gNordVPN puts NordVPN controls directly in the GNOME top bar. It uses the NordVPN CLI under the hood to show live connection state, surface quick actions, and expose the most useful NordVPN settings without leaving the desktop shell.
- A NordVPN account
- The NordVPN Linux CLI installed and working
- GNOME Shell 42 or newer
- 🖥️ Top-bar control: Connect, disconnect, and inspect NordVPN status from the GNOME panel.
- 📡 Live status display: See connection state, country, and server details at a glance.
- 🌍 Fast server selection: Browse and connect by country, city, or server.
- ⭐ Favorites: Pin commonly used countries, cities, and servers for quicker access.
- ⚙️ Connection preferences: Configure options such as auto-connect, protocol, and technology from the extension settings.
- 🧭 Panel customization: Move the indicator to the left, center, or right side of the top bar.
- 🎨 Style overrides: Complete customization of appearance using CSS for the different VPN states. Control colors, what's displayed, etc.
This extension uses the NordVPN command line client, which can be set up as follows.
- Install NordVPN with
sudo apt install nordvpn. - Configure your credentials with
nordvpn login, following the prompts. - Check NordVPN is set up with
nordvpn c, if it connects successfully then you're good to go.
Enable on gnome-extensions at gNordVPN Local on gnome extensions
- Create a folder for the extension with
mkdir ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/gnordvpn-local@isopolito - Copy the files from this repo into that folder
- Enable the extension using
Tweaks(if you don't have it, install viasudo apt install gnome-tweaks)
If the extension shows an error state, make sure NordVPN CLI is functioning (nordvpn status). The extension relies on NordVPN CLI being operational. If any behavior suddenly changes, check nordvpn CLI to see if anything has changed there, sometimes they make breaking changes that need to be handled by the extension. Other times they have transient errors on their end that eventually clear up.
When this extension is used in conjunction with Dash to Panel, the gNordVpn panel icon is unusually large. This can be fixed by manually changing the css styling in the settings, here:
As an example, one user who has Dash to Panel and gNordVpn used this css at the bottom in the Common CSS input: font-weight: bold; border-radius: 20px; padding: 12px 11px 0; margin: 6px 0px 5px 05px;
Please raise an issue with the following data points:
- Version of gnome:
gnome-shell --version - Version of nordvpn:
nordvpn --version - Version the gNordVpn extension
- Screenshots of the problem if applicable
- Steps to reproduce the issue
Contributions welcome! If you find any issues or think of any cool features, check to see if it's already documented under Issues, if not--raise it.
Thanks TheRobVK for creating the original version of this extension. Also thanks to all who have contributed, it's much appreciated!
This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.