Starting OpenVPN at startup, on Raspbian Buster

[intelekt]

Hi,

Im trying to get my surfshark vpn to run at startup so i don't have to constantly type in the run command and then the enormous username and password credentials in terminal.

Forgive me if this question has been asked a thousand times before, but i just can't find any info that isn't very technical or assumes i already know the basics of linux!

I need the answer to be dumbed down so a simpleton like me can get an understanding of it.


Right now when i start Raspbian Buster i have to do this in terminal:

Navigate to OpenVPN directory by entering:
cd /etc/openvpn
To see the list of all the available servers enter:
ls
Choose one of the servers for the serve list and connect to Surfshark by entering:
sudo openvpn [file name]
For example:
sudo openvpn us-dal.prod.surfshark.com_udp.ovpn
sudo openvpn /etc/openvpn/us-dal.prod.surfshark.com_udp.ovpn
And connect with the surfshark credentials.

Help,

Thanks
Ade

[intelekt]

Anyone Pretty Please

[default_user8]

Why aren't you using pivpn?

https://www.pivpn.io

[torak666]

You can try to use command crontab -e and call an automatic script to do your job after the reboot is done
https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentati ... ge/cron.md

[intelekt]

I thought PiVPN was to turn the actual Pi into a vpn!

[DougieLawson]

To get any OpenVPN configuration running at boot time you need to start by creating /etc/openvpn/foobarBletch.conf

Something like

Code: Select all

client
dev tun
proto udp
remote openvpn.server.example.com 1194 # can use a dotted decimal address
resolv-retry infinite
nobind
persist-key
persist-tun
ca openvpn.server.ca.crt
cert foobarBletch.client.crt
key foobarBletch.client.key
remote-cert-tls server
comp-lzo
verb 3

Obviously the certs and key need to be in the /etc/openvpn or you can embed them in the config file with

Code: Select all

client
dev tun
proto udp
remote openvpn.server.example.com 1194 # can use a dotted decimal address
resolv-retry infinite
nobind
persist-key
persist-tun
remote-cert-tls server
comp-lzo
verb 3
<ca>
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
MIIFR...
*** cert authority certificate redacted ***
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
</ca>
<cert>
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
MIIFl...
*** client certificate redacted ***
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
</cert>
<key>
-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----
MIIEv...
*** client key redacted ***
-----END PRIVATE KEY-----
</key>

You then enable OpenVPN at boot time with
sudo systemctl enable openvpn
sudo systemctl enable openvpn@foobarBletch

[default_user8]

I thought PiVPN was to turn the actual Pi into a vpn!

Technically it does, but it's still Raspbian. You can install other programs, I run pivpn, and pihole on mine. I don't remember which one i started with, but I started with a minimal raspbian install, and ran the pivpn, and pihole scripts to install both programs.