* Mark Smith mcs@pearlcrescent.com [2013:12:18 15:14 -0500]:
I don't think you need to mix the Vidalia files in with the TBB ones. If you are using cookie authentication, Vidalia should be able to read all of the tor settings without knowing where torrc is as long as it can (1) connect to the tor control port and (2) read the cookie auth file (located in TBB.app/Data./Tor/control_auth_cookie, but the location is discovered via the control port). The following seems to work for me on Mac OS 10.8 and 10.9:
Place the Vidalia files alongside the TBB files, e.g., .../TBB3.5/TorBrowserBundle_en-US.app .../TBB3.5/vidalia-standalone-0.2.21-osx/ .../TBB3.5/vidalia-standalone-0.2.21-osx/Contents/ .../TBB3.5/vidalia-standalone-0.2.21-osx/Contents/MacOS/ .../TBB3.5/vidalia-standalone-0.2.21-osx/Contents/MacOS/Vidalia.app
Start TBB by opening TorBrowserBundle_en-US.app
Start Vidalia by opening Vidalia.app (if I try to open
start-vidalia.sh, my Mac just opens the contents in the Xcode text editor).
In fact, it seems like all I really need out of the Vidalia package is Vidalia.app. The key is to start TBB (and thus tor) first.
Caveat: I am not a Vidalia expert and I don't know where it expects to find vidalia.conf by default, or whether it really needs a vidalia.conf. If it defaults to cookie auth. on port 9151 then a lot of things should "just work." That's what it seems to do....
I am intrigued by this!
Here is my potentially incorrect understanding: normally Vidalia expects to find a vidalia.conf in ~/Library/Vidalia, and in the old OSX TBB we were resetting cwd to $HOME so that it would look there. If it doesn't find one there it writes one itself, sometimes based on information it gathers elsewhere (e.g., it looks for tor and a torrc in some places). Without vidalia.conf I don't think it knows to look for 9151 and I'm not sure what the option is to specify a different conf file (or "hardcode" that port), though I'm going to look into it.
Replicating your steps above, after making sure I have no ~/.tor, ~/Library/Vidalia, or /Applications/Vidalia.app, it just launches Vidalia and says it can't find tor. (OSX 10.6.8)