Pretty much what the title says. I noticed that ProtonVPN Linux has an EXTREMELY limited interface compared to their program on Windows. I also do not appear to have the option to bind qBittorrent to ProtonVPN the same way that I did with MullvadVPN. Has anybody experienced ProtonVPN on Linux and successfully used it for torrenting? It’s nowhere near as simple as on Windows, from the looks of it.
Hey, I’ve been torrenting on Linux through the ProtonVPN program without issues for the past months.
I don’t know the specifics because I’m new to Linux, but I followed the official guide on how to set it up and everything just worked. Don’t even need to change the port in qBit, I can upload anyway as long as I pick a P2P server in Proton, and very fast too (depending of what people want me to seed), uncapped upload speed often nears my max upload bandwidth.
Also binding qBit to the VPN is not a problem, just follow the official guide. Tested it now, and if I disconnect the VPN, qBit shows a red world in the network status and speeds go to zero, so it works.
It’s true that the Linux client is not as fully-fledged as the Windows one, but it’s not unusable.
I’m on PoP!_OS if it can be of any help. If you have questions that might help you with using Proton on Linux feel free to ask and I’ll try my best!
I just tested it out to see if it would stop if I closed the VPN…it did not stop at all, just kept on downloading. There must be something I’m doing wrong. I’m on Ubuntu, which should function pretty similarly to PoP!_OS. I specifically picked a P2P server in Proton VPN, a United Kingdom one with the little arrow circle symbol.
You must have made a mistake somewhere, as once I close the Proton VPN client (actual “close”, as in the app is not running anymore) my qBit does stop downloading (just tested), although the rest of the system still has access to the network (must have something to do with how apps are installed on Linux, I guess).
In my qBit settings > advanced > network interface I read “tun0”, and that’s what I think was suggested in the official setup guide on Proton. What do you have?
I’ve had a lot more luck running it in Docker with gluetun, along with qbittorrent in Docker. That way you can bind the whole qbit container to the VPN, which is basically bulletproof. All config options are available as Docker commands, you just need to use Proton’s website to check the server list and pick your favorite p2p-enabled server.
It does take a little fiddling, but it’s solid once you get it running. Port forwarding works too, once you figure out how to enable it.
God, I hate the Linux app.
There’s a guide for it https://protonvpn.com/support/port-forwarding-manual-setup/ it works ok
I use it on my Linux laptop, there’s no port forwarding, dowloading works fine though, sometimes connects to peers to upload. I have dual boot so I have seen the Windows version, it’s much more sophisticated. I’ve checked for DNS leaks using one of the sites listed in another comment, no leaks.
Yeah, the only scary moment I’ve had was when the laptop decided to suspend itself, and when I turned it back on, Linux had disabled all networking systems outside of the default, but immediately started up qBit for some reason, so that was great.
I figured the further I got from Windows, the easier all of this would become, given the community’s tendency towards things like Linux, privacy, etc. It’s only gotten painfully more difficult and contains a lot more gatekeeping. As I’ve asked for help with things like this, especially on the newer versions of Mint and Ubuntu, I just get insulted, even though the old solutions no longer seem to apply.
I get that too, it can be difficult to get help. I try to ignore it and have been using Linux for about 15 years as an OS. I use Kubuntu on my laptop, but I’ve used Mint also. I’m thinking of changing back but it’s so much work, and there are a lot of other options I’d like to try.
I’ve had my network locked out as well, the first iteration of ProtonVPN I used would lock it out if you didn’t close the app before shutting down. I contacted Proton and they sent me the commands to unlock it, so I have them handy in a file. That problem was fixed, afaik, because I can shut down without exiting the app now. I haven’t had my comp suspend, Linux used to have a problem with suspend so I’ve stayed away from it. I haven’t had any problems with Proton otherwise, I used it on my Android as well, I have a paid plan.
As an FYI to readers, port forwarding with ProtonVPN on Linux can be done, just with a little extra effort.
