Installing AirVPN Client on Ubuntu 16.04 (and 14.04)

If you’ve recently upgraded to Ubuntu 16.04 LTS you may have noticed some of the AirVPN dependencies have changed. Whichever LTS version of Ubuntu you’re using you’ll need to install a few dependencies before installing the .deb package, namely some mono packages and openvpn.

The problem right now with installing on Ubuntu 16.04 is a few of the mono dependency packages have been replaced, but the AirVPN .deb download doesn’t recognize them yet.

Here’s a quick rundown of the installation steps for both Ubuntu LTS releases.

For Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

Bear in mind this is just a temporary and kind of hacky workaround until AirVPN adjusts the dependency requirements in their .deb package. Proceed at your own risk.

1. Download the .deb file from your AirVPN account.
2. Install the newer mono dependency package replacements.

sudo apt install gksu mono-runtime mono-utils mono-reference-assemblies-2.0 openvpn stunnel4 mono-devel

3. Install the Air .deb package you downloaded, BUT you’ll need to tell it to ignore a couple of the older dependency packages that aren’t present in 16.04:

sudo dpkg -i --ignore-depends=libmono-system-runtime2.0-cil --ignore-depends=libmono-winforms2.0-cil --ignore-depends=libmono-corlib2.0-cil airvpn_linux_x64_debian.deb

4. Now you’ll have a problem with dependency errors every time you try to update your system. To get around this, CAREFULLY edit the file /var/lib/dpkg/status. Look for the Airvpn package in that file and remove the above 3 packages from the Depends: line. It should end up looking like this.

For Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

Here things are much more straightforward.

1. Download the .deb file from your AirVPN account
2. Install dependencies.

sudo apt install gksu mono-runtime mono-utils libmono-system-runtime2.0-cil libmono-winforms2.0-cil libmono-corlib2.0-cil openvpn stunnel4

3. Install the air .deb package you downloaded.

sudo dpkg -i airvpn_linux_x64_debian.deb

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