[tor-bugs] #16055 [Tor Browser]: Unable to get TorBrowser 4.5.1 to use anything except local Tor instance

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#16055: Unable to get TorBrowser 4.5.1 to use anything except local Tor instance
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 Reporter:  TBUser39     |          Owner:  tbb-team
     Type:  defect       |         Status:  new
 Priority:  normal       |      Milestone:
Component:  Tor Browser  |        Version:
 Keywords:               |  Actual Points:
Parent ID:               |         Points:
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 As the title says, I seem to be unable to configure TorBrowser 4.5.1 to
 use anything except the local Tor instance. On TorBrowser 4.0.x I
 configured it using the UI preferences (which have been accidentally
 removed see: https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/15852 ) to
 use an HTTP proxy on another machine that in turn connected to a separate
 Tor instance.

 But on 4.5.1 (and presumably 4.5.0) I can't find a way to get it to work
 the same way.

 Mike Perry suggested in ticket 14630 here:
 https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/14630#comment:10 :

 > For now, you need to either edit the Torbutton about:config prefs
 'extensions.torbutton.socks_host' and 'extensions.torbutton.socks_port',
 or set the environment variables TOR_SOCKS_HOST and TOR_SOCKS_PORT before
 starting TBB.

 but using about:config and changing those settings doesn't work for me. In
 fact I have tried changing all sorts of settings, including trying to set
 them the same as 4.0.x using the:

 extensions.torbutton.custom.xxx

 settings but every time it uses the local instance, although I can see it
 checking the settings by connecting to the remote proxy machine during
 startup.

 I even tried changing the torlauncherport setting in the hope it would
 decide the local Tor instance wasn't running because it couldn't connect
 to it, and go ahead and use the other proxy settings, but when I do that
 it just hangs and I have to kill it. :-(

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/16055>
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