Mullvad VPN enable/re-enable functionality - 0.01 BTC
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I asked this question a few days ago, but no one seems to know the answer. I am offering 0.01 Bitcoins to the person who can give me an answer that works.
The challenge: I am trying to disable, and then re-enable the OPT1 mullvad interface in the same manner in which the GUI "Interfaces" menu accomplishes it, but doing so in a way I can easily run from a shell script. Doing it manually through the GUI Interfaces menu via "Enable interface" in the Interfaces menu is the only way I have been able to get the Mullvad VPN working with pfSense.
I tried running:
- /etc/rc.linkup stop/start
- ifconfig mullvad down/up
on the mullvad interface, but those commands by themselves don't connect me to the internet. This means that the GUI Interfaces menu is doing something else beyond what those two commands do, but I can't find anyone on the internet who seems to know how to replicate the "Enable Interface" functionality in a shell scripted manner.
I will pay 0.01 bitcoins to whoever will teach me the shell commands necessary to replicate the on/off of the "Enable Interface" GUI functionality.
Alternatively, if there is a different solution that someone knows that will get the Mullvad VPN started automatically every time the router boots, without needing additional manual GUI menu intervention, I will reward the 0.01 bitcoin to that person.
Thank you in advance for your help.
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I have a CE host with Mullvad WG tunnels that come up normally at boot (save for a few expected 'interface out' errors, presumably before the system is fully initialized). Need more info about your config, and preferably some screencaps of what you're looking at, to effectively troubleshoot.
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I followed this guide to setting up the Mullvad VPN via Wireguard using pfSense to the letter with pfSense 2.8.1.
As noted, the Mullvad VPN tunnel works fine, but in order for it to work, I need to manually intervene each time the router is booted by disabling the OPT1 interface, and then re-enabling the OPT1 interface. The purpose of the bounty is to remove this inconvenience.
The attached photos show how I address this problem manually using the pfSense GUI. I'm hoping that someone on here might understand how to perform the same step, but in a programmable manner, so that I can run a startup shell script each time the router boots, saving me the hassle of needing to manually login to the router with my browser every time it boots up.
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Neither your bounty nor your manual intervention is necessary to make this work.
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@tinfoilmatt I need to perform the manual intervention (described above) every time I boot up the router, otherwise I am not connected to the Mullvad tunnel. Without the manual intervention, pfSense does not connect me to the internet through the Mullvad tunnel.
A program would perform automatically what I now have to do manually, and would solve my problem, but I'm not familiar enough with pfSense to write that program. Hence I am asking for the help of someone who is familiar with pfSense. The bounty reward is offered as an incentive.
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Without the manual intervention, pfSense does not connect me to the internet through the Mullvad tunnel.
Then you have a misconfiguration.
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@tinfoilmatt I think it's important to note that I'm not changing any configuration settings. I am simply disabling and re-enabling the OPT1 interface. Once I do this manually, the connection works flawlessly. It is akin to powering off and powering on a computer without changing any of the settings or files, but now the computer boots up flawlessly.
As noted, I followed the Mullvad guide to the letter, double and triple checking each setting. Furthermore, the fact that the Mullvad connection works great (after I perform the manual reset), indicates that the configuration is not broken.
My uninformed guess is that it is some sort of race condition within pfSense/Wireguard/Mullvad, that occurs when my router is booted. By performing a manual reset of the OPT1 interface, I effectively bypass this race condition.
Determing the cause of the race condition seems too challenging and is probably not worth the effort. But I think there's a good chance there's a knowledable person on here who knows how to find the answer to my question, because all I'm trying to do is replicate a pre-existing function. I may end up looking into the pfSense source code myself for the answer if nobody else figures it out, but for now, I'm content to see if there's a knowledgable person out there who is interested in winning the bounty and saving me a lot of extra work.
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What kind of hardware?
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@tinfoilmatt For security purposes, I have selected to not provide any unique hardware, software, or network specifications.
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Your network can't be that secure if you're spitting out all kinds of signals to ISP before manually bringing up your tunnel.
.01 BTC up front and another .01 BTC after, and I'll fix up your 'to the letter' work!
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Thank you for your consideration. This bounty is closed.
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