install ShadowSocks client in Ubuntu 18.04

ShadowSocks client is part of shadowsocks package. This include both client and server. If you are looking to install server, see Install ShadowSocks server on Debian 10

To install ShadowSocks, run

apt install -y shadowsocks

ShadowSocks client is called sslocal, get installed in /usr/bin/sslocal.

On Ubuntu, no start up script provided with this package, so you need to create one or manually run sslocal when required.

Create a service file

vi /lib/systemd/system/[email protected]

Add following content

[Unit]
Description=Shadowsocks client mode service
Documentation=man:sslocal(1)
After=network-online.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=nobody
Group=nogroup
ExecStart=/usr/bin/sslocal -q -c /etc/shadowsocks/%i.json
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=30

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Now we need to create a configuration file with your ShadowSocks server IP and password.

mkdir /etc/shadowsocks/
vi /etc/shadowsocks/local.json

Add following content

{
    "server":"YOUR_SERVER_IP",
    "server_port":8044,
    "local_address": "127.0.0.1",
    "local_port":8044,
    "password":"PASSWORD",
    "timeout":300,
    "method":"aes-256-cfb",
    "fast_open": false,
    "workers": 1,
    "prefer_ipv6": false
}

“server” = IP of the server where you installled ShadowSocks server.
“server_port” = Port used by ShadowSocks server
“password” = ShadowSocks server password.

local_port can be anything you like.

Enable shadowsocks service

systemctl enable shadowsocks-local@local

To start

systemctl start shadowsocks-local@local

To see status

systemctl status shadowsocks-local@local

Now you can configure your browser or other sock proxy supported application using 127.0.0.1:8044. Here is how to configure firefox