Hi,
Filename: NNN-integrate-tor-launcher-into-tor-browser.txt Title: Integration of Tor Launcher into Tor Browser Core Author: Mark Smith and Kathleen Brade Created: 22-Jan-2019 Updated: 7-Feb-2019 Status: Draft Ticket: #28044
Sorry for the delay: we were busy with preparing our major 3.12 release when this proposal came up, and I've just come back from holiday.
R3. Allow users and projects such as Tails to disable Tor Launcher at runtime via environment variables and hidden preferences as is possible today.
Thanks a lot for including Tails in your considerations, much appreciated :)
R5. Continue to maintain a separate git repository for Tor Launcher. This will allow development of Tor Launcher to proceed outside of core browser development and will also facilitate continued use of Tor Launcher as a XUL/XPCOM extension by those projects that have that requirement, e.g., TorBirdy.
OK. I understand this will allow Tails to:
- Build and ship a Tor Launcher extension (disabled in our main Tor Browser profile, as per R3).
- Run Tor Launcher just like we currently do, until we switch to 68esr in October. Once we're based on 68esr, we won't be able to run Tor Launcher as a XUL/XPCOM extension anymore, and we'll need to replace it with another tool.
If I got it wrong, please let me know.
4.1 TL_LOGO and pkg-prepare
Tails uses Tor Launcher for their Tor network configuration UI. To avoid confusion, they include the Tails logo in their copy of Tor Launcher, replacing the Tor Browser logo. This replacement is handled by the pkg-prepare Makefile target. We will need to find a different way to handle the logo override.
Tails sets TOR_HIDE_BROWSER_LOGO=1 (#14122). It would be nice to keep it. Since it's a runtime setting, and not a build-time thing, I assume it's not too much trouble to keep support for it? If it's too much trouble, drop it. This would cause a minor usability regression in Tails but given the timeline, I'd rather use your "being nice to Tails" time on longer-term issues such as #27466 and #10760, rather than on a tool that we'll need to drop in 8 months anyway.
However, we do *not* replace it with a custom logo (#12451) and have never done so. I think there's some confusion because of the way proper introduced themselves "as a user of Tails and a maintainer of Whonix" on these tickets. By the way, IIRC Whonix has replaced Tor Launcher with their own thing a while ago, so perhaps they don't need any of this anymore and TL_LOGO could go away?
4.3 UI For Access To The Tor Network Settings
Currently, the Torbutton toolbar menu contains a "Tor Network Settings" menu item which causes Tor Launcher to open its Network Settings dialog. As plans for incorporating the Torbutton functionality into the core browser proceed, we may need to provide a new method for users to access the network settings. Tentatively, we plan to eliminate the Torbutton toolbar item and its associated menu, which means new UI will need to be added to provide access to Tor Launcher's Network Settings dialog.
I think Tails will need some way to hide this new UI (otherwise user experience will be poor as Tor Browser in Tails is not actually allowed to change such settings). If we can do this in our profile config, with something like userChrome.css, that would be good enough considering we'll need to replace Tor Launcher in October.
Cheers,