I want to avoid installing custom binaries provided by the VPN providers. I usually tend to use the VPN provider which either uses wireguard or openvpn:

• wireguard is included in Linux kernel already and it only needs a bunch of client tools to set up
• openvpn is baked in NetworkManager already

I’m quite happy with mullvad.net. Create an account at Mullvad.net and get one month for 5 EUR, no strings attached.

wireguard

Run sudo apt install wireguard to install client-side wireguard tools. Then, go to your Mullvad account, select “WireGuard configuration”, “Linux”, “generate key”, select a country and then download the file which will be named something.conf. Copy the file to /etc/wireguard/, then run:

$ sudo wg-quick up ./something.conf

If wireguard fails with /usr/bin/wg-quick: line 32: resolvconf: command not found, install resolvconf:

$ sudo apt install resolvconf

To stop VPN, run:

$ sudo wg-quick down ./something.conf

OpenVPN

First, install resolvconf:

$ sudo apt install resolvconf

Then, go to your Mullvad account, select “OpenVPN configuration”, “Linux”, “Country” and download the zip archive. Unzip the archive, open Gnome Network Settings, VPN, click “+” and then “Import from file”. Select the .conf file.

Now edit the VPN connection: under “Identity” you’ll need to fill in the “user name” and “password”; you can find those in the mullvad_userpass.txt file:

• first line is the username, a bunch of numbers
• second line is the password, in my case it’s just one character