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Gluetun

Gluetun is a lightweight VPN client container. It connects to a VPN provider (WireGuard or OpenVPN) and shares that tunnel with other containers that attach to its network namespace.

Host: Dankclaw — Docs: https://github.com/qdm12/gluetun

Facts (from research, primary source)

Item Value
Image qmcgaw/gluetun:latest
Capabilities NET_ADMIN required
Device /dev/net/tun:/dev/net/tun
Ports published searxng's 8081 → 8080 lives here
Tunnel check the tun0 interface exists (the :8000 server 404s on all paths)

Required Environment

environment:
  VPN_SERVICE_PROVIDER: "${VPN_SERVICE_PROVIDER}"   # e.g. mullvad, protonvpn
  VPN_TYPE: wireguard
  WIREGUARD_PRIVATE_KEY: "${WIREGUARD_PRIVATE_KEY}" # from .env, never committed
  • VPN_TYPE default is openvpn; WireGuard preferred when the provider supports it.
  • Provider-specific variables come from the Gluetun wiki; set them in .env.

Optional DNS (from research)

Variable Default Purpose
DNS_UPSTREAM_RESOLVER_TYPE dot DNS over TLS
DNS_UPSTREAM_RESOLVERS cloudflare upstream DoT providers
DNS_CACHING on cache queries
BLOCK_MALICIOUS on block malicious hostnames

Warning from the wiki: do NOT set DNS_UPSTREAM_PLAIN_ADDRESSES to a LAN/bridge address — DNS queries leak out of the tunnel.

Attaching a Container

The searxng unit reuses gluetun's network namespace:

[Container]
ContainerName=searxng
Network=gluetun.container

Network=gluetun.container also adds a systemd dependency on gluetun, so searxng starts after the tunnel.

Boot Persistence

gluetun runs as the gluetun quadlet unit (see SearXNG for the full trio). It sets WantedBy=default.target and user linger is on, so the tunnel starts at boot. The WireGuard credentials live in /opt/searxng/.env (mode 0600). Deploy with scripts/deploy-searxng-quadlet.sh dankclaw.

Verify the Tunnel

podman exec gluetun curl -s ifconfig.me

The returned IP must differ from the host IP.

Gotchas

  • The container that holds the published port must be the one with the ports mapping (gluetun).
  • restart: always on gluetun so the tunnel reconnects after VPN drops.
  • When gluetun restarts, attached containers inherit the new network state; searxng may need a restart to re-resolve DNS.

See Also