[Arch Linux] PIA Privacy - VPN Kill Switch may stop working if iproute2 was updated

[Hi-Phile]

Recently, I encountered a problem where there was no Internet connectivity, although the application tray showed a connection to PIA and everything seemed fine until attempting to use Internet connectivity.

I found out this problem soon after an update on my Arch Linux system, but it was not immediately apparent until I tested by toggling off (unchecking) the PIA VPN Kill Switch under the Settings -> Privacy. But even after the VPN Kill Switch was turned off, and Internet connectivity was restored, and the PIA application showed a valid connection to the various VPN Servers, but I felt this wasn't right and I confirmed this to be the case by going to https://whatismyipaddress.com and actually saw that my public IP address was being used and not the PIA server assigned address as shown in the Application tray.

I was able to correct this issue by removing PIA and then re-installing it, that's where it was apparent and the main reason why VPN Kill Switch was no longer working.

$ ./pia-linux-3.3-06906.run 
Verifying archive integrity...  100%   MD5 checksums are OK. All good.
Uncompressing Private Internet Access  100%  

=================================
Private Internet Access Installer
=================================

Installing PIA for x86_64, system is x86_64
Detected a previous systemd install - assuming systemd
✔ Copied Private Internet Access files
✔ Allow non-root /opt/piavpn/bin/pia-unbound to bind to privileged ports
✔ Created var folder
✔ Installed icon
✔ Created desktop entry
awk: fatal: cannot open file `/etc/iproute2/rt_tables' for reading: No such file or directory
awk: fatal: cannot open file `/etc/iproute2/rt_tables' for reading: No such file or directory
awk: fatal: cannot open file `/etc/iproute2/rt_tables' for reading: No such file or directory
awk: fatal: cannot open file `/etc/iproute2/rt_tables' for reading: No such file or directory
✔ Created piavpn service
✔ Started piavpn service

Then seeing this message, I knew that the install script was trying to verify 4 entries in the rt_tables file that it could not find. I listed the files under /etc/iproute2 and found an rt_tables.pacsave so I checked the contents:

$ cat /etc/iproute2/rt_tables.pacsave 
#
# reserved values
#
255	local
254	main
253	default
0	unspec
#
# local
#
#1	inr.ruhep
256	piavpnrt
257	piavpnOnlyrt
258	piavpnWgrt
259	piavpnFwdrt

I corrected the problem by:
sudo mv /etc/iproute2/rt_tables.pacsave /etc/iproute2/rt_tables

I then discovered that during a recent Arch update that iproute2 was recently updated and why the rt_tables was renamed:

$ sudo cat /var/log/pacman.log | grep -i iproute2 
[2023-08-10T18:40:45-0700] [ALPM] installed iproute2 (6.4.0-1)
[2023-09-09T23:40:17-0700] [ALPM] warning: /etc/iproute2/rt_tables saved as /etc/iproute2/rt_tables.pacsave
[2023-09-09T23:40:17-0700] [ALPM] upgraded iproute2 (6.4.0-1 -> 6.5.0-1)

[kp-john-mair]

Very interesting. This looks like a bug in the Arch update process. The rt_tables file should always exist iirc.

[kp-john-mair]

Hi,this is now fixed on prod - go https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/download/linux-vpn to download! :) LMK how you get on and then we can close this off

[nuche]

I think still broke: #60 (comment)

[nuche]

I think this is still a problem? I see these:

cp: cannot stat '/usr/lib/iproute2/rt_tables': No such file or directory
awk: fatal: cannot open file `/etc/iproute2/rt_tables' for reading: No such file or directory
grep: /etc/iproute2/rt_tables: No such file or directory

In the installation output of piavpn-bin:

