So, wireguard is being used quite a lot these days and everyone is trying ways to get a wireguard UI to manage the connections. My previous blog post about managing wireguard via network manager doesn’t seem to work for Ubuntu 22.04 and up. There is an open bug report for that here . The only workaround right now is to downgrade the network manager version.
However, if you’re like me, you wouldn’t want to downgrade. So i’ve found another nifty way to manage Wiregurad and if you’re using Gnome, you’re in luck. There is an extension called WireGuard-VPN-extension, which you can use to enable/disable VPN connections if you are using Ubuntu 22.04 and you’re using Gnome 43, i.e. Ubuntu 22.10, you’ll be able to control via the Gnome’s Network Manager shortcuts.
Installation
Wireguard installation is pretty simple. From the terminal issue the command
sudo apt install wiregaurd
To install the Gnome extenstion, go here and install.
Configuration
So, at the time of writing, wireguard configurations cannot be imported via GUI. The funcationality isn’t there yet. However, adding a wireguard conf file to the network manager is very simple. Just a one liner.
sudo nmcli connection import type wireguard file PATH_TO_CONF_FILE
As you can see in the screenhot above, the wireguard config file name is wireguard_us.conf which you replace with your own configuration file for wireguard. Installing the configuration file automatically connects the VPN. You can use the Gnome extenstion to turn it off. The extension changes colour to dark red when wireguard VPN is active.
Once you install, you can control the VPN via one click buttons on the top bar. As you can see in the screenshot on the left, there is a quick toogle button in the Ubuntu 22.10/ Gnome43 panel. The dropdown arrow will give you access all the wireguard connections available to you. Also it is important to note, the wireguard configuration should not contain any dashes (-). The config name can only have underscores (_)
Gnome Shell Extenstion
Wireguard Gnome extension settings allows you to see the wireguard configuration and also easily delete the configuration
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