Tor server on NSLU2: ORPort unreachable

[Stephen Hildrey]

Eugen wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I want to run a Tor middle node on a NSLU2 device (266Mhz, 32 MB RAM).
> I installed Debian etch version on it for ARM platform, and it works 
> great..
[snip]
> But reachability of the ORPort fails...
[snip]

Eugen,

I tried this a year or two ago and experienced the same problem. Like 
you say, client functionality was fine (though slow) but it didn't want 
to work as a Tor node itself.

I don't believe the problem is a network (e.g. port forwarding) issue. I 
believe the problem is caused by either a) some incompatibility between 
the current implementation of the OpenSSL libraries and armv5tel, or b) 
the low spec of the device rendering key generation too slow for the 
reachability checks.

Ultimately I didn't have time to investigate further, and I have no hard 
evidence to support either of my theories. That said, I have a 
known-good Tor configuration that worked on an x86 desktop machine, but 
not on an armv5tel NSLU2.

Interested to hear how you get on,
Steve