How to configure a VPN on Linux GUI given just a configuration file?

I received one configuration file from my university technical staff to configure an OpenVPN connection. According to the staff, I must open the connection manually in command line through the following command

openvpn --config configuration_file.conf

However, I must keep a terminal opened with that command running (probably through screen I can less disturbance). However, can I use the VPN connection GUI from Ubuntu to configure that VPN using the information found in the configuration file? how to do that?

The contents of the configuration file are below:

#############################################
# Sample client-side OpenVPN 2.0 config file.
# for connecting to multi-client server.
##############################################
#tls-cipher "DEFAULT:@SECLEVEL=0"
# Specify that we are a client and that we
# will be pulling certain config file directives
# from the server.
client
dev tun
proto udp
# The hostname/IP and port of the server.
remote <ip-adress> <port>
# host name of the OpenVPN server. Very useful
# on machines which are not permanently connected
# to the internet such as laptops.
resolv-retry infinite
# Most clients don't need to bind to
# a specific local port number.
nobind
# Try to preserve some state across restarts.
persist-key
persist-tun
comp-lzo
# Certificate Authority
<ca>
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
BLABLABLA
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
</ca>
# Username/Password authentication is used on the server
auth-user-pass
# Verify server certificate by checking
# that the certicate has the nsCertType
# field set to "server". This is an
# important precaution to protect against
# a potential attack discussed here:
#
#
# To use this feature, you will need to generate
# your server certificates with the nsCertType
# field set to "server". The build-key-server
# script in the easy-rsa folder will do this.
ns-cert-type server
# Set log file verbosity.
verb 3

1 Answer

You are able to import a VPN configuration using GNOME's network management GUI. Just click "Import from file..." under Settings -> Network -> Add VPN