EDIT: it’s been pointed out to me that using NetworkManager for Wireguard setup is shit. Instead use nmcli, this seems to have solved my problem.
I’m using Bazzite Linux with KDE, and for me Wireguard setup is copy/pasting several bits of information on multiple settings pages. OpenVPN is just downloading a single config file and inputting my user/pass.
Also, Wireguard disconnects so often, no matter which distro I’m on, that it’s a pain in the butt having to reconnect a few times an hour. Not to mention that I can’t have it set to autoconnect on login, or my internet doesn’t work until I disconnect and reconnect.
However, it has been pointed out to me that my problem was using the GUI for NetworkManager to add the VPN, which apparently is shit for Wireguard. I added the VPN using nmcli instead and so far it’s working as intended.
Interesting, I also use KDE (on arch btw) and I definitely have had hours-long work sessions with ssh over a wireguard vpn to access my home PC from abroad, so I imagine the issue is probably not on the KDE side of the stack
I don’t think it’s Bazzite, as it didn’t work on NixOS or Nobara either. It’s got to be something with my ISP, because as I said in my previous comment, it hasn’t worked over multiple distros.
I remember maybe 12-15 years ago, setting OpenVPN on my TomatoUSB flashed router, invoking all kind of openssl command to generate certificates, keys, signing stuff, setting the router, setting the TAP/TUN clients etc. but once setup it works for years on my laptop, phone, etc.
Now with WG I basically scan on my phone a QR code generated on my Merlin router and that’s it.
I used to use ddwrt until I didn’t have a router (forced by cablemodem that I couldn’t modify)
But then I got fiber with a bridge and discovered OpenWRT and it was so incredible.
So much more capable and such a better more competent community.
Much more competent and ethical leadership that doesn’t violate the GPL.
How it works, just made more sense to me, there are so many feature I never want to lack in a router and frankly I wish I had in every linux distro.
One of my absolute favorite thing about it, is that anything you click in the web interface, is a command run in the underlying system.
Here I am setting a DHCP tag, which makes it so that all computers with a certain MAC address will receive a non-routing gateway, cutting them off from the internet. I use this to stop my TVs and VMs from connecting to the internet without having to deal with a bunch of static IP addresses and that whole firewall tedium.
Notice how it’s giving me the exact commands
And the WebUI shows you all the commands before they run it.
Not only that makes understanding how the system works underneath.
It makes it very easy to reproduce all the same configuration using bunch of commands you can paste from a text file !
Recently I wanted to turn older such routers into dumb wifi access points and they were all mostly the same, so I just flashed them and then ran a series of commands that I learned from the Web UI, with just some things tweaked for each device.
For me that feature alone makes the difference, but also the sketchiness of ddwrt with regards
I think ddwrt gets love because ANYTHING is better than the awful, unreliable stock and locked down web user interfaces on routers. But between ddwrt and openwrt, I think it is no-contest, openwrt is the best choice between those two.
Because OpenVPN is fiddly to set up and modern Wireguard setups seem to scale well enough.
EDIT: it’s been pointed out to me that using NetworkManager for Wireguard setup is shit. Instead use nmcli, this seems to have solved my problem.
I’m using Bazzite Linux with KDE, and for me Wireguard setup is copy/pasting several bits of information on multiple settings pages. OpenVPN is just downloading a single config file and inputting my user/pass.
Also, Wireguard disconnects so often, no matter which distro I’m on, that it’s a pain in the butt having to reconnect a few times an hour. Not to mention that I can’t have it set to autoconnect on login, or my internet doesn’t work until I disconnect and reconnect.
Wireguard is udp, it never “connects”, there’s no session.
Wireguard disconnects the WiFi.
However, it has been pointed out to me that my problem was using the GUI for NetworkManager to add the VPN, which apparently is shit for Wireguard. I added the VPN using nmcli instead and so far it’s working as intended.
Interesting, I also use KDE (on arch btw) and I definitely have had hours-long work sessions with ssh over a wireguard vpn to access my home PC from abroad, so I imagine the issue is probably not on the KDE side of the stack
These immutable distros always create a thousand little problems like that.
I don’t think it’s Bazzite, as it didn’t work on NixOS or Nobara either. It’s got to be something with my ISP, because as I said in my previous comment, it hasn’t worked over multiple distros.
I remember maybe 12-15 years ago, setting OpenVPN on my TomatoUSB flashed router, invoking all kind of openssl command to generate certificates, keys, signing stuff, setting the router, setting the TAP/TUN clients etc. but once setup it works for years on my laptop, phone, etc.
Now with WG I basically scan on my phone a QR code generated on my Merlin router and that’s it.
merlin has built-in wireguard support??
yes for a long time now
Try openwrt, ddwrt is cancer.
can’t with broadcom
I hear you, I also have broadcom ewaste, a Trident 2+ switch running open switch and I can never upgrade the debian 9 OS running kernel 4.9.
I had to create a QEMU VM, put proxmox on it and put openwrt into an LXC in that to make it work. Our technology landscape is completely ducked.
What? Why?
I used to use ddwrt until I didn’t have a router (forced by cablemodem that I couldn’t modify)
But then I got fiber with a bridge and discovered OpenWRT and it was so incredible.
So much more capable and such a better more competent community.
Much more competent and ethical leadership that doesn’t violate the GPL.
How it works, just made more sense to me, there are so many feature I never want to lack in a router and frankly I wish I had in every linux distro.
One of my absolute favorite thing about it, is that anything you click in the web interface, is a command run in the underlying system.
Here I am setting a DHCP tag, which makes it so that all computers with a certain MAC address will receive a non-routing gateway, cutting them off from the internet. I use this to stop my TVs and VMs from connecting to the internet without having to deal with a bunch of static IP addresses and that whole firewall tedium.
Notice how it’s giving me the exact commands
And the WebUI shows you all the commands before they run it. Not only that makes understanding how the system works underneath. It makes it very easy to reproduce all the same configuration using bunch of commands you can paste from a text file !
Recently I wanted to turn older such routers into dumb wifi access points and they were all mostly the same, so I just flashed them and then ran a series of commands that I learned from the Web UI, with just some things tweaked for each device.
For me that feature alone makes the difference, but also the sketchiness of ddwrt with regards
I think ddwrt gets love because ANYTHING is better than the awful, unreliable stock and locked down web user interfaces on routers. But between ddwrt and openwrt, I think it is no-contest, openwrt is the best choice between those two.
Here is a bunch of articles more about this
https://wi-fiplanet.com/the-dd-wrt-controversy/
https://hackaday.com/2011/09/21/modifying-dd-wrts-protected-gui/
https://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2009/12/06/anatomy-gpl-violation.html
https://www.linksysinfo.org/index.php?threads/fresh-tomato-vs-openwrt-vs-dd-wrt.76178/
https://old.reddit.com/r/openwrt/comments/ld05u6/whats_the_difference_openwrt_ddwrt_tomato_opensan/
https://old.reddit.com/r/HomeNetworking/comments/9hk0lm/is_ddwrt_no_longer_recommendedgeneral_opinions_on/
https://www.raspberrypibox.com/dd-wrt-vs-openwrt/
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8060911
https://old.reddit.com/r/HomeNetworking/comments/j5u3kf/why_is_ddwrt_such_a_pain/
https://old.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/3skn25/fcc_we_will_not_ban_ddwrt_on_wifi_routers/
Huh. Alright, that’s pretty convincing. Thanks.