that work in Linux?
Do I just extract everything to the /OPT folder (from what I've read) and then execute it?
Thanks again
-steve

[OpenSourcerer 1441]

6 minutes ago, xteve7221 said:

How does that work in Linux?

How that works is, in my opinion, one of the strongest advantages of a Linux system compared to Windows.

On Windows, you'd have to do just what you wrote: Go to the developer's website, download their installer. It will install itself where the developer wants it to be, register the program in the relevant places, then you can run it. The installer packs everything the program needs to run, so it's the responsibility of the one creating the installer to include everything. You could say, the installer is a package of everything that program needs to run.

Just like on Windows, everything in a Linux system is, in the majority of cases, a package. You could say, it's close to an installer, with the exception that such a package doesn't pack everything it needs, just the relevant parts of that program. Everything else that's needed is provided by other packages, themselves only packaging what is needed to be functioning by themselves. They can themselves declare that they need other packages to work. Let me provide the example of Eddie.

Eddie needs OpenVPN. The Eddie installer on Windows would therefore ship it alongside Eddie itself, because no one can know if you've got OpenVPN installed or not. If you were to install another VPN client from another VPN provider, their program would too need to ship OpenVPN. Notice now that there would be two OpenVPN instances, each used by the respective VPN client, because client 1 cannot use what client 2 installed for itself to be able to work and vice versa.
On Linux, Eddie's and the other client's packages would simply need to declare that they need OpenVPN. But you'd have OpenVPN installed exactly once, system-wide, where both programs can reach and use it.

So, such a package can be a program, a library, a script, whatever, but mostly, they're programs and libraries. If you tell your package manager to update with one command, in your case it'd be APT, it will update all those packages – which essentially means a few things:

• It updates all your programs.
• It updates all their dependencies.
• It updates your OS.
• It's run by you, when you've got the time and the will.

In contrast, Windows forces those updates on you, but only for itself. Programs are left in your hands or the ones of their developers.
 

58 minutes ago, xteve7221 said:

How does that work in Linux?

So how does that work? Search for it and install. If you can't find it, let the package manager know where to find it, then install. There's a little guide on how to let it know so further down on the Linux download page; it involves adding a repository. I'd recommend you try to do this, then simply install Eddie with APT. It will take care of dependencies, and I think the absence of the right dependencies is what keeps you from running Eddie right now.

[xteve7221 0]

What a fabulous note - thank you for taking the time to explain.
Your Linux explanation was very eye-opening and kept making me say "makes complete sense!:
My lengthy history in the Windows world now clearly remembers especially much earlier versions, where each app overrode some common DLLs creating no end of turmoil. Install one app, break two others, and repeat.

I also get why I was having some of my problems here - I simply downloaded and went to install, not bothering to read anything below the DOWNLOAD button.
I have since executed each of those commands ina terminal window and installed the package that way.

Unfortunately, executing the GUI only displayed the cursor/hourglass for a bit and then disappeared.
No visible error or message etc.
I thought I had nailed it but as the old saying - "when you solve problem #1, problem #2 gets a promotion"

Sorry to keep pestering you on this, but do you have any thoughts?
I thought I was sooooo close!
-steve

[OpenSourcerer 1441]

1 hour ago, xteve7221 said:

Sorry to keep pestering you on this, but do you have any thoughts?

Execute eddie-ui in the terminal once again. If the message is the same as before, I think a developer should look into it.