Do we have any good Ubuntu contacts here?
I noticed today that Ubuntu Bionic LTS will come out this month: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases and they are currently on track to include Tor 0.3.2.10: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/bionic/+source/tor which is scheduled to go end-of-life before the end of 2018: https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/org/teams/NetworkTeam/CoreTorR...
So we are on track for 4.5 years of sadness for Ubuntu users -- and since some of the most critical users of the Tor deb on Ubuntu are relay operators, this seems like a good time to try to rescue things.
The best fixes I've thought of are to either:
(A) Convince them to downgrade to Tor 0.2.9, which we will maintain for another few years.
(B) Make a deal with them where they know that 0.3.2 will be abandoned soon, and that they'll move to our next LTS once it comes out.
In the past we tried something like 'B' and it did not go smoothly. So I'm inclined to think 'A' is the better plan.
See also this trac ticket where I'll aim to keep track of our progress: https://trac.torproject.org/25715
I'm also going to forward this note to tor-project@ in case there are better Ubuntu contacts there.
Never a dull moment, --Roger
Hi Roger,
what's going on between Ubuntu and the Torproject?
What will I have to do to downgrade to the old Tor-version 'cause I'm willing to do so. And what's the problem with a version which is soon to expire if there (hopefully) be an update (in time).
SMichel
Sent with ProtonMail Secure Email.
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
Am 5. April 2018 4:07 AM schrieb Roger Dingledine arma@mit.edu:
Do we have any good Ubuntu contacts here?
I noticed today that Ubuntu Bionic LTS will come out this month:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases
and they are currently on track to include Tor 0.3.2.10:
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/bionic/+source/tor
which is scheduled to go end-of-life before the end of 2018:
https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/org/teams/NetworkTeam/CoreTorR...
So we are on track for 4.5 years of sadness for Ubuntu users -- and
since some of the most critical users of the Tor deb on Ubuntu are relay
operators, this seems like a good time to try to rescue things.
The best fixes I've thought of are to either:
(A) Convince them to downgrade to Tor 0.2.9, which we will maintain for
another few years.
(B) Make a deal with them where they know that 0.3.2 will be abandoned
soon, and that they'll move to our next LTS once it comes out.
In the past we tried something like 'B' and it did not go smoothly. So
I'm inclined to think 'A' is the better plan.
See also this trac ticket where I'll aim to keep track of our progress:
https://trac.torproject.org/25715
I'm also going to forward this note to tor-project@ in case there are
better Ubuntu contacts there.
Never a dull moment,
--Roger
tor-relays mailing list
tor-relays@lists.torproject.org
https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-relays
Hello SMichel,
Please do not top-post (leave what you are replying to below your new message) in mailing lists.
What will I have to do to downgrade to the old Tor-version 'cause I'm willing to do so.
I would suggest against downgrading unless there is really no better option.
If you want to do something, what you can do is add the deb.torproject.org repository as a package source on your system. There is manual work involved in getting packages built and added to it due to it not being entirely handled by build bots, so delays may exist for holidays and such, but generally speaking, you can expect the latest stable release to be in there a few days after it has been tagged. Note that the repository is signed with A3C4F0F979CAA22CDBA8F512EE8CBC9E886DDD89 and a deb.torproject.org-keyring package is provided for installing the signing key so that rollout of a new key if/when it is required in the future is easier.
For example, to get the latest stable Tor release installed on Ubuntu Bionic Beaver (18.04 LTS) you could simply run:
cat << EOF > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/torproject.list deb http://deb.torproject.org/torproject.org bionic main deb-src http://deb.torproject.org/torproject.org bionic main EOF
apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv A3C4F0F979CAA22CDBA8F512EE8CBC9E886DDD89
apt-get update
apt-get install tor deb.torproject.org-keyring
Official documentation on all of this can be found at https://www.torproject.org/docs/debian.html (along with an OS version picker) in case you are concerned.
And what's the problem with a version which is soon to expire if there (hopefully) be an update (in time).
If you are okay with running an LTS Tor version then there should really be no problem since Simon Deziel, the Ubuntu packager, has confirmed on Trac #25715 that Ubuntu Bionic (18.04 LTS) will ship with Tor 3.2 until a new Tor LTS is released which is when they start packaging that. (See: https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/25715#comment:4)
You can then expect it to look like how it looks for Ubuntu Xenial (16.04 LTS) now. You can imply Xenial shipped with Tor 2.7 until Tor 2.9 was released just by looking at the current state of the Ubuntu repository. As of writing, Ubuntu has Tor 2.7.6 in the base xenial distribution and Tor 2.9.14 in the xenial-updates and xenial-security distributions. (See: https://packages.ubuntu.com/xenial/tor)
I do not think it comes as a surprise that an LTS distribution would only have LTS versions, but still, it's worth keeping in mind then if you want the latest stable Tor version instead of the LTS version on Xenial right now you need to either build from source or use a different (most likely, deb.torproject.org) repository. Expect the same to apply on Bionic once the new Tor LTS is released and further stable versions start coming out.
The original thread/ticket was more of a public 'better safe than sorry' kind of concern situation about what the Ubuntu maintainers' plans are more than anything.
-- 4096R/A83CE748 Valters Jansons
tor-relays@lists.torproject.org
-
Roger Dingledine -
smichel0 -
Valter Jansons