Fix: nordvpn doesn't connect on Linux, KDE, etc

README.md

Sometimes NordVPN doesn't work out of the box to connect to its services on Linux, especially on distros that use KDE. Or when some terminals like Terminator are the default. For some reason.

I debugged the issue and created a custom handler to get the job done. As well as a log writer.

You must have curl installed.

To run this script, go:

bash <(curl -s https://gist.githubusercontent.com/andersonpem/f58349b7f9bb4eca446f84298e92d8de/raw/41fb5f78b47dd4535a214e486e3be4c0b9cffe1d/runme.sh)

Then try to connect to nordvpn again by going nordpn login, going to the browser and clicking on the link.

runme.sh

#!/bin/env bash

mkdir -p $HOME/.local/bin

cat << EOF > $HOME/.local/bin/nordvpn.sh
#!/bin/env bash

# Attempt to execute the nordvpn command with the URL
if ! OUTPUT=\$(nordvpn click "\$1" 2>&1); then
    echo "\$(date): Error executing nordvpn click. Error message: \$OUTPUT" >> $HOME/.local/bin/nordvpn_failures.log
fi
EOF

chmod +x $HOME/.local/bin/nordvpn.sh

# Define the desktop entry with conditional logic for keeping the terminal open
DESKTOP_ENTRY="[Desktop Entry]
Name=NordLayer Login Handler
Exec=bash $HOME/.local/bin/nordvpn.sh '%u'
Type=Application
Terminal=false
MimeType=x-scheme-handler/nordvpn;"

# Create the .desktop file
DESKTOP_FILE="$HOME/.local/share/applications/nordvpn-url-handler.desktop"
echo "$DESKTOP_ENTRY" > "$DESKTOP_FILE"

# Update MIME associations
MIMEAPPS_LIST="$HOME/.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list"
if [ ! -f "$MIMEAPPS_LIST" ]; then
    echo "[Added Associations]" > "$MIMEAPPS_LIST"
    echo "[Default Applications]" >> "$MIMEAPPS_LIST"
fi
sed -i "/x-scheme-handler\/nordvpn=/d" "$MIMEAPPS_LIST" # Remove existing associations
echo "x-scheme-handler/nordvpn=nordvpn-url-handler.desktop;" >> "$MIMEAPPS_LIST"

# Update the system's MIME database
update-desktop-database ~/.local/share/applications

echo "Setup complete. Custom URL handler for 'nordvpn://' has been configured."