Vidalia standalone bundles for testing (TBB 3.x "mod")
Hi everyone! We are accelerating the stable release of the TBB 3.x series because Firefox 17 ESR is no longer supported. In order to do this we need to make sure we have some standalone Vidalia bundles that people can plug in so they are not too disoriented by the change. A lot of us have been using the 3.x series for a while, but plenty of people have not, and we don't want to upset them. I have spent the evening trying to get together a functional batch. I have the first pass available, with some known problems. Linux is able to display the relay map and show your hops, but I haven't been able to make it work on Windows or OSX yet. I would appreciate anyone figuring out what that issue might be, but I will also look into it more tomorrow. I assume it is not finding the geoip file correctly. Here's how to test these: 1. Download 2. Extract *into your TBB 3.x directory*. This is important. They may work outside of it, but it depends a lot on your system libs. I am sure they will work *in* it and that is how they are "designed" right now (though longer-term that will not be the case). If they work outside of your TBB 3.x directory that is merely surprisingly good news. (But try it anyway, for fun.) 3. Run the start vidalia script. On Windows, this is Start Vidalia.exe. On OSX and Linux it is start-vidalia.sh. 4. Let me know what happens! Packages: https://people.torproject.org/~erinn/qa/vidalia-standalone-1/ sha256sums: https://people.torproject.org/~erinn/qa/vidalia-standalone-1/sha256sums-vida... Turnaround: Let's try to make this a relatively active discussion in the next day or so; I know everyone is antsy to get 3.x stable, but there is still much to do to make the release happen smoothly. If you want to submit patches to me, my repo thus far (it is a MESS but it is also almost 3am; forgive me, git gods) is here: https://gitweb.torproject.org/erinn/torbrowser.git/shortlog/refs/heads/maint... or: git clone -b maint-2.4 https://git.torproject.org/erinn/torbrowser.git Thanks everyone! Erinn
On 16/12/13 10:51 PM, Erinn Clark wrote:
Hi everyone!
We are accelerating the stable release of the TBB 3.x series because Firefox 17 ESR is no longer supported. In order to do this we need to make sure we have some standalone Vidalia bundles that people can plug in so they are not too disoriented by the change. A lot of us have been using the 3.x series for a while, but plenty of people have not, and we don't want to upset them.
I have spent the evening trying to get together a functional batch. I have the first pass available, with some known problems. Linux is able to display the relay map and show your hops, but I haven't been able to make it work on Windows or OSX yet. I would appreciate anyone figuring out what that issue might be, but I will also look into it more tomorrow. I assume it is not finding the geoip file correctly.
Here's how to test these:
1. Download
2. Extract *into your TBB 3.x directory*. This is important. They may work outside of it, but it depends a lot on your system libs. I am sure they will work *in* it and that is how they are "designed" right now (though longer-term that will not be the case). If they work outside of your TBB 3.x directory that is merely surprisingly good news. (But try it anyway, for fun.)
3. Run the start vidalia script. On Windows, this is Start Vidalia.exe. On OSX and Linux it is start-vidalia.sh.
4. Let me know what happens!
Packages: https://people.torproject.org/~erinn/qa/vidalia-standalone-1/
sha256sums: https://people.torproject.org/~erinn/qa/vidalia-standalone-1/sha256sums-vida...
Turnaround: Let's try to make this a relatively active discussion in the next day or so; I know everyone is antsy to get 3.x stable, but there is still much to do to make the release happen smoothly.
If you want to submit patches to me, my repo thus far (it is a MESS but it is also almost 3am; forgive me, git gods) is here: https://gitweb.torproject.org/erinn/torbrowser.git/shortlog/refs/heads/maint...
or: git clone -b maint-2.4 https://git.torproject.org/erinn/torbrowser.git
Thanks everyone! Erinn
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Testing: vidalia-standalone-0.2.21-gnu-linux-x86_64-en-US.tar.gz Platform: Debian Wheezy Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2450M CPU @ 2.50GHz Notes: - There is a decent delay between Vidalia stating it is connected and the onion turning green. During this period, the Tor Browser's log indicates that tor has received a new control connection, however none of Vidalia's functionality appears to be available with the exception of the "Stop Tor" button. - Works with the new tor-browser-linux64-3.5_en-US.tar.xz (Build 3). -- -Phoul
On Tue, Dec 17, 2013 at 6:51 AM, Erinn Clark <erinn@torproject.org> wrote:
Hi everyone!
