Choosing the Right VPN for Pentoo

Pentoo is a specialist Gentoo-based live and installable distribution tailored to security professionals and penetration testers. It uses the Portage package manager, OpenRC init system, and ships with a custom kernel (patched for wireless injection and hardware hacking). Typical desktop environments include XFCE, KDE Plasma or Openbox, and users are comfortable at the command line, compiling from source and tweaking ebuilds. When selecting a VPN for Pentoo, you want:

• Native or easily installable support in Portage or via a simple overlay
• CLI tools that integrate with your workflow and OpenRC startup scripts
• Protocols like WireGuard and OpenVPN that you can compile or load as kernel modules

Below is a comparison of the top VPN providers optimised for Pentoo’s environment.

Comparison Table

Installing and Configuring the Best VPNs

1. NordVPN (manual OpenVPN configs on Pentoo)

NordVPN’s large server network and downloadable OpenVPN profiles make it a solid fit for a Gentoo/Pentoo workflow centred en CLI y OpenRC.

1. Install OpenVPN and helper tools

   sudo emerge --sync
   sudo emerge --ask net-vpn/openvpn net-misc/wget app-arch/unzip

2. Download your NordVPN OpenVPN configs and place them on Pentoo
   Abre tu cuenta de NordVPN en otro equipo o navegador, ve a la sección de “Manual configuration > OpenVPN” y descarga el ZIP de configuraciones. Cópialo a tu máquina Pentoo y descomprímelo:

   unzip NordVPN-OpenVPN-configs.zip -d ~/nordvpn-config

   Elige un archivo de servidor, por ejemplo us123.nordvpn.com.udp.ovpn, y muévelo a /etc/openvpn:

   sudo mkdir -p /etc/openvpn
   sudo cp ~/nordvpn-config/us123.nordvpn.com.udp.ovpn /etc/openvpn/nordvpn.conf

   Si quieres autenticación no interactiva, crea un archivo de credenciales:

   sudo sh -c 'echo "NORD_USER" > /etc/openvpn/nordvpn.auth'
   sudo sh -c 'echo "NORD_PASS" >> /etc/openvpn/nordvpn.auth'
   sudo chmod 600 /etc/openvpn/nordvpn.auth

   Y asegúrate de que en nordvpn.conf tengas una línea:

   auth-user-pass /etc/openvpn/nordvpn.auth

3. Create a simple OpenRC init script

   cat << 'EOF' | sudo tee /etc/init.d/nordvpn
   #!/sbin/openrc-run
   description="NordVPN OpenVPN client"
   command=/usr/sbin/openvpn
   command_args="--config /etc/openvpn/nordvpn.conf"
   command_background=yes
   pidfile=/run/nordvpn.pid
   EOF
   
   sudo chmod  x /etc/init.d/nordvpn

4. Add to OpenRC and start

   sudo rc-update add nordvpn default
   sudo rc-service nordvpn start

   Comprueba el túnel con:

   ip a show tun0
   curl https://ifconfig.io

2. Mullvad (official Linux app)

Mullvad’s standalone binary bundles everything, and uses WireGuard out of the box.

1. Download and extract the latest Linux release

   wget https://github.com/mullvad/mullvad-vpn-app/releases/download/v2024.1/linux.tar.gz
   tar xzf linux.tar.gz
   cd linux
   

2. Install the app and its systemd service (works on OpenRC too)

   sudo ./install
   

   Then adapt to OpenRC:

   # Create a simple init script
   cat << EOF  sudo tee /etc/init.d/mullvad
   #!/sbin/openrc-run
   command=/usr/bin/mullvad
   command_args=connect
   EOF
   sudo chmod  x /etc/init.d/mullvad
   sudo rc-update add mullvad default
   

3. Use the Mullvad CLI

   # Log in with your account number
   mullvad account login 
   
   # Check status and connect
   
   mullvad status
   mullvad connect 

3. ProtonVPN (Python CLI)

The ProtonVPN CLI is a lightweight Python utility you can pull in via pip.

1. Install prerequisites

   sudo emerge --ask dev-lang/python net-misc/wget
   

2. Install the ProtonVPN CLI

   python3 -m pip install --user protonvpn-cli
   

3. Initialize and connect

   # Initialize and enter your ProtonVPN credentials
   protonvpn-cli init
   
   # List and connect
   
   protonvpn-cli list
   protonvpn-cli c --fastest 

Each of these VPNs integrates smoothly with Pentoo’s tools, letting you tunnel your traffic through secure servers while you conduct wireless audits, vulnerability scans or hardware exploits. Pick the one that matches your workflow—NordVPN for a huge server network and simple OpenVPN profiles, Mullvad for a rock-solid WireGuard setup, or ProtonVPN for a Python-powered CLI.