Private Internet Access Client On Encrypted Linux Mint

Upon getting Linux Mint installed, I went ahead with installing Private Internet Access VPN client. All the same motions as usually albeit now with slightly different result - it wouldn't connect.

Looking at logs ($HOME/.pia_manager/log/openvpn.log) just gave cryptic operation not permitted and no such device errors:

SIOCSIFADDR: Operation not permitted
: ERROR while getting interface flags: No such device
SIOCSIFDSTADDR: Operation not permitted

Quick search on internet brought me to Linux Mint forum where exactly the same problem was described. And familiarity didn't stop there; author had one other similarity - encrypted home folder - the root cause of the whole problem. Sounded like a perfect fit so I killed PIA client and went with his procedure:

# sudo mkdir /home/pia
# sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /home/pia
# mv ~/.pia_manager /home/pia/.pia_manager
# ln -s /home/pia/.pia_manager ~/.pia_manager

However, this didn't help. Still the same issue in my log files.

So I decided to go with nuclear option. First I killed PIA client (again) and removed PIA completely together with all my modifications:

# rm ~/.pia_manager
# rm -R /home/pia
# sudo rm ~/.local/share/applications/pia_manager.desktop

With all perfectly clean, I decided to start with fresh directory structure, essentially the same as in the original solution:

# sudo mkdir -p /home/pia/.pia_manager
# sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /home/pia
# ln -s /home/pia/.pia_manager ~/.pia_manager

Than I repeated installation of PIA client:

# cd ~/Downloads
# tar -xzf pia-v72-installer-linux.tar.gz
# ./pia-v72-installer-linux.sh

And it worked! :)