Private Internet Access Tray Icon For elementary OS

Frustrated trying to get Private Internet Access (PIA) to work in elementary OS? Tried all the tricks and no dice. Then keep reading.

Also, the above link is indeed an affiliate link. Should you sign up at the affiliate link for PIA above, I get a small piece of that revenue.

Okay, disclosure done. Let’s do this. Start off by looking at this image here. Heck, open it in a new tab. you’ll likely want to make sure what you’re doing matches the contents of that image.

https://i.imgur.com/DebcQw2.jpg

Note the following:

1) Use AppEditor to make sure you’re running the right file. https://github.com/donadigo/appeditor

2) The targeted run.sh in

/home/$USER/.pia_manager/pia_manager/

has

XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=Unity

at the VERY top of the file. Also verify your export options in the file match mine. Save and close scratch.

3) Reboot your computer.

4) From a terminal, run /home/$USER/.pia_manager/pia_manager/run.sh You’ll see

pia_nw: no process found

and then…

ERROR:browsermain_loop.cc(267)] Gtk: IA_gtk_widget_add_accelerator: assertion 'GTK_IS_ACCEL_GROUP (accel_group)' failed

And then you should see the icon appear next to the other icons in the panel.

This works on Elementary OS running the 4.13.0-31-generic #34~16.04.1-Ubuntu SMP kernel and PIA app v74.

Matt Hartley

Freedom Penguin

Freedom Penguin’s founder & talking head – Matt has over a decade working with Linux desktops, his operating system experience consists of both Windows and Linux operating platforms. In addition to writing articles on Linux and open source technology for Datamation.com and OpenLogic.com/wazi, Matt also once served as a co-host for a popular Linux-centric podcast.

Matt has written about various software titles, such as Moodle, Joomla, WordPress, openCRX, Alfresco, Liferay and more. He also has additional Linux experience working with Debian based distributions, openSUSE, CentOS, and Arch Linux.