We are accelerating the stable release of the TBB 3.x series because Firefox 17 ESR is no longer supported. In order to do this we need to make sure we have some standalone Vidalia bundles that people can plug in so they are not too disoriented by the change. A lot of us have been using the 3.x series for a while, but plenty of people have not, and we don't want to upset them.
I have spent the evening trying to get together a functional batch. I have the first pass available, with some known problems. Linux is able to display the relay map and show your hops, but I haven't been able to make it work on Windows or OSX yet. I would appreciate anyone figuring out what that issue might be, but I will also look into it more tomorrow. I assume it is not finding the geoip file correctly.
Here's how to test these:
1. Download
2. Extract *into your TBB 3.x directory*. This is important. They may work outside of it, but it depends a lot on your system libs. I am sure they will work *in* it and that is how they are "designed" right now (though longer-term that will not be the case). If they work outside of your TBB 3.x directory that is merely surprisingly good news. (But try it anyway, for fun.)
3. Run the start vidalia script. On Windows, this is Start Vidalia.exe. On OSX and Linux it is start-vidalia.sh.
4. Let me know what happens!
Packages: https://people.torproject.org/~erinn/qa/vidalia-standalone-1/
sha256sums: https://people.torproject.org/~erinn/qa/vidalia-standalone-1/sha256sums-vida...
Turnaround: Let's try to make this a relatively active discussion in the next day or so; I know everyone is antsy to get 3.x stable, but there is still much to do to make the release happen smoothly.
If you want to submit patches to me, my repo thus far (it is a MESS but it is also almost 3am; forgive me, git gods) is here:
https://gitweb.torproject.org/erinn/torbrowser.git/shortlog/refs/heads/maint...
or: git clone -b maint-2.4 https://git.torproject.org/erinn/torbrowser.git
Thanks everyone! Erinn
Seems there is a file missing: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vxz5hfdbzu2nws5/VidaliaStandaloneWinMissingFile.pn... This error pops up whether tbb3.5 is on or not. -- Sherief Alaa pgp 0x8623B882
* Sherief Alaa <sheriefalaa.w@gmail.com> [2013:12:17 14:39 +0200]:
Seems there is a file missing: [6]https://www.dropbox.com/s/vxz5hfdbzu2nws5/VidaliaStandaloneWinMissingFile.pn... This error pops up whether tbb3.5 is on or not.
This link does not work for me, but I assume the missing file(s) are libgcc_s_dw2-1.dll and mingwm10.dll since bobnomnom reported this issue with Windows. Updated version here: https://people.torproject.org/~erinn/qa/vidalia-standalone-1/vidalia-standal... sha256sum: 3b562f43b66e972850d30a06eb6f71d0a979aec2549e3c74e28d1307bacbab7a
On Tue, Dec 17, 2013 at 6:51 AM, Erinn Clark <erinn@torproject.org> wrote:
Hi everyone!
Hi Erinn,
We are accelerating the stable release of the TBB 3.x series because Firefox 17 ESR is no longer supported. In order to do this we need to make sure we have some standalone Vidalia bundles that people can plug in so they are not too disoriented by the change. A lot of us have been using the 3.x series for a while, but plenty of people have not, and we don't want to upset them.
I have spent the evening trying to get together a functional batch. I have the first pass available, with some known problems. Linux is able to display the relay map and show your hops, but I haven't been able to make it work on Windows or OSX yet. I would appreciate anyone figuring out what that issue might be, but I will also look into it more tomorrow. I assume it is not finding the geoip file correctly.
Here's how to test these:
1. Download
2. Extract *into your TBB 3.x directory*. This is important. They may work outside of it, but it depends a lot on your system libs. I am sure they will work *in* it and that is how they are "designed" right now (though longer-term that will not be the case). If they work outside of your TBB 3.x directory that is merely surprisingly good news. (But try it anyway, for fun.)
3. Run the start vidalia script. On Windows, this is Start Vidalia.exe. On OSX and Linux it is start-vidalia.sh.
4. Let me know what happens!
Packages: https://people.torproject.org/~erinn/qa/vidalia-standalone-1/
sha256sums: https://people.torproject.org/~erinn/qa/vidalia-standalone-1/sha256sums-vida...
