PiVPN is a popular VPN solution that lets you establish a secure connection between your devices and your home network. In this tutorial, we'll show you how to install PiVPN on OpenBSD.
OpenBSD uses the pkg_add command to install packages. To get started, update your package lists by running the following command:
# pkg_add -u
Next, you'll need to install the wget and git packages. Run the following command to do so:
# pkg_add wget git
PiVPN can be installed on OpenBSD using the curl command. Run the following command to download and install PiVPN:
# curl -L https://install.pivpn.io | bash
Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation. You'll be prompted to choose the installation method, authentication method, and other settings.
Note that PiVPN requires OpenVPN to work, which is not installed by default on OpenBSD. PiVPN will install OpenVPN for you during the installation process.
Once PiVPN is installed, you can configure it by running the pivpn command. Run the following command to start the configuration:
# pivpn
Follow the on-screen instructions to configure PiVPN. You'll need to choose a name for your profile, select which user will have access to the VPN, and choose the type of encryption and DNS to use.
You'll also need to enter your public IP address, which you can find by running the following command:
# ifconfig
Look for the line that starts with inet and find your main interface (usually em0 or en0). Your public IP address will be listed next to inet.
Follow the remaining prompts to generate the profile and client configuration files.
Once PiVPN is configured, you're ready to start the VPN server. Run the following command to start OpenVPN:
# systemctl start openvpn@server
You can check the status of the OpenVPN service using the following command:
# systemctl status openvpn@server
You're now ready to connect to your VPN. You'll need to transfer the client configuration file to your device and import it into your VPN client software.
To transfer the client configuration file, you can use the scp command. Replace <username> and <server> with your username and server IP address, respectively:
$ scp <username>@<server>:/etc/pivpn/<profile-name>.ovpn .
Replace <profile-name> with the name of the profile you created during the configuration process.
Once you've transferred the file to your device, you can import it into your VPN client software. Follow the instructions for your specific client to do so.
In this tutorial, you learned how to install PiVPN on OpenBSD and configure it to create a VPN server. With PiVPN, you can securely connect to your home network from anywhere in the world.
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