Help · Users

Installing Ghostlane

Ghostlane is on the App Store and on Google Play; the builds for macOS, Windows and Linux, and an Android APK, are on its releases page. Android and Windows warn about an app that did not come from their store; here is what each warning says and how to get past it.

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iPhone · iPad → App Store Android → Google Play, or the APK macOS · Windows · Linux → the releases page

Ghostlane is an open-source VPN client that reads ProofKit lists (earlier called olcbox). It runs every transport, olcRTC included, so one app is enough; Reality, Hysteria2 and XHTTP also run in other apps, such as Happ.

iPhone and iPad

  • App Store: the released version, kept up to date by the store.
  • TestFlight: every release lands here the day it is cut, ahead of the App Store by however long App Review takes. Install Apple's TestFlight app, then open the link on the phone.

On iOS the app is a full system VPN and runs every transport, olcRTC included. The setup is in Ghostlane on iOS.

Android

Google Play installs it and keeps it up to date like any other app. On a phone without Google Play, or where the listing does not open, take the APK from the releases page:

  1. Download the .apk: android-release for most phones, armeabi-v7a for a very old one.
  2. Your browser asks whether to allow installing unknown apps. Allow it for the browser.
  3. Play Protect may say “Blocked by Play Protect”. Tap More details → Install anyway.

The warning is about where the file came from, not about the app: the APK and the Google Play build are the same app under the same signature, so a newer build from either place installs over the other and your server lists stay.

macOS

The .dmg on the releases page is signed and notarised by Apple, one per architecture (Apple silicon and Intel). Open it, drag the app to Applications and launch it; Gatekeeper asks once whether to open an app downloaded from the internet.

The first time you turn on the system-wide tunnel, macOS asks you to approve a background item in System Settings → General → Login Items. That is the helper that runs the tunnel; without the approval only proxy mode works.

Windows

  1. Run the installer from the releases page. SmartScreen says “Windows protected your PC”.
  2. Click More info → Run anyway.

Linux

Download the .AppImage, make it executable and run it. For a server without a desktop there is the ghostlane command, installed from apt or dnf repositories or run as a Docker image: see its guide.

Keeping it up to date

The App Store and Google Play builds are updated by the store. A build from the releases page checks for a newer version itself and offers to download it; how often it checks is in the app's settings. Your server lists and settings survive an update.