networkmanager-airvpn

A NetworkManager VPN plugin for AirVPN, in the spirit of networkmanager-openvpn. Instead of importing generated .ovpn files by hand, you store your AirVPN API key and pick a server; the plugin fetches ready-to-use OpenVPN profiles from the AirVPN configuration generator and drives the openvpn binary.

Features

• Native AirVPN connection type in GNOME Settings (GTK4), nm-connection-editor (GTK3), nm-applet and nmcli.
• Server picker fed by the AirVPN status API (continents, countries and individual servers with their current load), with a Refresh button.
• Profiles are fetched once and cached under /var/lib/nm-airvpn/ (root-only, 0600); the cache is refreshed automatically on the first connect, when the connection parameters change, when a connection attempt fails, or after 90 days.
• API key stored as a NetworkManager secret (GNOME keyring by default); GNOME Shell prompts for it via the standard VPN secret dialog when it is not saved.
• OpenVPN runs with dropped privileges (dedicated nm-airvpn system user) once the tunnel is up.

Getting your API key

1. Sign in at airvpn.org/apisettings.
2. Enable API access for your account and copy the key.
3. Paste it in the connection editor (or answer the GNOME Shell prompt on first connect).

The optional device name corresponds to an AirVPN "device" (Client Area → Devices); each device gets its own keypair. Leave it empty to use your account's default device. In the editor, press Load devices to pick one of your account's devices from the dropdown (requires the API key entered above).

The device must exist on your account.

Usage

GUI: GNOME Settings → Network → VPN → + → AirVPN, or nm-connection-editor.

CLI:

nmcli connection add type vpn ifname -- vpn-type airvpn con-name my-airvpn \
    vpn.data "server=ch,protocol=udp,port=443,device=mydevice"
nmcli connection modify my-airvpn vpn.secrets api-key=YOUR_API_KEY
nmcli connection up my-airvpn

server accepts an AirVPN server name (Achernar), a country code (ch), a continent (europe) or earth.

Building

meson setup build --prefix /usr -Dlibexecdir=lib -Dlocalstatedir=/var
meson compile -C build
sudo meson install -C build
sudo systemd-sysusers && sudo systemd-tmpfiles --create

Dependencies: libnm, glib2, libcurl, openvpn; for the GUI: gtk3, gtk4, libnma, libnma-gtk4, libsecret, json-glib. Build with -Dgnome=false for a headless (nmcli-only) install.

On Arch, use the provided PKGBUILD (makepkg -si).

Meson options

Option	Default	Description
gnome	true	Build the GTK editors and the auth dialog
gtk4	true	Build the GTK4 editor (GNOME Settings needs it)

Cache maintenance

Profiles (including the device private key) live in /var/lib/nm-airvpn/<connection-uuid>/. Deleting a connection does not remove its cache; clean up manually with sudo rm -rf /var/lib/nm-airvpn/<uuid> if needed.

License

GPL-2.0-or-later. Portions derived from NetworkManager-openvpn and NetworkManager-fortisslvpn (Red Hat, Inc. and contributors).