[tor-bugs] #21306 [Applications/Tor Browser]: Be more helpful in the "cannot connect to tor control" error case

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#21306: Be more helpful in the "cannot connect to tor control" error case
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 Reporter:  arma                      |          Owner:  tbb-team
     Type:  defect                    |         Status:  new
 Priority:  Medium                    |      Milestone:
Component:  Applications/Tor Browser  |        Version:
 Severity:  Normal                    |     Resolution:
 Keywords:                            |  Actual Points:
Parent ID:                            |         Points:
 Reviewer:                            |        Sponsor:
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Comment (by mcs):

 Replying to [comment:6 arma]:
 > Ok, we have an osx el capitan person in #tor right now who is getting
 this problem and we have failed to provide useful suggestions because we
 have no idea what might be going wrong on his system.

 Unfortunately I do not have the full #tor backlog so I cannot see what was
 discussed. For OSX, I would first ask the user to try removing or setting
 aside their TorBrowser-Data directory (so they can experience a clean
 start). The most common reason for the "cannot connect to control port"
 problem on OSX is that the user opened a recent alpha of Tor Browser
 (e.g., 7.0a1) and then switched back to a stable version (e.g., TB 6.5).
 Unix domain socket ControlPort config gets left behind in their torrc and
 TB 6.5 does not know how to connect.

 If that does not work, or if they are willing to go deeper, I would ask
 them to enable Tor Launcher and Torbutton debug logging by adding the
 following lines to their prefs.js file (the pref changes can be done via
 about:config instead if they can open Tor Browser enough to get to
 about:config):
  user_pref("extensions.torbutton.loglevel", 0);
  user_pref("extensions.torbutton.logmethod", 0);
  user_pref("extensions.torlauncher.loglevel", 0);
  user_pref("extensions.torlauncher.logmethod", 0);

 Then I would have them start Tor Browser from a Terminal window so the
 browser debug output and the tor output can be captured:
  cd TorBrowser.app
  ./Contents/MacOS/firefox


 > And now we have a windows 10 person there too who has the same problem.

 On Windows, things are harder to debug. As you know, the usual problem is
 interference from AV or other anti-malware software.

 > I think we need to prioritize some testing on normal user systems, so we
 can find out what is going wrong for them and fix it.

 Do you mean "The Tor Browser team should do more testing on various
 systems before they release" or do you mean "The Tor Browser team should
 help specific users who are experiencing this problem debug it?"

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/21306#comment:7>
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