Private Internet Acesss : None of the variables work? No entires, it connects fine, any enteries and it errors.

[TheEndlessStaircase]

I have been trying to using Gluten with Private Internet Access but I can not get it to connect..... basically if I put anything in any of the variables then it will not connect and error.

• SERVER_COUNTRIES
• SERVER_REGIONS
• SERVER_CITIES
• SERVER_HOSTNAMES
• SERVER_NAMES
• SERVER_CATEGORIES

My understanding is that I should be able to just leave all blank and then put in "Australia" or "Netherlands" or "Poland" into the SERVER_COUNTRIES variable and it will work.... but it doesn't.

2026-03-05T18:18:47+11:00 ERROR VPN settings: provider settings: server selection: for VPN service provider private internet access: the country specified is not valid: one or more values is set but there is no possible value available

This is the code I get using "Australia" or "AU" in SERVER_COUNTRIES.... I hagve tried a bunch of stuff in the other variables.... with nothing working...

The REALLY weird thing

If I leave ALL the variables blank, it connects fine to the USA... and I have checked with Private Internet Access and the resulting IP is on their network. So it is working... but for some reason none of the variables seem to work.

EDIT : Actually it seems to be connecting to random places all over the world when nothing is put in the variables. I'm now got a endpoint in Taiwan.

PIA techsupport

has conformed that the names have to have starting capital letters and no spaces after them and that Poland, Australia and Netherlands are all correct names.

Side note

I also have access to expressVPN.... but it also dose not work, and it used to only a few days ago.

[nacredusk]

Identical issue. Connects to a random place if I don't have any entries but as soon as I add any entry for a Country or anything else it won't work.

[raph521]

I'm using PIA with my preferred server set in SERVER_REGIONS. For example:

    gluetun:
        container_name: gluetun
        hostname: gluetun
        image: qmcgaw/gluetun:latest
        restart: unless-stopped
        cap_add: 
            - NET_ADMIN
            - NET_RAW
        volumes:
            - /mnt/cache/appdata/gluetun/main:/gluetun
        environment:
            - PUID=${PUID}
            - PGID=${PGID}
            - TZ=${TZ}
            - VPN_SERVICE_PROVIDER=private internet access
            - SERVER_REGIONS=SE Stockholm
            - OPENVPN_PROTOCOL=udp
            - PRIVATE_INTERNET_ACCESS_OPENVPN_ENCRYPTION_PRESET=normal
            - OPENVPN_USER=${PIA_USERNAME}
            - OPENVPN_PASSWORD=${PIA_PASSWORD}
            - UPDATER_PERIOD=24h

You can see the list of possible values for SERVER_REGIONS with this:

docker run --rm -v /tmp:/gluetun ghcr.io/qdm12/gluetun:latest format-servers -private-internet-access | column -t -s "|" -o "|"

For example, just a snippet:

| Region                             | Hostname                               | Name             | TCP | UDP | Port forwarding |
| ---                                | ---                                    | ---              | --- | --- | ---             |
| AU Adelaide                        | `au-adelaide-pf.privacy.network`       | adelaide401      | ✅  | ✅  | ✅              |
| AU Adelaide                        | `au-adelaide-pf.privacy.network`       | adelaide402      | ✅  | ✅  | ✅              |
| AU Brisbane                        | `au-brisbane-pf.privacy.network`       | brisbane401      | ✅  | ✅  | ✅              |
| AU Brisbane                        | `au-brisbane-pf.privacy.network`       | brisbane402      | ✅  | ✅  | ✅              |
| AU Brisbane                        | `au-brisbane-pf.privacy.network`       | brisbane403      | ✅  | ✅  | ✅              |
| AU Melbourne                       | `aus-melbourne.privacy.network`        | melbourne425     | ✅  | ✅  | ✅              |
...