Tor Browser crashing in Whonix VirtualBox since upgrade to Host Linux Kernel version 5.10.0-15

midge · June 12, 2022, 12:07am

I have an issue with Tor Browser crashing in Whonix in debian virtualbox.
The issue seems to be whonix related as I did the following after it started crashing:

I upgraded debian to the latest. (only TZDATA needed upgrading, my system is alaways within a day of latest update)
It still crashed
I upgraded to the latest virtualbox and extensions pack (from 6.1.30 to 6.1.34)
still crashed
I downloaded latest tor browser on my workstation. Worked with no issue.
I downloaded the same tor-browser within whonix-workstation and ran that version.
It crashed as the default installed one!

Running from the terminal, in debug mode, I got the following:

user@host:~$ torbrowser
Fontconfig warning: “/home/user/.tb/tor-browser/Browser/TorBrowser/Data/fontconfig/fonts.conf”, line 85: unknown element “blank”
Fontconfig warning: “/home/user/.tb/tor-browser/Browser/TorBrowser/Data/fontconfig/fonts.conf”, line 85: unknown element “blank”
Fontconfig warning: “/home/user/.tb/tor-browser/Browser/TorBrowser/Data/fontconfig/fonts.conf”, line 85: unknown element “blank”
Fontconfig warning: “/home/user/.tb/tor-browser/Browser/TorBrowser/Data/fontconfig/fonts.conf”, line 85: unknown element “blank”
Fontconfig warning: “/home/user/.tb/tor-browser/Browser/TorBrowser/Data/fontconfig/fonts.conf”, line 85: unknown element “blank”
Exiting due to channel error.
Exiting due to channel error.
Exiting due to channel error.
Exiting due to channel error.
/home/user/.tb/tor-browser/Browser/start-tor-browser: line 362: 7071 Segmentation fault (core dumped) TOR_CONTROL_PASSWD=${TOR_CONTROL_PASSWD} ./firefox --class “Tor Browser” -profile TorBrowser/Data/Browser/profile.default “${@}” < /dev/null
[ERROR] [torbrowser] Tor Browser ended with non-zero (error) exit code!
Tor Browser was started with:
/home/user/.tb/tor-browser/Browser/start-tor-browser --verbose --allow-remote .
Tor Browser exited with code: 139

Can I give any other info to help?

Thanks

Patrick · June 12, 2022, 1:54pm

EDIT:

See documentation:
Linux Host Kernel versus Tor Browser and other Crashes

If it is a crash unrelated to VirtualBox and Linux kernel version, then the following applies:
Tor Browser Crash Errors

Note: Wiki is the Primary Source of Information vs Forums

midge · June 13, 2022, 12:26am

Yes, I had sen and read that before posting here. It is after following the instructions there and the following facts that I posted here.
Facts:

In Whonix I download a new copy of TOR browser with the same issue.
The very same TOR browser works perfectly in the workstation running Whonix.
I downloaded and installed a new Whonix with the same issue again.
I upgraded VirtualBox and still had the same issue.
This seems to indicate to me that the problem is most likely Whonix (and something else since others do not seem to have this problem) related.
So currently I cannot use Whonix which I have been using for a number of years on a daily basis without any issues. I have to rely on the not complete satisfactory solution of using TOR browser naked on my workstation.
But thanks for reading my post and trying to help.

crash139 · June 13, 2022, 7:58am

I have the same problem.
In my case, in addition to midge’s issue, the Whonix-Workstation screen is noisy.

Patrick · June 13, 2022, 8:17am

I most likely cannot help any further than what’s already in documentation.

This is always a bad sign.

Whonix didn’t change anything related to its Tor Browser integration. The thing that changed is most likely Tor Browser. The issue is in source code / program (Tor Browser) written by a different project. As said in documentation:

Even though this is happening inside Whonix ™, the cause is most often unrelated to Whonix ™ code. Tor Browser is developed by The Tor Project , which is an independent entity. The is the norm in Linux distributions. To learn more about such relationships see Linux User Experience versus Commercial Operating Systems.

Whonix ™ does integration work to get Tor Browser into the platform. To use a simple analogy, Whonix ™ stays “on the outside”. Very few internal modifications are made to Tor Browser as described in the Whonix ™ Tor Browser Differences chapter.

