ProtonVPN app + DE compatibilty

Questions
1

Hello,

The ProtonVPN website mentioned that the Linux app is designed for Gnome DE.

Currently, I use Xfce and I’ve been compelled to switch to Beta access feature of ProtonVPN app (otherwise, the app doesn’t load any server).

I’d like to reinstall the system with LXQt as DE (my PC has low resources) with the aim of taking advantage of Wayland (which is available under LXQt).

Yet, I wonder if the ProtonVPN app will work properly in this configuration ?
Would the Beta access be needed ?
Has anyone tested compatibility between ProtonVPN app and several DEs ?

Thanks,

2

It works on Xfce, Cinnamon and GNOME from personal experience.

It would probably be fine, but it could be a bit buggy, and Proton doesn’t want to help you with your issues if you don’t use an official config.

3

And what about KDE ?

4

Back when I was still using Proton, I still encountered issues despite using Gnome.

Since ProtonVPN is a GTK app, I imagine that using a QT based DE like LXQt or KDE would mostly causes thematic inconsistencies at most.

5

you can run GTK apps on QT and vice versa as long as the dependencies are installed :slight_smile:
I run ProtonVPN on KDE and it is Qt native but it works fine honestly, some annoyances do exist such as somehow when hovering an option, scrolling makes it change, whyy, can be avoided of course. but you can set and forget it luckily

6

So, it would be OK with LXQt…

7

A good place to check when you have questions like this is the Arch Linux package repo. It lists the dependencies for the package so you can see what it needs. For instance here’s a screenshot of the protonVPN app:

IMG_8819
IMG_8819750×855 144 KB

As you can see nothing in the dependencies list mentions GNOME. The closest thing to GNOME is GTK which is used for GUIs. GTK apps will work on QT desktops as long as you have it installed. It may not match the theming of everything else though.

2 Likes
8

As general rule, is it preferable to leave disabled the Beta access option of ProtonVPN app ?

(The benefits of this feature don’t seem to be very cleared)

9

I would say it depends
generally speaking if you want a stable kind of release, best to keep it off yes

10

Still the case lol. Mostly around re-connection not always working.

11

So, if all the packages listed on the screenshot are installed, will the app work properly with the Beta access disabled, whatever the DE ?

12

I usually just download their wireguard config and plug it into network manager’s gui on KDE, it has a wireguard config import option that makes it trivial and you don’t need to download anything.