[tor-relays] Is my relay broken? No stable, hsdir or guard flags

[Scott Bennett]

raltullou at posteo.org wrote:

>
>
> Am 30.01.2021 05:59 schrieb Scott Bennett:
> > Roger Dingledine <arma at torproject.org> wrote:
> >> 
> >> > It is a fallback relay - is it still useful as such?
> >> 
> >> It is still useful yes.
> >> 
> >      Well, at least there is that, thank goodness.  And at least I 
> > finally
> > have a plausible explanation for the authorities' seemingly bizarre 
> > behavior
> > over the past many moons in which they appear to be awarding, then 
> > withholding,
> > then awarding, then withholding various flags, including HSDir, Stable, 
> > and
> > even Fast, at random when my relay has been up and unfiddled with the 
> > whole time
> > from what I have been able to see, and without any apparent rhyme or 
> > reason.  I
> > had given up trying to figure out what the authorities were doing,
> > much less why,
> > and therefore had stopped giving a dam about it.
> >      That situation, in combination with the involvement in the tor 
> > project of
> > very vocal persons lacking apparent comprehension of the basic 
> > relationships
> > between hardware, firmware, supervisory (i.e., privileged) software, 
> > and
> > application software w.r.t. security matters, led me to stop providing 
> > a relay
> > for about a year.  I finally decided to return it to service, but have 
> > mostly
> > stopped reading the overly chatty tor-relays list and any worry over 
> > additional
> > security issues w.r.t. tor.  I take care of my relay the best I know 
> > how with
> > one exception on the authority of Roger Dingledine and leave it at 
> > that.
> > Because I don't like accepting such things on authority, rather than 
> > proof or at
> > least damned good evidence and reason, I mostly stopped caring, which 
> > is a real
> > drag because I once was convinced that tor was a truly good effort to 
> > provide
> > what should have been designed into the Internet in the first place.
> > Unfortunately, there appear to be still no viable alternatives 
> > available.
> > 
>
> It's been another week and the flags are all back. I'm not aware of 
> anything I did
> to loose them for a month and I din't do anything to get them back. For 
> me that
> just just means I'll take your advice and start caring less ?\_(?)_/?.
>
> Thanks for your help everyone and I hope the underlying problem get 
> fixed soon.
>
     The following popped up almost an hour and a half ago in my relay's
log file.

Feb 13 07:27:54.947 [notice] The current consensus has no exit nodes. Tor can only build internal paths, such as paths to onion services.

Two milliseconds later it said,

Feb 13 07:27:54.949 [notice] Our directory information is no longer up-to-date enough to build circuits: We need more microdescriptors: we have 0/6708, and can only build 0% of likely paths. (We have 0% of guards bw, 0% of midpoint bw, and 0% of end bw (no exits in consensus, using mid) = 0% of path bw.)
Feb 13 07:27:54.949 [notice] I learned some more directory information, but not enough to build a circuit: We need more microdescriptors: we have 0/6708, and can only build 0% of likely paths. (We have 0% of guards bw, 0% of midpoint bw, and 0% of end bw (no exits in consensus, using mid) = 0% of path bw.)

Is it telling the truth?  Was there really an hour when the consensus
contained no Exit flags in the entire file?


                                  Scott Bennett, Comm. ASMELG, CFIAG
**********************************************************************
* Internet:   bennett at sdf.org   *xor*   bennett at freeshell.org  *
*--------------------------------------------------------------------*
* "A well regulated and disciplined militia, is at all times a good  *
* objection to the introduction of that bane of all free governments *
* -- a standing army."                                               *
*    -- Gov. John Hancock, New York Journal, 28 January 1790         *
**********************************************************************