I updated my Framework 13 to Fedora 42 about two weeks ago, just before the final release. It has been pretty solid!

This evening, I went to start up my VPN (I use NordVPN, FWIW). No luck. Just no connection.

The VPN connection has failed. Please check your internet connection and try connecting to the VPN again. If the issue persists, contact our customer support.

Well, thanks.

In case it was a package issue, I uninstalled and reinstalled the third party nordvpn RPM. No luck, same error.

Digging into the system log, I found this:

19:40:46 [Error] failed to connect to uk2646.nordvpn.com : resseting forward firewall: reseting allowlist rules: removing allowlisted subnets: listing iptables rules: exec: "iptables": executable file not found in $PATH

A “smoking gun”!

OK, so let’s dig a bit more.

$ journalctl -g iptables -b --no-pagerApr 28 19:47:20 neshatan tailscaled[1649]: linuxfw: clear iptables: exec: "iptables": executable file not found in $PATHApr 28 19:47:20 neshatan tailscaled[1649]: router: iptables not found: firewall mode "iptables" not supported: iptables command run fail: multiple errors:Apr 28 19:47:20 neshatan tailscaled[1649]:         exec: "iptables": executable file not found in $PATHApr 28 19:48:56 neshatan nordvpnd[1518]: 2025/04/28 19:48:56 [Error] failed to connect to uk2582.nordvpn.com : resseting forward firewall: reseting allowlist rules: removing allowlisted subnets: listing iptables rules: exec: "iptables": executable file not found in $PATHApr 28 19:49:22 neshatan nordvpnd[1518]: 2025/04/28 19:49:22 [Error] failed to connect to uk1910.nordvpn.com : unsetting allowlist: disabling allowlist routing: clearing allowlisting: iptables listing rules: exec: "iptables": executable file not found in $PATH:Apr 28 19:50:28 neshatan nordvpnd[1518]: 2025/04/28 19:50:28 [Error] failed to connect to uk2281.nordvpn.com : unsetting allowlist: disabling allowlist routing: clearing allowlisting: iptables listing rules: exec: "iptables": executable file not found in $PATH:Apr 28 19:53:36 neshatan nordvpnd[16192]: 2025/04/28 19:53:36 [Error] failed to connect to uk2570.nordvpn.com : resseting forward firewall: reseting allowlist rules: removing allowlisted subnets: listing iptables rules: exec: "iptables": executable file not found in $PATHApr 28 19:57:28 neshatan nordvpnd[16192]: 2025/04/28 19:57:28 [Error] failed to connect to uk2123.nordvpn.com : unsetting allowlist: disabling allowlist routing: clearing allowlisting: iptables listing rules: exec: "iptables": executable file not found in $PATH:

OK, so we definitely don’t have an iptables executable.

It turns out that there is an iptables-nft package installed (for netfilter), and this is supposed to install /usr/bin/iptables – but that file doesn’t exist.

A quick symlink of iptables-nft as iptables was a basic patch for this, and I was able to bring the VPN connection up again.

Two related reports from the interwebs, one from as recent as today (which may explain why I only just encountered it) – I found these just as I started to write this post.

• Latest update of iptables-nft breaks NordVPN
• Connection problem on Fedora 42

I’ll take the opportunity of this blog post to point out that nordvpnd has two typos in log messages. I’m not entirely certain where else to report this issue. Consider resetting these.

In the meantime, I also accidentally discovered that tailscaled had also been reporting issues with a missing iptables executable. I hadn’t noticed too many issues with it over the past couple of weeks, but hopefully this is an improvement for both daemons!

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https://andypiper.co.uk/2025/04/28/nordvpn-fedora-42-and-iptables-compatibility/