The title reads "How I Automated My ExpressVPN Connection Under Ubuntu" and it was published in October 2016, so I can guess right here might be part of my problem, but I'm a total newb, so :shrug:
The end result I'm looking for is an applet that lets me know I'm connected to the vpn, and tells me when I'm not.
OK, here are the instructions:
When you list the countries that you can connect to, there is a “Y” next to some of the items. This means these countries/locations are “recommended” for best speed. They differ from the “smart” connection option in that the smart connection will always be the country you reside in, although a different IP address.
I thought it would be good so that when I login to my Ubuntu machine, it connects to a randomly selected VPN country which has the “recommended” “Y” next to it. Since I don’t use Unity under Ubuntu but Cinnamon (much better, IMHO) I’d also like to display the country I’m connected to as a Desklet in my top desktop panel.
Here is the bash script which does this on boot.
Code: Select all
#!/bin/bash
expressvpn refresh
expressvpn list | tail -n+3 | column -ts $'t' | sed 's/ */:/g' > data.tmp
cat data.tmp | while read LINE
do
if [ `echo $LINE | tail -c 2` == 'Y' ]; then
TEMP=`echo $LINE | grep : | awk -F: '{print $1}'`
echo "$TEMP" >> array.tmp
fi
done
ARRAY_SIZE=`wc -l array.tmp | awk {'print $1'}`
RND_VPN=`shuf -i 1-$ARRAY_SIZE -n 1`
VPN=`sed "${RND_VPN}q;d" array.tmp`
rm -f data.tmp
rm -f array.tmp
expressvpn connect $VPNapplet.jsThe last bit is showing this information in Cinnamon as an applet. I don’t know much about writing JavaScript applets apart from they’re written in JavaScript as the Cinnamon documentation for this is super-weak, but I found a simple network status applet which is basically a refreshing label and that will do. All this does is put the output from the “expressvpn status” command into a label and displays it. Simple applets are composed from two files, the JavaScript JS file and a JSON descriptor file. Here are my horrible hacked together versions.
Code: Select all
const Applet = imports.ui.applet;
const Lang = imports.lang;
const Mainloop = imports.mainloop;
const GLib = imports.gi.GLib;
const UUID = "expressvpn@jon";
const REFRESH_INTERVAL = 10
function log(message) {
global.log(UUID + '#' + log.caller.name + ': ' + message);
}
function logError(error) {
global.logError(UUID + '#' + logError.caller.name + ': ' + error);
}
function MyApplet(orientation) {
this._init(orientation);
}
MyApplet.prototype = {
__proto__: Applet.TextApplet.prototype,
_init: function (orientation) {
Applet.TextIconApplet.prototype._init.call(this, orientation);
try {
this.set_applet_icon_name("emblem-web");
this.set_applet_tooltip(_("ExpressVPN Node location."));
this.set_applet_label("...");
}
catch (error) {
logError(error);
}
this.refreshLocation();
},
refreshLocation: function refreshLocation() {
let [res, out] = GLib.spawn_command_line_sync(" expressvpn status ")
let out = String(out).replace("n", "");
let out = String(out).trim();
//let out = String(out).replace(/ /g, "-");
//let out = String(out).replace(/ /g, " ");
this.set_applet_label('VPN: ' + out + '');
Mainloop.timeout_add_seconds(REFRESH_INTERVAL, Lang.bind(this, function refreshTimeout() {
this.refreshLocation();
}));
}
};
function main(metadata, orientation) {
let myapplet = new MyApplet(orientation);
return myapplet;
}Code: Select all
{
"dangerous": true,
"description": "Shows ExpressVPN Location",
"name": "ExpressVPNStatus",
"uuid": "expressvpn@jon"
}so, I made the script executable, created a scripts directory in my home folder, added it to the PATH variable, moved the script to that folder. not sure if that part worked, but the script works...Both these files go in the directory “$HOME/.local/share/cinnamon/applets/expressvpn@jon” as the directory is “applet_name@author” format. You can then add the applet as normal in Cinnamon to a panel.
the problem is the applet, which I get an error when trying to add to my taskbar
errors from glass.log:
<----------------
Extension.prototype._init@/usr/share/cinnamon/js/ui/extension.js:155:13
Extension@/usr/share/cinnamon/js/ui/extension.js:116:5
loadExtension@/usr/share/cinnamon/js/ui/extension.js:449:25
onEnabledAppletsChanged@/usr/share/cinnamon/js/ui/appletManager.js:236:13
---------------->
error t=2018-01-16T20:31:09.042Z [Applet "expressvpn@jon"]: Error importing applet.js from expressvpn@jon
error t=2018-01-16T20:31:09.042Z Could not load applet expressvpn@jon
not sure which errors come from this in .xsession-errors so I dropped them in pastebin
https://pastebin.com/xN36WyX0
Hopefully I submitted all of the relevant information and someone can help me. I'm a newish linux user. Much more user friendly than 15 years ago when I first tried it out. I love mint, but it's all quite confusing to me. I'm not horrible at following instructions, but the linux rabbithole is deep and wide. any assistance will be greatly appreciated, since expressvpn hasn't come up with this feature themselves, yet (for the applet, which is the part I really care about)
Thank you.
