https://mullvad.net/en/help/install-mullvad-app-linux

Trying to install VPN and these are the instructions Mullvad is giving me. This is ridiculous. There must be a more simple way. I know how to follow the instructions but I have no idea what I’m doing here. Can’t I just download a file and install it? I’m on Ubuntu.

  • Lvxferre@lemmy.ml
    0·
    10 months ago

    It’s less complicated than it looks like. The text is just a poorly written mess, full of options (Fedora vs. Ubuntu, repo vs. no repo, stable vs. beta), and they’re explaining how to do this through the terminal alone because the interface that you have might be different from what they expect. And because copy-pasting commands is faster.

    Can’t I just download a file and install it? I’m on Ubuntu.

    Yes, you can! In fact, the instructions include this option; it’s under “Installing the app without the Mullvad repository”. It’s a bad idea though; then you don’t get automatic updates.

    A better way to do this is to tell your system “I want software from this repository”, so each time that they make a new version of the program, yours get updated.

    but I have no idea what I’m doing here.

    I’ll copy-paste their commands to do so, and explain what each does.

    sudo curl -fsSLo /usr/share/keyrings/mullvad-keyring.asc https://repository.mullvad.net/deb/mullvad-keyring.asc
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/mullvad-keyring.asc arch=$( dpkg --print-architecture )] https://repository.mullvad.net/deb/stable $(lsb_release -cs) main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mullvad.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install mullvad-vpn

    The first command boils down to “download this keyring from the internet”. The keyring is a necessary file to know if you’re actually getting your software from Mullvad instead of PoopySoxHaxxor69. If you wanted, you could do it manually, and then move to the /usr/share/keyrings directory, but… it’s more work, come on.

    The second command tells your system that you want software from repository.mullvad.net. I don’t use Ubuntu but there’s probably some GUI to do it for you.

    The third command boils down to “hey, Ubuntu, update the list of packages for me”.

    The fourth one installs the software.

    • jet@hackertalks.comEnglish
      0·
      10 months ago

      This is a great explanation. And really well written. Thank you for taking the time to put it together

    • Critical_Insight@feddit.ukOP
      0·
      10 months ago

      Thanks for the explanation. However trying to run the first command gives me sudo: curl: command not found

      So I’m stuck right there in the first step lol

      • NekkoDroid@programming.dev
        0·
        10 months ago

        I would have guessed that Ubuntu would install it by default since its a very common way to get stuff from the internet (when in the terminal), but apparently not (the other option is wget which is most likely installed, but that uses a different way to get the stuff).

        You should be able to install curl with sudo apt install curl

      • Lvxferre@lemmy.ml
        0·
        10 months ago

        You have two options: install curl (check @TrickDacy@lemmy.world’s comment) or do it manually. Installing curl is the easiest.

        If you want to do it the hard way (without the terminal), here’s how:

        1. Download the file https://repository.mullvad.net/deb/mullvad-keyring.asc from your web browser.
        2. Open your file browser as administrator. There’s probably some link for that in the Menu.
        3. Move the file that you just downloaded to the directory /usr/share/keyrings/
        • Critical_Insight@feddit.ukOP
          0·
          10 months ago

          Really appreciate your replies dude. So many are being a bit of an jerks here, but you (and few other) have been really helpful.

          • Lvxferre@lemmy.ml
            0·
            10 months ago

            You’re welcome.

            I think that people being jerks take for granted how confusing this might be, if you’re new; we (people in general) tend to take vocab that we already know for granted, as well as solutions for small problems. …except that it doesn’t work when you’re starting out, and we all need to start out somewhere, right.

            • astraeus@programming.dev
              0·
              10 months ago

              Yeah, once you work in Linux for so long seeing someone ask about curl missing is really easy to take for granted that we all started there, we’ve all been fresh on Linux. A lot of people take pride in their experience, but they shouldn’t lord it over those who are learning to advance themselves. It’s completely counter to why Linux even exists.