[tor-talk] How can I get Vidalia to work when I am loading Tor with a custom torrc file?

[Justin Aplin]

On Dec 21, 2011, at 1:48 PM, Matthew R wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> I was having some problems so reinstalled Tor.  Now I am having new
> issues.  I am using Tor 0.2.2.35, Torbutton 1.4.4.1, and Vidalia 0.2.15
> under Ubuntu 10.04.
> 
> I want to use a specific torrc file.
> 
> When I boot-up, Tor runs.  I kill it then run tor -f torrc.  I can then use
> Firefox with my specific settings.

How are you killing it? I imagine most of your issues are caused by an unclean process shutdown. Try sending a SIGTERM or SIGINT and see if the issue persists.

> However, when I try to run Vidalia, I get the errors:
> 
> Dec 21 18:37:40.314 [Warning] /var/run/tor is not owned by this user
> (myname, 1000) but by debian-tor (115). Perhaps you are running Tor as the
> wrong user?
> Dec 21 18:37:40.314 [Warning] Before Tor can create a control socket in
> "/var/run/tor/control", the directory "/var/run/tor" needs to exist, and to
> be accessible only by the user account that is running Tor.
> 
> If I change the owner from debian-tor to myname then I get the error:
> 
> Dec 21 18:41:41.911 [Warning] Permissions on directory /var/run/tor are too
> permissive.
> Dec 21 18:41:41.911 [Warning] Before Tor can create a control socket in
> "/var/run/tor/control", the directory "/var/run/tor" needs to exist, and to
> be accessible only by the user account that is running Tor.
> 
> There is obviously some problem with loading Tor then loading Vidalia
> rather than having Vidalia load Tor.

I do this all the time without issue, except that Vidalia is connecting to the control socket on the instance of tor that automatically starts with my system (i.e., I have the same setup without the kill step).

> I cannot change the torrc in Vidalia because it refuses to save and just
> points to /etc/tor/torrc (which doesn't actually exist).
> 
> The ideal situation would be for me to load Vidalia which loads Tor which
> loads the torrc I want.

Why don't you change the system default torrc, instead of manually pointing it at your custom one? Or if that's not possible, then change the system startup script for tor to include a command-line option pointing to your custom torrc?

~Justin Aplin