Netbird won't start a connection

fereidon

Hi all,
I am trying out Netbird to connect away from home to my home setup, but after installing the app (from Aurora if that matters) it won't connect. I just get a message "VPN permission required". I don't know how to grant that permission, it won't ask for it. I have Proton VPN installed, obviously disconnected when trying to set up Netbird.
I have searched online, but couldn't find anyone with the same problem.
Do you have any ideas?

Novalissoide

fereidon Just tested install with no trouble.
Go
Settings > Network & internet > Vpn
Did you disengage Proton VPN here?

And in the Netbird app, did you tap the big button?
Is Sandboxed Google Play Services running?

fereidon

Too late to edit the previous post, but I have installed the APK from their Github (as they refer to it via their docs) but that did not resolve the problem.

fereidon

Alright, after uninstalling Proton VPN I was able to get a pop-up asking for approval of the VPN connection by Netbird. Is that normal behaviour? Shouldn't I be able to have multiple VPNs installed, although just running one at a time?

After installing Proton VPN (which gives the pop-up even though another VPN is already installed) I am able to have both VPNs installed. I can disconnect the one and connect with the other, and vice versa.

TL;DR: FIXED by uninstalling Proton VPN, connecting Netbird, then re-installing Proton VPN.

Novalissoide

fereidon uninstalling Proton VPN

Would likely be enough to disable the other.

fereidon

Novalissoide Thanks for testing! I did not click the Forget VPN button, perhaps I should have done that first instead of uninstalling directly. But I did disconnect the VPN.

I tapped the big button in Netbird, but it just gave the "VPN permission required" without asking for it.

I don't have sandboxed GPS running.

Nordlicht

You have to disable "Block Connection without VPN" under VPN in the Phone-Settings for the first login.

TrustExecutor

I have used Netbird and it works fine. But not alongside another VPN. You can only have one VPN connection per profile. If you want to use netbird While on Proton, you have to "forget VPN" for Proton in the VPN settings.

There is a way I have not tried, to use Netbird to access the mesh network while still tunneling WAN traffic through a commercial VPN provider. You have to import the Wireguard config file obtainable from the VPN provider as an exit node into the Netbird management interface. I do not know if this can be done through the app. At least in Tailscale I read this can be done in the Android app. There is a Github discussion on Netbird repository about selecting exit node from the app but I dont know if it was implemented. I do not know what the privacy implications of this is either, regarding DNS leaks and such.