💼 VPN Setup Guide with SwiftBar and OpenFortiVPN on macOS

🧰 Prerequisites

• macOS Ventura or Sonoma
• Terminal access with admin privileges (sudo)
• Valid Fortinet VPN credentials

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1️⃣ Install Homebrew (if not installed)

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Add Brew to your shell environment:

eval "$(/opt/homebrew/bin/brew shellenv)"
source ~/.zshrc  # or source ~/.bash_profile

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2️⃣ Install OpenFortiVPN

brew install openfortivpn

Create a config file:

nano ~/vpn.conf

Sample content:

host = vpn.example.com
port = 443
username = your_username
password = your_password

Tip: Avoid storing the password in plaintext, or secure the file with chmod 600.

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3️⃣ Install SwiftBar

• Download from: https://swiftbar.app
• Install and run the app
• Set the plugin directory, e.g., ~/SwiftBar/Plugins

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4️⃣ Create SwiftBar Plugin to Control VPN

Create the file:

mkdir -p ~/SwiftBar/Plugins
nano ~/SwiftBar/Plugins/vpn_status.5s.sh

Paste the following content:

```bash #!/bin/bash refresh=true

START_FILE='/tmp/vpn_start_time' CONNECT_CMD='sudo openfortivpn &' DISCONNECT_CMD='sudo killall openfortivpn'

if pgrep -x openfortivpn > /dev/null; then STATUS="connected" else STATUS="disconnected" fi

case "$1" in connect) eval "$CONNECT_CMD" date +%s > "$START_FILE" exit ;; disconnect) eval "$DISCONNECT_CMD" rm -f "$START_FILE" exit ;; esac

if [ "$STATUS" = "connected" ]; then if [ -f "$START_FILE" ]; then start_time=$(cat "$START_FILE") now=$(date +%s) duration=$((now - start_time))

hours=$((duration / 3600))
minutes=$(((duration % 3600) / 60))
seconds=$((duration % 60))

duration_str=""
[ "$hours" -gt 0 ] && duration_str="${duration_str}${hours}h "
[ "$minutes" -gt 0 ] && duration_str="${duration_str}${minutes}m "
duration_str="${duration_str}${seconds}s"

echo "🔒 $duration_str | color=green"

else echo "🔒 ? | color=green" fi else echo "🔓 | color=red" fi

echo "---"

if [ "$STATUS" = "connected" ]; then echo "⛔ Disconnect VPN | bash='$0' param1=disconnect terminal=false refresh=true color=red" echo "✅ VPN Connected: $duration_str | color=green" else echo "⚡ Connect VPN | bash='$0' param1=connect terminal=false refresh=true color=green" echo "❌ VPN Disconnected | color=red" fi

echo "---" echo "🔄 Refresh | refresh=true" ```

Make it executable:

chmod +x ~/SwiftBar/Plugins/vpn_status.5s.sh

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5️⃣ Enable Passwordless Execution (Optional)

sudo visudo

Add the following line at the end:

your_username ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /usr/local/bin/openfortivpn, /usr/bin/killall openfortivpn

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✅ All Done!

SwiftBar will now monitor your VPN status every 5 seconds:

• Green/red icon in the menu bar
• Session duration is shown
• One-click connect/disconnect

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📌 Tips

• Add macOS notification like this:

osascript -e 'display notification "VPN connected" with title "VPN Status"'

• Check path for openfortivpn:

which openfortivpn

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