OpenVPN3 GUI

⚠️ EARLY ALPHA - UNDER ACTIVE DEVELOPMENT ⚠️

A modern, lightweight GUI for OpenVPN3 built with Rust and the libcosmic framework, designed for seamless integration with COSMIC Desktop Environment.

Created by: fonzi
Website: https://fonzi.xyz

Screenshot

Features

Core Functionality

• ✅ Start/Stop VPN Connections - Easy one-click connection management
• ✅ Recent Configs - Quick access dropdown for recently used VPN configs
• ✅ SSO Authentication Support - Interactive browser-based authentication
• ✅ Session Monitoring - Continuous status checking during connection

Additional Features

• 💾 Save Logs - Export session logs to timestamped files
• 🔄 Auto-Reconnect - Automatically reconnect on disconnect (optional)
• 🔐 2FA/Challenge Support - Handle challenge-response authentication (untested)
• 🎨 Native COSMIC Integration - Built with libcosmic for perfect COSMIC DE integration
• 🌓 Automatic Theme Switching - Follows system theme preferences

Prerequisites

• COSMIC Desktop Environment (recommended) or any Wayland/X11 environment
• OpenVPN3 Client installed and configured

  sudo apt install openvpn3

• Rust (1.70.0 or higher)

  curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

• Required system development libraries:

  # On Ubuntu/Pop!_OS/Debian:
  sudo apt install libxkbcommon-dev libfontconfig-dev libfreetype-dev libexpat1-dev pkg-config
  
  # These are required for building libcosmic applications
  # - libxkbcommon-dev: Keyboard handling for Wayland
  # - libfontconfig-dev: Font configuration
  # - libfreetype-dev: Font rendering
  # - libexpat1-dev: XML parsing
  # - pkg-config: Build configuration tool

Building

# Clone the repository
git clone <your-repo-url>
cd openvpn-gui-rust

# Build in release mode
cargo build --release

# Run
cargo run --release

Installation

For system-wide installation:

# Run the install script
./install.sh

This will:

• Build the release version
• Install the binary to ~/.local/bin/openvpn_gui
• Install the desktop file to ~/.local/share/applications/
• Update the desktop database

After installation, you can:

• Run openvpn_gui from any terminal
• Find "OpenVPN3 GUI" in your application launcher
• The app will appear with proper branding in your dock/taskbar

Usage

1. Select Config:
   • Click "Browse" to select your .ovpn configuration file
   • Or select from the "Recent" dropdown if you've used configs before
2. Start VPN: Click "Start VPN" button
3. Authentication:
   • For SSO: A browser window will open automatically
   • For 2FA: Enter your code in the orange banner that appears (Untested)
4. Monitor Connection: Watch real-time stats and the network graph
5. System Tray: The tray icon shows connection status (blue=disconnected, green=connected)
6. Disconnect: Click "Disconnect" when done

Recent Configs

The app automatically remembers your last 10 used config files:

• Stored in ~/.config/openvpn-gui/recent_configs.txt
• Click any recent file to quickly select it
• Click "Clear" to remove all recent configs

Architecture

src/
├── main.rs              # Entry point
├── app.rs               # Application state & logic
├── models.rs            # Data models & messages
├── utils.rs             # Helper functions
├── icon.rs              # Icon generation (shield with lock)
├── tray.rs              # System tray integration (ksni)
├── ui/
│   ├── components.rs    # UI view functions
│   ├── graph.rs         # Network traffic graph
│   └── mod.rs
└── vpn/
    ├── manager.rs       # OpenVPN3 operations
    └── parser.rs        # Output parsing

Known Bugs

1. Cosmic Dock Issue: The icon/name will not show in the Cosmic dock unless the app is pinned from the apps menu first FIXED
2. Session State Persistence: Opening and closing the app will cause it to forget which VPN sessions are active

Contributing

Contributions welcome! Please feel free to submit issues or pull requests.