Creates a tray notification for connecting, reconnecting, and disconnecting using protonvpn-cli in Ubuntu. Also displays the status.

protonvpn-tray.py

#!/usr/bin/python3
import os
import gi
import random
import yaml
import subprocess
import queue
from threading import Thread
from queue import Queue
gi.require_version('Gtk', '3.0')
gi.require_version('AppIndicator3', '0.1')
from gi.repository import Gtk as gtk, GLib as glib, AppIndicator3 as appindicator  # nopep8


class Window():
  def __init__(self):
    # make the indicator app
    self.indicator = appindicator.Indicator.new(
        "protonvpn-status", "semi-starred-symbolic", appindicator.IndicatorCategory.APPLICATION_STATUS)
    self.indicator.set_status(appindicator.IndicatorStatus.ACTIVE)
    # add the menu with button
    self.indicator.set_menu(self.menu())

  def run(self):
    # Read the status in a separate thread
    self.status_queue = Queue(1)
    self.status_runner_stop = False
    self.status_runner = Thread(target=self.get_status, daemon=True)

    # periodically check the queue and plot the status
    glib.timeout_add(1000, self.set_status)

    # run the app!
    self.status_runner.start()
    gtk.main()

    # exit the status runner
    self.status_runner_stop = True

  def get_status(self):
    while not self.status_runner_stop:
      # get the status from the commandline
      cmd = ['sudo', 'protonvpn', 'status']
      try:
        # try to run the status
        output = subprocess.Popen(cmd, stdout=subprocess.PIPE
                                  ).communicate(timeout=15)[0]
        # turn it into a dictionary
        response = yaml.safe_load(output.decode('UTF-8'))
      except:
        self.status_queue.put("MEGA-FAIL!")
        continue

      # check if connected or disconnected
      if response["Status"] == "Connected":
        status = "OK: {}, {} [{}]".format(
            response["City"], response["Server"], response["Time"])
      elif response["Status"] == "Disconnected":
        status = "Disconnected"
      else:
        status = "Unknown"
      # set label!
      print("Received status: {}".format(status))
      self.status_queue.put(status)

  def set_status(self):
    # get all status from queue and display them
    if not self.status_queue.empty():
      status = self.status_queue.get()
      print("Setting icon status: {}".format(status))
      self.indicator.set_label(status, '')
    return True

  def menu(self):
    menu = gtk.Menu()

    # make a separator
    menu_sep = gtk.SeparatorMenuItem()
    menu.append(menu_sep)

    # make a connect button
    connect_button = gtk.MenuItem('Connect (c)')
    connect_button.connect('activate', self.connect)
    menu.append(connect_button)

    # make a connect fastst button
    connect_fast_button = gtk.MenuItem('Connect Fastest (c -f)')
    connect_fast_button.connect('activate', self.connect_fast)
    menu.append(connect_fast_button)

    # make a reconnect button
    reconnect_button = gtk.MenuItem('Reconnect (r)')
    reconnect_button.connect('activate', self.reconnect)
    menu.append(reconnect_button)

    # make a disconnect button
    disconnect_button = gtk.MenuItem('Disconnect (d)')
    disconnect_button.connect('activate', self.disconnect)
    menu.append(disconnect_button)

    # make an exit button
    exti_button = gtk.MenuItem('Exit Tray')
    exti_button.connect('activate', self.quit)
    menu.append(exti_button)

    menu.show_all()
    return menu

  def connect(self, _):
    os.system("gnome-terminal -e \"sudo protonvpn c\"")

  def connect_fast(self, _):
    os.system("sudo protonvpn c -f")

  def reconnect(self, _):
    os.system("sudo protonvpn r")

  def disconnect(self, _):
    os.system("sudo protonvpn d")

  def quit(self, _):
    gtk.main_quit()
    self.status_runner_stop = True
    self.status_queue.get()


if __name__ == "__main__":
  w = Window()
  w.run()

To use:

• Install protonvpn-cli
• Install libappindicator-dev:

$ sudo apt install libappindicator-dev

• Download this script and run:

$ python3 protonvpn-tray.py

This is how it looks like