$ yay piavpn
2 aur/piavpn-manual-git r26.82ebed7-3 (+0 0.00) (Orphaned)
    Shell scripts to connect manually to PIA VPN
1 aur/piavpn-bin 1:3.5.7-1 (+22 0.15)
    Private Internet Access client
==> Packages to install (eg: 1 2 3, 1-3 or ^4)
==> 1
AUR Explicit (1): piavpn-bin-1:3.5.7-1
Sync Dependency (2): libxkbcommon-x11-1.7.0-1, zip-3.0-11
:: (1/1) Downloaded PKGBUILD: piavpn-bin
  1 piavpn-bin                               (Build Files Exist)
==> Packages to cleanBuild?
==> [N]one [A]ll [Ab]ort [I]nstalled [No]tInstalled or (1 2 3, 1-3, ^4)
==> a
:: Deleting (1/1): /home/username/.cache/yay/piavpn-bin
HEAD is now at 1d9ad6b Update to 3.5.7
  1 piavpn-bin                               (Build Files Exist)
==> Diffs to show?
==> [N]one [A]ll [Ab]ort [I]nstalled [No]tInstalled or (1 2 3, 1-3, ^4)
==> n
==> Making package: piavpn-bin 1:3.5.7-1 (Thu 28 Mar 2024 06:50:48 AM EDT)
==> Retrieving sources...
  -> Downloading pia-linux-3.5.7-08120.run...
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100 71.0M  100 71.0M    0     0  16.5M      0  0:00:04  0:00:04 --:--:-- 17.0M
==> WARNING: Skipping verification of source file PGP signatures.
==> Validating source_x86_64 files with sha256sums...
    pia-linux-3.5.7-08120.run ... Passed
:: (1/1) Parsing SRCINFO: piavpn-bin
resolving dependencies...
looking for conflicting packages...

Packages (9) libxau-1.0.11-2  libxcb-1.16.1-1  libxdmcp-1.1.5-1  libxkbcommon-1.7.0-1  xcb-proto-1.16.0-1  xkeyboard-config-2.41-1  xorgproto-2024.1-1  libxkbcommon-x11-1.7.0-1  zip-3.0-11

