Connect our Alpine Linux virtual machine environment to the ProtonVPN provider using the OpenVPN framework

Welcome back to another episode from our Alpine Linux explorations tutorial series. This time we are going to connect our Alpine Linux virtual machine environment to the ProtonVPN provider using the OpenVPN framework.?

?This will be strictly a client-side-only configuration.?

?Step 1. We power on our previously created Alpine Linux virtual machine and we log in (in the previous tutorials from our Alpine Linux explorations tutorial series we used the Oracle Virtual Box software to create our virtual machine).

?Step 2. We are now logged in and our Alpine Linux virtual machine environment is ready.

?Step 3. We open the Linux Terminal to begin the configuration work on our virtual machine.?

?Step 4. We use the Linux Terminal command ‘su root’ to switch to the root user. We need the increased access privileges to be able to fully setup our new VPN connection in the Alpine Linux Terminal.??

?Step 5. We run the command ‘apk add openvpn’ to install the OpenVPN framework software.

Step 6. We can now see that it is installed.?

?Step 7. We need to run the command ‘rc-update add openvpn default’ to fully enable the proper functionality of the OpenVPN framework software.?

?Step 8. We need to run the additional commands ‘modprobe tun

echo "tun" >> /etc/modules-load.d/tun.conf’ to further enable the complete functionality of OpenVPN on Alpine Linux.

?Step 9. We will also run the commands ‘echo "net.ipv4.ip_forward = 1" >> /etc/sysctl.d/ipv4.conf’ and ‘sysctl -p /etc/sysctl.d/ipv4.conf’ to enable IP Forwarding.?

These configuration elements will allow us to use the VPN connection correctly and be able to establish and maintain a working VPN connection without leaks (IP and DNS).

Step 10. We are now ready to initiate the connection on our Alpine Linux virtual machine environment. The configuration file holding the access information and required security certificates will be loaded into the OpenVPN framework software at this step.

We obtain this file from the VPN service provider, in our case, it is from ProtonVPN.

Step 11. We input our access credentials.

Step 12. Once we see the message ‘Initialization Sequence Completed’ we are ready to use the Internet under the protection of our VPN provider.

Step 13. We can check if our connection is properly configured and if we are truly protected under the VPN tunnel using the web portal?ipleak.net?provided by the AirVPN provider.

Step 14. We can terminate our connection at any time, simply by switching to our active Linux Terminal where our VPN connection is running and using the CTRL + C keys to close the active connection. Then we can proceed to safely close the Linux Terminal as well.

See you in the next tutorial.

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