Private Internet Access configuration scripts for various Linux distributions

Private Internet Access (PIA) provides high quality and inexpensive VPN services, but installing VPN routes on linux can be tedious or require the installation of third party software. The purpose of this repository is to host and maintain configuration scripts that will automatically populate NetworkManager VPN routes for use with PIA OpenVPN service on various Linux distributions and to avoid the installation of any third party programs.

This project was originally a set of shell scripts under the name PIA_install_scripts, but the project now consists of a single python script, which I'm calling pypia.py. The shell scripts are still accessible in the /legacy_scripts/ directory but are no longer supported.

pypia (pypia.py)

Currently supported distributions

The pypia script has been designed to automatically detect your operating system. Currently the supported distros are:

• Fedora
• Manjaro
• Ubuntu (various flavors, e.g. Lubuntu, should also work)
• Elementary OS
• Antergos
• Linuxmint
• openSUSE
• Kali
• Arch

*For other distros, please see note at end of this README

Requirements

• System

  • Python 3. This script is written in Python 3. Python 2 is not supported.
  • network manager
  • openvpn
    The script installs the network-manager-openvpn package (name of package may be different depending on your distribution).

• General

  • PIA subscription (which is a pay service).

Other information

PIA certificate, which is automatically downloaded by the script, is provided by PIA here. Route/VPN server information is downloaded from this page.

Installation

1. Either download pypia.py and package_info.json from this repo directly, or clone the github repository to your local workstation.

2. cd to the directory where the script was downloaded.

   e.g. cd ~/git/pypia/ or cd ~/Downloads/

3. Run the following command in the terminal:

   sudo python3 pypia.py

   In some distributions, python PATH variable points to Python 3, but in others it points to Python 2. Specifying python3 will usually work.

4. Since the script needs root permissions to install dependencies via the package manager and to write the VPN config files to /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/, you will be prompted to enter the root password.

5. At some point in the installation process you will be prompted for your PIA-issued user ID (typically starts with a "p" and is followed by a bunch of numbers). You will also be prompted for your password, which is simply saved to the config files (in plain text, but only root user can view/edit those files).

6. If everything goes as intended, the VPN routes will be accessible from the VPN Connections menu in the NetworkManager applet or via the nmcli command line tool.

PIA Toolkit (pia_toolkit.py)

Randomized VPN

Only tested so far on Ubuntu

I've added a python 3 script that will connect to a random PIA VPN configuration that the pypia script configured. To use it, cd to the directory where you've cloned this repo, run

1. $ chmod +x pia_toolkit.py to make the file executable, and run

2. $ ./pia_toolkit.py from the command line.

By default it only selects from US configurations, but you can modify that with the -r flag, for example -r all for any network worldwide or -r int for non-US networks. See --help for more details.

If you are already connected to a PIA VPN, this script will disconnect the current connection and establish a new connection.

Fastest connection

PIA Toolkit also includes a -f option. Setting this flag will initiate ping tests to all PIA hosts and upon completion will connect to the fastest (based on the average latency of 3 ping packets). By default it only checks US connections but you can change that with the -r flag. See --help for more details. Latencies are tabulated and shown in your terminal:

Contributions

If your distribution of choice is not currently listed as supported, please take a minute to help me add support! To add it, I'll need to know:

1. The specific name of the network-manager-openvpn package in your particular package manager. Usually searching the package database for "openvpn" is enough to find it.
2. The install command for your package manager (e.g. apt install or dnf install, etc.)
3. At a python (3+) prompt, enter the following commands and let me know what the string returned from the get_distro() function is:

import subprocess
def get_distro():
    os_release = subprocess.check_output(['cat', '/etc/os-release']).decode('utf-8').splitlines()
    os_dict = {i.split('=')[0]: i.split('=')[1].strip('"') for i in os_release if '=' in i}
    distro = os_dict['ID'].lower()
    return distro
get_distro()

With that information, I can update the package_info.json file to include your distro. Or feel free to submit a pull request.

License

The python code in this project is distributed under GPLv3.

If you want to sign up for PIA, feel free to use my affiliate link. If you'd rather not use that link, no worries! This is free software that I hope you continue to use and enjoy.