matomo

Special Offer: Save $144 on our annual subscription
Disconnected

Install OpenVPN for Debian

This guide is also available in Svenska, Deutsch and Norsk

Last updated: February 10, 2020

1. Run as superuser

su

2. Download components

apt-get update && apt-get upgrade && apt-get install curl openvpn unzip

Use OVPN if security is of importance

Your privacy and security is the core focus of OVPN. That's why we've implemented a multi-layered security model.

Learn more

3. Download the configuration you want

4. Enter your login credentials

echo  "CHANGE TO YOUR USERNAME"  >> /etc/openvpn/credentials
echo "CHANGE TO YOUR PASSWORD" >> /etc/openvpn/credentials

5. Start OpenVPN and see that everything works

openvpn --config /etc/openvpn/ovpn.conf --daemon

6. Verify that the connection was successful

Wait about 30 seconds and then run:

curl https://www.ovpn.com/v2/api/client/ptr

You should see something like:

{"status":true,"ip":"the external ip","ptr":"PTR for the IP address"}

7. Done

Congratulations! Your device is now protected behind OVPN and will automatically connect on reboots. If you encountered any issues, please send the log file (/tmp/openvpn.log) to our support.

A few commands that are good to know:

systemctl start openvpn    # Starts OpenVPN and connects to OVPN
systemctl stop openvpn     # Stops OpenVPN
systemctl restart openvpn  # Restarts OpenVPN
systemctl status openvpn   # Shows status for OpenVPN