Proton has recently published Proton VPN CLIAccording to him, this is one of the most requested features by users. I have to admit the news surprised me: wasn't it already available? Apparently not. There was some command-line support, but it was maintained by the community. The news is that Proton VPN CLI is now officially available, although at the moment it's still in beta. Or rather, in a very early and limited version.
What you can do right now with the Linux version of Proton VPN CLI is Connect to and disconnect from VPN servers and choose servers by country, city, or a specific serverThe latter applies to paying users. The reason I mentioned it seemed to be in the testing phase is because so little of it is functional compared to a more complete version, such as one with a user interface. Among its limitations, it can only connect to the WireGuard protocol, lacks advanced features (like NetShield or Kill Switch), and settings can only be configured via a configuration file.
Proton VPN CLI available in early version
What they've released are packages for Debian, Ubuntu, and Fedora. this link They explain how to add the official repositories and install the packages.
Basic use
Here are some useful commands:
- sudo protonvpn init: Starts the service. It will ask for credentials.
- protonvpn login: Log in with your account.
- `protonvpn connect` (or `protonvpn c`): Connect to a server. It allows options such as `--fastest`, `--random`, and `--country`. , etc.
- protonvpn disconnect (or protonvpn d): disconnect the active session.
- protonvpn status: View the current connection status.
- protonvpn killswitch –on / –off: enable/disable the “kill switch” to block traffic if the VPN goes down.
It is important to note that WireGuard must be installed on the system, as it is the only protocol it currently accepts.
When it might be of interest and when it might not
Personally, this news doesn't interest me much, even though it's aimed at Linux users. Why? Because I use KDE, and if I didn't, I'd probably use GNOME. Many other desktop environments are based on one of these two (base, mind you), and both GNOME and KDE allow you to add VPNs from the network settings.
En this link I'll explain how to use ProtonVPN this way. In short, if you're registered, you can go to your personal ProtonVPN account and download configuration files for OpenVPN or WireGuard. This way, you can create multiple VPNs in different countries and switch between them as needed. The downside is that reconnections aren't as reliable, but I haven't had any problems.
And if I didn't use VPNs in my network configurations, what I would do is install the unofficial flatpak package.
When is Proton VPN CLI useful?
Given all of the above, when is ProtonVPN CLI useful? From my point of view, and especially considering that it's only available for Debian/Ubuntu and Fedora, for cases where there is no graphical interfaceThere are already official packages with a user interface for those distributions, and management is much simpler. Another reason might be performance, or simply a preference for the command line.
As a user of an Arch-based distribution, I might consider using it if they released something specifically for me. As we've explained, connecting directly to a server can be problematic if the connection drops, since reconnection is less reliable. But in my case, I don't constantly need a VPN, and I already use Proton's VPN in Vivaldi.
Proton VPN CLI was released on October 30th, and they should soon be adding all the features necessary for it to work with everything a service like this has to offer. For now, since there's nothing for Manjaro, I'll continue using profiles for network configuration.