Turnaround: Let's try to make this a relatively active discussion in the next day or so; I know everyone is antsy to get 3.x stable, but there is still much to do to make the release happen smoothly.
If you want to submit patches to me, my repo thus far (it is a MESS but it is also almost 3am; forgive me, git gods) is here:
https://gitweb.torproject.org/erinn/torbrowser.git/shortlog/refs/heads/maint...
or: git clone -b maint-2.4 https://git.torproject.org/erinn/torbrowser.git
Thanks everyone! Erinn
I tested this on OS X 10.9 and I had to put Vidalia's files one by one in TorBrowser.app otherwise the entire folder will be replaced (Contents) and even after that Vidalia still fails to know Tor's path. So I did something different, I deleted TorBrowser.app, extracted a fresh TorBrowser.app and a Vidalia-standalone folder and launched Vidalia and gave it Tor's path (/Users/MyUserName/Downloads/TorBrowser.app/Tor/tor) and it worked. After that, I opened TorBrowser.app and it also worked. Then I took a look at the activity window and it found out that there are two tor processes running. Should TorBrowser.app use an existing tor process or it needs to launch its own? -- Sherief Alaa pgp 0x8623B882
* Sherief Alaa <sheriefalaa.w@gmail.com> [2013:12:17 15:11 +0200]:
�I tested this on OS X 10.9 and I had to put Vidalia's files one by one in TorBrowser.app otherwise the entire folder will be replaced (Contents) and even after that Vidalia still fails to know Tor's path.
Ugh, that sounds pretty nasty. OSX 10.9 !#@%#%!.
So I did something different, I deleted TorBrowser.app, extracted a fresh TorBrowser.app and a Vidalia-standalone folder and launched Vidalia and gave it Tor's path (/Users/MyUserName/Downloads/TorBrowser.app/Tor/tor) and it worked. After that, I opened TorBrowser.app and it also worked. Then I took a look at the activity window and it found out that there are two tor processes running. Should TorBrowser.app use an existing tor process or it needs to launch its own?
It uses the existing process, I'll add the missing tor. I guess that on 10.9 we'll have the issue with the absolute path it needs, and I can just re-use the same hack we had to use last time when the geoip couldn't be found. But I'm not sure what to do about Contents being completely overwritten, because that is pretty odd behavior... and we can only use the absolute path trick if they are going to be in the same directory.
On Tue, Dec 17, 2013 at 02:55:52PM -0200, Erinn Clark wrote:
It uses the existing process, I'll add the missing tor. I guess that on 10.9 we'll have the issue with the absolute path it needs, and I can just re-use the same hack we had to use last time when the geoip couldn't be found.
Right, the tbb 3.x doesn't have the fix for #10092, I'm pretty sure. However, the same fix is in the pt branch, because without it, pluggble transports don't work at all. https://gitweb.torproject.org/user/dcf/tor-browser-bundle.git/blob/ca30dd316... You can maybe try with some of the OS X bundles here (still uploading): https://people.torproject.org/~dcf/pt-bundle/3.5-pt20131216/ David Fifield
On 12/17/13 11:55 AM, Erinn Clark wrote:
* Sherief Alaa <sheriefalaa.w@gmail.com> [2013:12:17 15:11 +0200]:
�I tested this on OS X 10.9 and I had to put Vidalia's files one by one in TorBrowser.app otherwise the entire folder will be replaced (Contents) and even after that Vidalia still fails to know Tor's path.
Ugh, that sounds pretty nasty. OSX 10.9 !#@%#%!.
So I did something different, I deleted TorBrowser.app, extracted a fresh TorBrowser.app and a Vidalia-standalone folder and launched Vidalia and gave it Tor's path (/Users/MyUserName/Downloads/TorBrowser.app/Tor/tor) and it worked. After that, I opened TorBrowser.app and it also worked. Then I took a look at the activity window and it found out that there are two tor processes running. Should TorBrowser.app use an existing tor process or it needs to launch its own?
It uses the existing process, I'll add the missing tor. I guess that on 10.9 we'll have the issue with the absolute path it needs, and I can just re-use the same hack we had to use last time when the geoip couldn't be found. But I'm not sure what to do about Contents being completely overwritten, because that is pretty odd behavior... and we can only use the absolute path trick if they are going to be in the same directory.