To remedy this kind of issue, there are three different promising approaches.

A) Factory Reset

B) Delete and Reinstall Tor Browser

C) Attempt to Debug the Issue

Which ones did you try yet?
A)?
C)?

Updated wiki chapter Attempt to Debug the Issue just now for higher clarity.

Noisy? I don’t know what that means. Likely unrelated. If so, please see Bug Reports, Software Development and Feature Requests and open a separate forum topic for that.

midge · June 13, 2022, 9:09am

I will confirm that I have the same symptoms. The screen is noisy. It seems that it is a graphics issue. It generates strange visual and crashes, usually within the first 30 seconds, especially if I move the mouse over it.

Here is the output when running TOR browser form the terminal:
user@host:~$ torbrowser Fontconfig warning: “/home/user/.tb/tor-browser/Browser/TorBrowser/Data/fontconfig/fonts.conf”, line 85: unknown element “blank” Fontconfig warning: “/home/user/.tb/tor-browser/Browser/TorBrowser/Data/fontconfig/fonts.conf”, line 85: unknown element “blank” Fontconfig warning: “/home/user/.tb/tor-browser/Browser/TorBrowser/Data/fontconfig/fonts.conf”, line 85: unknown element “blank” Fontconfig warning: “/home/user/.tb/tor-browser/Browser/TorBrowser/Data/fontconfig/fonts.conf”, line 85: unknown element “blank” Fontconfig warning: “/home/user/.tb/tor-browser/Browser/TorBrowser/Data/fontconfig/fonts.conf”, line 85: unknown element “blank” Fontconfig warning: “/home/user/.tb/tor-browser/Browser/TorBrowser/Data/fontconfig/fonts.conf”, line 85: unknown element “blank” Exiting due to channel error. Exiting due to channel error. Exiting due to channel error. Exiting due to channel error. Exiting due to channel error. /home/user/.tb/tor-browser/Browser/start-tor-browser: line 362: 2953 Segmentation fault (core dumped) TOR_CONTROL_PASSWD=${TOR_CONTROL_PASSWD} ./firefox --class “Tor Browser” -profile TorBrowser/Data/Browser/profile.default “${@}” < /dev/null [ERROR] [torbrowser] Tor Browser ended with non-zero (error) exit code! Tor Browser was started with: /home/user/.tb/tor-browser/Browser/start-tor-browser --verbose --allow-remote . Tor Browser exited with code: 139 To see this for yourself, you could try: Start Menu → System → Xfce Terminal Then run: torbrowser See online documentation: XhttpsX://www.whonix.org/wiki/Tor_Browser#Tor_Browser_Crash_Errors user@host:~$

I cannot post to TOR browser as yet as I was not a registered user and am waiting for the confirmation of my account by the TOR admin.

Patrick · June 13, 2022, 10:13am

Most of these terminal messages happened in earlier versions too. The ones present earlier are highly unlikely to be the cause now.

Most of these messages are generated by Tor Browser by The Tor Project. Only the last message Tor Browser ended with non-zero (error) exit code! is generated by Whonix’s torbrowser script. But it shouldn’t be used in this case.

As now said under Attempt to Debug the Issue:

During debug attempts, do not use torbrowser command (/usr/bin/torbrowser script) or the Tor Browser start menu entry because these are provided by Whonix ™ and are not the cause here.

A) Advanced users can try to start Tor Browser without the help of /usr/bin/torbrowser by Whonix ™, thereby bypassing that part of Whonix ™ Tor Browser integration. Tor Browser resides in folder ~/.tb/tor-browser. Therefore Tor Browser can be launched in Debugging Mode, which is a Tor Browser (not Whonix ™) feature. If that does not help…

B) […]

TNT_BOM_BOM · June 13, 2022, 8:54pm

just tested this now and not reproducible on my end using whonix 16.0.5 (latest image) with vbox 16.1.34 (latest version) in debian host.

