LibreELEC can be configured as a WireGuard VPN client allowing you to accessing media in a remote location or tunnel traffic to avoid local inspection of network activity. This guide assumes configuration of a single WireGuard tunnel that is persistent, i.e. activated on device boot so that Kodi network traffic is routed through the WireGuard VPN tunnel.
WireGuard tunnels are managed by a ConnMan VPN plugin (connman-vpn.service) that acts as a companion to the network connection manager daemon (connman.service). The VPN plugin watches /storage/.config/wireguard/*.config
and definea ConnMan services from auto-discovered configuration files. Once a valid WireGuard .config has been imported it can be connected manually using connmanctl
from the SSH console or scripted from a systemd service that runs on boot. Connections can also be managed using the network 'Connections' tab in the LibreELEC settings add-on which controls ConnMan via d-bus.
ConnMan uses its own configuration file format (see below) so you cannot import/use the files exported from WireGuard server tools and third-party VPN services - the format is different. Those files will contain everything you need, but you must manually transpose the information into the ConnMan format:
[provider_wireguard]Type = WireGuardName = WireGuard (Home)Host = 185.210.30.121WireGuard.Address = 10.2.0.2/24WireGuard.ListenPort = 51820WireGuard.PrivateKey = qKIj010hDdWSjQQyVCnEgthLXusBgm3I6HWrJUaJymc=WireGuard.PublicKey = zzqUfWGIil6QxrAGz77HE5BGUEdD2PgHYnCg3CDKagE=WireGuard.PresharedKey = DfEYeVs04HS9XhKGM4/ZXHG3Qc4MFK2AJd8XouYDbRQ=WireGuard.DNS = 8.8.8.8, 1.1.1.1WireGuard.AllowedIPs = 0.0.0.0/0WireGuard.EndpointPort = 51820WireGuard.PersistentKeepalive = 25
Name = AnythingYouLike Host = IP of the WireGuard server WireGuard.Address = The internal IP of the client node, e.g. a /24 address WireGuard.ListenPort = The client listen port (optional) WireGuard.PrivateKey = The client private key WireGuard.PublicKey = The server public key WireGuard.PresharedKey = The server pre-shared key (optional) WireGuard.DNS = Nameserver to be used with the connection (optional) WireGuard.AllowedIPs = Subnets accessed via the tunnel, 0.0.0.0/0 is "route all traffic" WireGuard.EndpointPort = The server ListenPort WireGuard.PersistentKeepalive = Periodic keepalive in seconds (optional)
If you need to create some, run wg-keygen
from the SSH console and /storage/.cache/wireguard
will contain new publickey, privatekey, and preshared files with keys inside. Most users will not need to generate WireGuard keys as they will be in the configuration file provided by a VPN service provider.
Once you have saved a configuration file, check it is valid:
RPi4:~ # connmanctl services* R home vpn_185_210_30_121*AO Wired ethernet_dca622135939_cable
In the above example vpn_185_210_30_121
was created (vpn_host) as the ConnMan service name. Test the service will connect using:
RPi4:~ # connmanctl connect vpn_185_210_30_121
ConnMan will create a new network interface, so ifconfig
will show wg0
or sometimes a higer number like wg1
or wg2
:
RPi4:~ # ifconfigeth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr DC:A6:32:13:26:3binet addr:192.168.10.25 Bcast:192.168.10.255 Mask:255.255.255.0UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1RX packets:3136938 errors:0 dropped:40816 overruns:0 frame:0TX packets:242506 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000RX bytes:310409413 (296.0 MiB) TX bytes:22433323 (21.3 MiB)lo Link encap:Local Loopbackinet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:HostUP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:65536 Metric:1RX packets:6109 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0TX packets:6109 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000RX bytes:415013 (405.2 KiB) TX bytes:415013 (405.2 KiB)wg0 Link encap:UNSPEC HWaddr 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00inet addr:10.2.0.2 P-t-P:10.2.0.2 Mask:255.255.255.0UP POINTOPOINT RUNNING NOARP MTU:1420 Metric:1RX packets:13744 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0TX packets:11080 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000RX bytes:13775220 (13.1 MiB) TX bytes:1232552 (1.1 MiB)
You should be able to ping
the remote (server) side of the WireGuard VPN tunnel. In our example this is 10.2.0.1:
RPi4:~ # ping 10.2.0.1PING 10.2.0.1 (10.2.0.1): 56 data bytes64 bytes from 10.2.0.1: seq=0 ttl=64 time=147.936 ms64 bytes from 10.2.0.1: seq=1 ttl=64 time=147.955 ms
The routing table will show normal traffic routed to the wg0 interface:
RPi4:~ # routeKernel IP routing tableDestination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Ifacedefault * 0.0.0.0 U 0 0 0 wg01.1.1.1 * 255.255.255.255 UH 0 0 0 wg08.8.8.8 * 255.255.255.255 UH 0 0 0 wg010.2.0.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 wg0192.168.10.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0192.168.10.1 * 255.255.255.255 UH 0 0 0 eth0185.210.30.121 192.168.10.1 255.255.255.255 UGH 0 0 0 eth0
To disconnect the ConnMan service:
RPi4:~ # connmanctl disconnect vpn_185_210_30_121
Check ifconfig
again and the WireGuard interface will be gone.
Create a systemd wireguard.service file to start the connection automatically on boot, after the network starts, and before Kodi is launched. The sample wireguard.service file looks like:
[Unit]Description=WireGuard VPN ServiceAfter=network-online.target nss-lookup.target wait-time-sync.service connman-vpn.serviceBefore=kodi.service[Service]Type=oneshotRemainAfterExit=yesExecStart=/usr/bin/connmanctl connect vpn_service_name_goes_hereExecStop=/usr/bin/connmanctl disconnect vpn_service_name_goes_here[Install]WantedBy=multi-user.target
Copy the sample wireguard.service file to /storage/.config/system.d/wireguard.service
cp /storage/.config/system.d/wireguard.service.sample /storage/.config/system.d/wireguard.service
Replace vpn_service_name_goes_here with your service name, e.g. vpn_185_210_30_121
using nano. Use ctrl+o
to save changes and ctrl+x
to exit nano:
nano /storage/.config/system.d/wireguard.service
Now we can enable and start the service:
RPi4:~ # systemctl enable /storage/.config/system.d/wireguard.serviceCreated symlink /storage/.config/system.d/multi-user.target.wants/wireguard.service → /storage/.config/system.d/wireguard.service.RPi4:~ # systemctl start wireguard.service
Check the WireGuard tunnel is active using "ifconfig" and "ping" and if all is good, reboot to test the WireGuard tunnel comes up automatically on boot.
Big thanks! to ConnMan maintainer Daniel Wagner (wagi) who worked with LibreELEC staff to implement WireGuard support in ConnMan (he wrote the code, we abused tested it).