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: 1) 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 2) Start TBB by opening TorBrowserBundle_en-US.app 3) 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.... -- Mark Smith Pearl Crescent, LLC http://pearlcrescent.com/
* 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:
1) 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
2) Start TBB by opening TorBrowserBundle_en-US.app
3) 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)
On 12/18/13 6:21 PM, Erinn Clark wrote:
* Mark Smith <mcs@pearlcrescent.com> [2013:12:18 15:14 -0500]: 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)
I missed the fact that old configuration was present under ~/Library/Vidalia/ Sorry about that. After removing ~/Library/Vidalia, I see the same problem you see. Things seems to work if I create a directory structure like this: Vidalia/Vidalia.app Vidalia/Data/vidalia.conf and use the following as the initial contents of vidalia.conf: [General] LanguageCode=en [Tor] ControlPort=9151 AuthenticationMethod=cookie and then start vidalia from a shell so I can pass -datadir like this: cd Vidalia ./Vidalia.app/Contents/MacOS/Vidalia -datadir ./Data Are you trying to avoid patching Vidalia or could we modify it to look next to itself for its data directory (e.g., use ./Data instead of ~/Library/Vidalia by default)? If that was done, we could just ship Vidalia.app and Data/vidalia.conf. See https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/8811 for an older patch (which would need to be modified, but which shows the code we would need to change). -- Mark Smith Pearl Crescent, LLC http://pearlcrescent.com/
* Mark Smith <mcs@pearlcrescent.com> [2013:12:19 11:06 -0500]:
I missed the fact that old configuration was present under ~/Library/Vidalia/ Sorry about that. After removing ~/Library/Vidalia, I see the same problem you see.
Things seems to work if I create a directory structure like this: Vidalia/Vidalia.app Vidalia/Data/vidalia.conf and use the following as the initial contents of vidalia.conf:
[General] LanguageCode=en
[Tor] ControlPort=9151 AuthenticationMethod=cookie
and then start vidalia from a shell so I can pass -datadir like this: cd Vidalia ./Vidalia.app/Contents/MacOS/Vidalia -datadir ./Data
Are you trying to avoid patching Vidalia or could we modify it to look next to itself for its data directory (e.g., use ./Data instead of ~/Library/Vidalia by default)? If that was done, we could just ship Vidalia.app and Data/vidalia.conf.
See https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/8811 for an older patch (which would need to be modified, but which shows the code we would need to change).
Ah, this is great! I was unaware of this ticket. I am 100% fine with patching Vidalia and I like this more than I like the idea of merely changing its default ControlPort (which would be a very easy but kind of hacky change to make). I will take further discussion about OSX and other packaging concerns for these bundles to #8811, because for example I think people might have the expectation that a standalone Vidalia will not write outside of its directory, and as far as I know for the current setup that is not the case.
Erinn Clark:
Hi everyone!
We are accelerating the stable release of the TBB 3.x series because Firefox 17 ESR is no longer supported. In order to do this we need to make sure we have some standalone Vidalia bundles that people can plug in so they are not too disoriented by the change. A lot of us have been using the 3.x series for a while, but plenty of people have not, and we don't want to upset them.
I have spent the evening trying to get together a functional batch. I have the first pass available, with some known problems. Linux is able to display the relay map and show your hops, but I haven't been able to make it work on Windows or OSX yet. I would appreciate anyone figuring out what that issue might be, but I will also look into it more tomorrow. I assume it is not finding the geoip file correctly.
Here's how to test these:
1. Download
2. Extract *into your TBB 3.x directory*. This is important. They may work outside of it, but it depends a lot on your system libs. I am sure they will work *in* it and that is how they are "designed" right now (though longer-term that will not be the case). If they work outside of your TBB 3.x directory that is merely surprisingly good news. (But try it anyway, for fun.)
3. Run the start vidalia script. On Windows, this is Start Vidalia.exe. On OSX and Linux it is start-vidalia.sh.
4. Let me know what happens!
Works perfectly on x64 Debian 7.2. Thanks Erinn and all else involved! -- kat
participants (7)
-
Colin C. -
David Fifield -
Erinn Clark -
Katya Titov -
Mark Smith -
Nicolas Vigier -
Sherief Alaa