Total Download Size:    2.66 MiB
Total Installed Size:  14.45 MiB

:: Proceed with installation? [Y/n] y
:: Retrieving packages...
 libxcb-1.16.1-1-x86_64                                                                                     1024.5 KiB  1839 KiB/s 00:01 [###################################################################################] 100%
 xkeyboard-config-2.41-1-any                                                                                 885.1 KiB  9.29 MiB/s 00:00 [###################################################################################] 100%
 xorgproto-2024.1-1-any                                                                                      241.2 KiB  3.37 MiB/s 00:00 [###################################################################################] 100%
 libxkbcommon-1.7.0-1-x86_64                                                                                 211.6 KiB  3.08 MiB/s 00:00 [###################################################################################] 100%
 zip-3.0-11-x86_64                                                                                           169.9 KiB  2.48 MiB/s 00:00 [###################################################################################] 100%
 xcb-proto-1.16.0-1-any                                                                                      131.0 KiB  1985 KiB/s 00:00 [###################################################################################] 100%
 libxdmcp-1.1.5-1-x86_64                                                                                      27.1 KiB   430 KiB/s 00:00 [###################################################################################] 100%
 libxkbcommon-x11-1.7.0-1-x86_64                                                                              23.1 KiB   385 KiB/s 00:00 [###################################################################################] 100%
 libxau-1.0.11-2-x86_64                                                                                       10.9 KiB   174 KiB/s 00:00 [###################################################################################] 100%
 Total (9/9)                                                                                                   2.7 MiB  1634 KiB/s 00:02 [###################################################################################] 100%
(9/9) checking keys in keyring                                                                                                           [###################################################################################] 100%
(9/9) checking package integrity                                                                                                         [###################################################################################] 100%
(9/9) loading package files                                                                                                              [###################################################################################] 100%
(9/9) checking for file conflicts                                                                                                        [###################################################################################] 100%
(9/9) checking available disk space                                                                                                      [###################################################################################] 100%
:: Processing package changes...
(1/9) installing zip                                                                                                                     [###################################################################################] 100%
(2/9) installing xcb-proto                                                                                                               [###################################################################################] 100%
(3/9) installing xorgproto                                                                                                               [###################################################################################] 100%
(4/9) installing libxdmcp                                                                                                                [###################################################################################] 100%
(5/9) installing libxau                                                                                                                  [###################################################################################] 100%
(6/9) installing libxcb                                                                                                                  [###################################################################################] 100%
(7/9) installing xkeyboard-config                                                                                                        [###################################################################################] 100%
(8/9) installing libxkbcommon                                                                                                            [###################################################################################] 100%
Optional dependencies for libxkbcommon
    libxkbcommon-x11: xkbcli interactive-x11 [pending]
    wayland: xkbcli interactive-wayland
(9/9) installing libxkbcommon-x11                                                                                                        [###################################################################################] 100%
:: Running post-transaction hooks...
(1/1) Arming ConditionNeedsUpdate...
==> Making package: piavpn-bin 1:3.5.7-1 (Thu 28 Mar 2024 06:51:05 AM EDT)
==> Checking runtime dependencies...
==> Checking buildtime dependencies...
==> Retrieving sources...
  -> Found pia-linux-3.5.7-08120.run
==> Validating source_x86_64 files with sha256sums...
    pia-linux-3.5.7-08120.run ... Passed
==> Removing existing $srcdir/ directory...
==> Extracting sources...
==> Starting prepare()...
Creating directory /home/username/.cache/yay/piavpn-bin/src/piavpn-bin-3.5.7-08120
Verifying archive integrity...  100%   MD5 checksums are OK. All good.
Uncompressing Private Internet Access  100%
==> Sources are ready.
==> Making package: piavpn-bin 1:3.5.7-1 (Thu 28 Mar 2024 06:51:11 AM EDT)
==> Checking runtime dependencies...
==> Checking buildtime dependencies...
==> WARNING: Using existing $srcdir/ tree
==> Starting check()...
3.5.7
==> Entering fakeroot environment...
==> Starting package()...
==> Tidying install...
  -> Removing libtool files...
  -> Purging unwanted files...
  -> Removing static library files...
  -> Copying source files needed for debug symbols...
  -> Compressing man and info pages...
==> Checking for packaging issues...
==> Creating package "piavpn-bin"...
  -> Generating .PKGINFO file...
  -> Generating .BUILDINFO file...
  -> Adding install file...
  -> Generating .MTREE file...
  -> Compressing package...
==> Leaving fakeroot environment.
==> Finished making: piavpn-bin 1:3.5.7-1 (Thu 28 Mar 2024 06:52:16 AM EDT)
==> Cleaning up...
loading packages...
resolving dependencies...
looking for conflicting packages...

Packages (1) piavpn-bin-1:3.5.7-1

Total Installed Size:  222.85 MiB

:: Proceed with installation? [Y/n] y
(1/1) checking keys in keyring                                                                                                           [###################################################################################] 100%
(1/1) checking package integrity                                                                                                         [###################################################################################] 100%
(1/1) loading package files                                                                                                              [###################################################################################] 100%
(1/1) checking for file conflicts                                                                                                        [###################################################################################] 100%
(1/1) checking available disk space                                                                                                      [###################################################################################] 100%
:: Processing package changes...
cp: cannot stat '/usr/lib/iproute2/rt_tables': No such file or directory
awk: fatal: cannot open file `/etc/iproute2/rt_tables' for reading: No such file or directory
grep: /etc/iproute2/rt_tables: No such file or directory
(1/1) installing piavpn-bin                                                                                                              [###################################################################################] 100%
You need to start the daemon with 'sudo systemctl start piavpn.service'
Also run 'sudo systemctl enable piavpn.service' to make it automatically start at boot
Optional dependencies for piavpn-bin
    WIREGUARD-MODULE: to use the wireguard kernel module instead [installed]
:: Running post-transaction hooks...
(1/2) Reloading system manager configuration...
(2/2) Arming ConditionNeedsUpdate...
[sudo] password for username: