evpn-assistant

Gnome Shell Extension

evpn-assistant is a Gnome Shell extension which allows ExpressVPN to be controlled through the GNOME shell. This extension is not affiliated with ExpressVPN but does requires a valid subscription and the expressVPN binary to be installed and activated. More can be found on the companies website: https://www.expressvpn.com/vpn-software

This extension groups together VPN locations into various menu and submenu items. The group locations expand presenting the countries flag and clicking on the menu item will attempt to connect you to the destination. Polling of the VPN status can be set between 10 seconds and 10 mins which will check the current VPN connection and update the main status tray icon to reflect connectivity. Polling can be turned off if there is no interest in syncing the current VPN status. Polling is generally useful if the connection drops unexpectedly or another client is used to change the VPN status, such as the command line or a browser extension. Menu labels and group icons can be customised to whatever colour best fits the ubuntu theme being used.

Running Environment

This extension has been written on Ubuntu 22.04 using Clutter Shell Toolkit and GTK.

Package: gir1.2-clutter-1.0 Package: gettext

GTK API Version: 3.0 Library Version: 3.24

Check dependencies

sudo dpkg -s gir1.2-clutter-1.0 sudo dpkg -s gettext gtk-launch --version

Some useful ExpressVPN commands which can be made via the terminal

Note: Requires expressvpn ( https://www.expressvpn.com/vpn-software )

To activate ExpressVPN account: expressvpn activate

To connect to smart location or last connected location: expressvpn connect

To connect to a country: expressvpn connect "Germany"

To connect to a specific location: expressvpn connect "Germany - Frankfurt - 1"

To check current connection status: expressvpn status

To list all available connections: expressvpn list all

To disable Network Lock: expressvpn preferences set network_lock off

To enable Threat Manager: expressvpn preferences set block_trackers true

Troubleshooting

1. If you are experiencing issues, try to log out and log in again or restarting the restart GNOME Shell (XOrg: Alt+F2, r, Enter - Wayland: log out or reboot) and enable the extension through the gnome-extensions manager.
2. If your troubles persist try resetting settings.
   • You can call: dconf reset -f /org/gnome/shell/extensions/evpn-assistant/ or use dconf-editor.
3. If you are still having a persistent problem, then please file an issue on GitHub. To assist with the problem, please turn on logging in the preferences and provide as much detail as possible, including settings, log extracts and exceptions.
   • You can obtain the logfile like this: journalctl -f /usr/bin/gnome-shell 2>&1 | grep -i Evpn > evpn-assistant.log.
   • Run the application to ensure that

Personal Note

This extension was written for personal usage and designed to fill the gap in providing seamless Gnome Shell integration. The extension has been made freely available for others to enjoy and I am not in any way affiliated with ExpressVPN. The extension is provided as is with absolutely no warranty.

Acknowledgements

Some UI elements came from these repositories: https://github.com/Ileriayo/markdown-badges https://github.com/aha999/DonateButtons

Supported Gnome Shell version

This extension was written to supports Gnome Shell version 42, 42.4 and will most likely work for 43. This is correct as of the 02/10/2022.

Installation from e.g.o

https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/5385/evpn-shell-assistant/

Manual installation

1. git clone https://github.com/stuartjamesgilmour/evpn-assistant.git
2. cd evpn-assistant
3. ./release.sh
4. gnome-extensions install [email protected]
5. Logout and then Login again
6. gnome-extensions enable [email protected]

If you would like to help support my work

https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=N8R7KYHP7KQEQ