Gopenvpn is missing in modern GNU/Linux distributions, however this is the recommended way to run OpenVPN in Linux environment since other GUI clients have numerous issues. We publish here the steps to install it.
1. Install gopenvpn
32 bits i386 binary for Ubuntu Jaunty is available on gopenvpn project page so if you run 32 bits Ubuntu 9.04 or higher, you may try to install it in your system.
64 bits systems don’t have binary package available on the net, so we’ve created script to build it. It was tested on Ubuntu natty 11.04
Open terminal and run downloaded script file:
bash ~/Downloads/gopenvpn-install-ubuntu
The script will ask you for the password of your system account and will run for some time. After it will finish, you will find gopenvpn in Applications – Internet.
2. Copy configuration files.
Download configuration under ‘OS independent’ section and place them to /etc/openvpn directory.
If the name of the file you’ve downloaded is ‘openvpn-plain-default-123456.conf’ then the command for terminal will be the following:
sudo cp ~/Downloads/openvpn-plain-default-123456.conf /etc/openvpn
Replace ‘openvpn-plain-default-123456.conf’ with the actual file name.
3. Run gopenvpn.
You will be prompted for the password of your system account each time you run gopenvpn.
After that you should see red gopenvpn icon in system tray. Right-click on it and choose the configuration you wish to connect with.
You will be prompted for VPN account username and password, which you may find in members area under your VPN account details. It’s possible to save the password so this prompt won’t bug you anymore.
After VPN connected, the icon will turn to green colour.
4. Test VPN connection.
Visit whatismyip.com website to verify that VPN IP is showing there.