Chrome OS
In case you're running Chrome OS (e.g. on Chromebook, on a virtual machine, etc.), follow the steps below to create a L2TP or OpenVPN based VPN connection.Note that when you want to connect simply via the ChromeOS GUI, you'll have to use L2TP protocol.
For using OpenVPN protocol, you'll have to use the console which might require that you get into developer mode. How to is explained below.
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Additional notes: There have been reports of a bug making your VPN experience a bit annoying: about every 5 minutes, it automatically disconnects from your VPN and you can't reconnect unless you log out and in again, or delete your VPN and configure it again. The Chrome OS developers are aware of this problem and you can keep track of this problem here and here. Star this issue in order to get it fixed earlier. A workaround for now is opening a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and starting an endless ping using ping google.com. This seems to work fine for affected systems. | ||||||||||||||||
OpenVPN on ChromeOSConnecting via OpenVPN protocol on ChromeOS is a little bit tricky, because it currently does not accept common certificates and keys. That means you can't connect using the ChromeOS GUI, like you would do with L2TP protocol as explained above. So you'll have to use a small workaround: First you need to get into the console mode. On some ChromeOS systems/devices this requires to enable the developer mode first. How this is done differs from device to device, here's a list with links to instructions: http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/developer-information-for-chrome-os-devices General information on how to access console/terminal and other related info can be found at: http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/poking-around-your-chrome-os-device Now you have 2 options to get into the console mode. Which one you use, does not matter. Option 1: Console mode: To get into the console mode, try either
If you didn't change any usernames/passwords of the system before, try:
Option 2: Terminal mode: To create a new terminal mode window, hit
crosh> Here, enter "shell" You're now logged in with a restricted user account. The next step is to get root access. Enter: "sudo su" You should now get asked to select a root password. Make sure to write it down somewhere, in case you forget it! Now is the time to connect to the VPN. You'll need the *.ovpn config files of the serves you'd like to connect to. Get them from
and put them into a specific folder where you can find them later. To leave the console mode, hit CTRL+ALT+F1 or CTRL+ALT+LEFTARROW to leave the terminal mode, hit ALT+TAB To download a config file from the console/terminal mode, you could enter e.g. "wget http://hidemyass.com/vpn-config/UDP/Bulgaria.Sofia.UDP.ovpn" Now the file has been saved into the folder you're currently in. That said, as long as you're in a folder that contains the *.ovpn config files within the console mode, you can simply connect to the VPN by running: "openvpn Bulgaria.Sofia.UDP.ovpn" You'll then get asked for your HMA! Pro VPN username + password (the same that you use to login to the VPN control panel), and the client will connect. Once the client shows you something like "Sun Apr 21 07:45:21 2013 Initialization Sequence Completed", that means you are successfully connected and you can go back to your normal desktop. To leave the console mode, hit CTRL+ALT+F1 or CTRL+ALT+LEFTARROW to leave the terminal mode, hit ALT+TAB To confirm that you are successfully connected, you could e.g. browse to http://ipaddress.com and verify your IP, ISP and location. To disconnect from the VPN, go back to console mode (CTRL+ALT+F2 or CTRL+ALT+RIGHTARROW, for terminal mode just ALT+TAB ) and hit CTRL+C. |