Choosing the Right VPN for Clonezilla Live

Running Clonezilla Live in a data centre or over public networks in London means you’ll want to tunnel your traffic securely when you ’phone home to a remote repository or fetch updates. Unlike a full desktop distro, Clonezilla Live:

• Is Debian-based, using apt under the hood (Live-boot with squashfs).
• Targets sysadmins and imaging professionals – no fancy DE, just a minimal Xfce or pure CLI.
• Is usually run off USB or PXE, so installs must be lightweight, stateless or loaded into RAM (toram).

Given these constraints, you need a VPN provider offering:

• Command-line tools or standalone .deb packages that install cleanly via apt.
• Support for OpenVPN or WireGuard (no GTK front-ends required).
• Minimal dependencies so you can carry out imaging jobs without polluting the live environment.

Providers that fit the bill include ProtonVPN, Mullvad and NordVPN. Below is a quick feature comparison.

VPN Comparison Table

How to Install Configure

Before proceeding you’ll need to remount the filesystem read-write or use the toram boot flag:

mount -o remount,rw /
  

Then update APT:

apt update
  

1. ProtonVPN

ProtonVPN’s CLI is a Python script distributed via their APT repository.

# Add ProtonVPN repo and key
apt install -y wget gnupg
wget -q -O protonvpn_public_key.asc https://repo.protonvpn.com/debian/public_key.asc
apt-key add protonvpn_public_key.asc
echo deb https://repo.protonvpn.com/debian stable main > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/protonvpn.list
apt update

# Install the CLI tool
apt install -y protonvpn-cli

# Initialize and login (interactive)
protonvpn init
protonvpn login your-protonvpn-username
  

To connect via WireGuard:

protonvpn c --protocol wireguard
  

2. Mullvad

Mullvad publishes a standalone Debian package for its Rust-based CLI.

# Download and install
wget https://mullvad.net/download/app/deb/latest -O mullvad.deb
apt install -y ./mullvad.deb

# Log in with your account number
mullvad account login YOUR_ACCOUNT_NUMBER

# Start a WireGuard session
mullvad relay set wireguard
mullvad connect
  

3. NordVPN

NordVPN’s official Linux client supports both OpenVPN and WireGuard (NordLynx).

# Add repo and key
wget -qO - https://repo.nordvpn.com/gpg/nordvpn_public.asc  apt-key add -
echo deb https://repo.nordvpn.com/debian/nordvpn/debian stable main > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nordvpn.list
apt update

# Install and login
apt install -y nordvpn
nordvpn login

# Enable and connect
nordvpn set technology nordlynx
nordvpn connect
  

Once connected, your Clonezilla Live imaging session will be encapsulated over a secure tunnel, protecting credentials and traffic as you carry out snapshots, restores or multicast deployments.

Remember that a live environment resets on reboot, so if you need persistence, boot with toram or build a custom ISO with your chosen client pre-installed.