Hi all, I'm having troubles using VPN. I've tried with ProtonVPN and OpenVPN. I connect to the node, but I don't seem to have a connection after that, and i get Server Not Found when trying to open websites. The same configuration of VPN works in VM's and other machines, but not on the host, so its only an issue on ZorinOS.
For OpenVPN, when I try also to do it via terminal, this is the error that i get:
2024-02-17 09:11:29 TUN/TAP device tun0 opened
2024-02-17 09:11:29 net_iface_mtu_set: mtu 1420 for tun0
2024-02-17 09:11:29 net_iface_up: set tun0 up
2024-02-17 09:11:29 net_addr_v4_add: ***.***.***.***-masked-IP dev tun0
2024-02-17 09:11:34 ROUTE remote_host is NOT LOCAL
2024-02-17 09:11:34 net_route_v4_add: ***.***.***.***-masked-IP via 192.168.1.1 dev [NULL] table 0 metric -1
2024-02-17 09:11:34 net_route_v4_add: 0.0.0.0/1 via ***.***.***.***-masked-IP dev [NULL] table 0 metric -1
2024-02-17 09:11:34 sitnl_send: rtnl: generic error (-101): Network is unreachable
2024-02-17 09:11:34 ERROR: Linux route add command failed
2024-02-17 09:11:34 net_route_v4_add: 128.0.0.0/1 via ***.***.***.***-masked-IP dev [NULL] table 0 metric -1
2024-02-17 09:11:34 sitnl_send: rtnl: generic error (-101): Network is unreachable
2024-02-17 09:11:34 ERROR: Linux route add command failed
2024-02-17 09:11:34 Initialization Sequence Completed
Tried everything, can't get it to work. Like I mentioned, this only happens on ZorinOS 17. I had not trouble using the same OpenVPN profile on other machines. Same for ProtonVPN.
So, i tried removing firewall rules, i tried restarting NetworkManager and the only thing I've noticed that the VPN client seems to be unable to add routes properly. After connecting to the VPN, I've checked the routing table using the ip route command, and I haven't seen any additional routes added for the VPN connection.
I've tested with a ZorinOS VM, and there i dont have issues, the route is added properly in the table and the VPN works.
The fact that you can connect to the VPN provider means that networking is not an issue up until the connection is established. The question is, did you perhaps made a mistake during the initial setup or has the VPN reconfigured your system and left it in a bad state?
If you undo these changes, removing the VPN entirely, do you still have network connectivity? Try to set it up again from scratch. I would also ask for support to Proton on this. Maybe one of their logs shows where the problem is.
Yeah, its not the client, I've tried with Proton, Mullvad, OpenVPN ... same thing. Anyhow there is not much to setup when using any of these clients, you just open the app and basically click connect, the app should do the rest.
There maybe some other app that is causing the issue, or caused the issue ... like VMware or VirtualBox, but i tried removing them and remove any configs ... still, nothing changes.
In Zorin Network configuration, there is no VPN profile set, i tried even setting up a OpenVPN profile, still ... same issue, it says its connected, but there is no internet connection.
All of the clients, and the same VPN accounts work on different machines.
It's not as simple as that. VPN clients take over the network of the computer they run on, and if not properly uninstalled they can leave remnants of their configuration behind. This is fairly common issue with VPNs.
And have you tried to contact Proton regarding this issue? It seems likely that whatever the client did during initial setup has caused some damage.
This is where something like Timeshift could be very helpful. It's a tool for taking snapshots of the system, and roll back to them at later point. For example if after installing something starts causing trouble you can go back to a snapshot taken earlier, as if nothing ever happened.
But anyway, I think you've checked all the boxes as to what you can troubleshoot yourself. I would definitely ask for help to Proton directly.
Initially it did happen with Proton. So the first VPN client i tried was Proton and it didn't work immediately. I removed it, and then tried with a different provider and OpenVPN, same issue. After few months I now started using Mullvad, and the issue is still there. So it would be pointless to contact Proton now since i don't use it anymore, but anyhow thanks for the help.
Btw, i do use Timeshift, but I need to revert to the very beginning which I'm not even sure if would fix the problem.
Yeah, if you have any other suggestions, I'm open to try them