@midge @crash139

Can you test this with latest whonix version available? (you can download and import while you have the old whonix images no issues)

If the newest whonix working then backup your old files in your old whonix and restore them in the newest whonix, if not working report back here.

midge · June 13, 2022, 9:47pm

Hello TNT_BOM_BOM,

As I mentioned in my earlier posts, I have test all possible combinations including downloading and installing or re-installing, virtualbox, Whonix and TOR-browser. All give me the same issue in Whonix.
I have no issue with TOR-browser on the same workstation outside of Whonix.
Somehow the issue is graphic orientated.
I am running the above on the latest Debian, I have two different monitors running in 4K. That may be the problem, perhaps.
It is totally unusable now as it crash within 30 seconds of loading and does create strange transient artefacts in the TOR-browser window that are very noticeable if I move the mouse cursor.
Thanks for your interest in this.

anonimac · June 13, 2022, 10:09pm

Problem is most likely the latest kernel version 5.10.0-15, it ruined all my VMs very badly…, just downgrade kernel on your host and try if this fixes your problem.

midge · June 13, 2022, 10:14pm

Here is more info running from the xfce terminal:

msgdispatcher script bug.

No panic. Nothing is broken. Just some rare condition has been hit.
Try again later. There is likely a solution for this problem.
Please see Whonix News, Whonix Blog and Whonix User Help Forum.
Please report this bug!

who_ami: ‘user’
msgdisptacher_username: ‘’
msgdispatcher_identifier: ‘’
msgdispatcher_appendix: ‘’
delete_wrapper: ‘/usr/libexec/msgcollector/msgdispatcher_delete_wrapper’
msgdispatcher_sudo_wrapper_command: ‘’
output_msgdispatcher_sudo_wrapper: ‘’

error_text: ‘exit_code: 0 | text: Failed to set up inotifywait! inotifywait_folder: /run/msgcollector | wait_exit_code: 141’
last_exit_code: ‘0’

Hope this helps and thanks again for all trying to help.

midge · June 13, 2022, 10:50pm

@anonimac
Hi there anonimac,

I think you are on the right track.
The little research I have done seems to indicate that too. The issue is between virtualbox and the kernel version 5.10.0-15.
I will not be able to check for sure until tomorrow (restarting my workstation is a huge job) when I will report the results here.
Thanks for that insight.

anonimac · June 13, 2022, 11:05pm

I am very sure the problem will be fixed after you downgrade the kernel on your debian host from 5.15 to 5.14. This version gave me tons of problems, didnt know what to do for days and had to reinstall all my VMs from the stratch.

I had segmentation fault errors in almost every app, broken update and upgrade(bizzare errors i have never seen before like “Hash Sum Mismatch” after apt update) , SIGSEGV errors in all chromium based browser, broken TOR, sdwdate and swap file creator on Gateway, all messengers broken/crashed and tons of other problems and errors. Now everything works good after kernel downgrade.

Dont reinstall your Workstation, first try to downgrade and check if problems on your WS are fixed.

midge · June 13, 2022, 11:16pm

@anonimac

Thanks anonimac. Rebooting my workstation with the previous kernel (5.14 instead of 5.15) did indeed fix the problem occurring. No need to make any changes to any VM or whatever. Just boot the workstation with the previous kernel.

Still don’t know what the problem is, but at least I have a working whonix until the issue does get resolved by virtualbox, linux kernel or whatever.

Thanks again to all who tried to help.

Patrick · June 14, 2022, 4:29pm

Does that kernel version cause any issues on the host operating system? (Outside of any VMs.)

Was both, host kernel and VM kernel updated?

Most likely related to kernel version.

That code msgcollector/msgdispatcher at master · Kicksecure/msgcollector · GitHub is pretty old (but that doesn’t imply “bad”, it’s functional and no updates required) and unchanged in a long time.

TNT_BOM_BOM · June 14, 2022, 6:58pm

@anonimac Awesome! Nice discovery

Checked this in Debian bookworm 11 which is currently using kernel 5.17 and it doesnt has this issue.

So user can either downgrade or upgrade from 5.10.0-15 until a fix is pushed.

(Though user can as well switch to KVM if he want to stay on 5.10.0-15, there is no reports that this is produced inside it)

redex · June 14, 2022, 7:20pm

I had some of these isues when I updated to wayland and installed the hardened kernel, the xwayland server where flickering and I was having crashes in whonix.
Are you running Xorg?
Are you running the hardened kernel?

TNT_BOM_BOM · June 14, 2022, 7:36pm

Using debian with xfce, so thats an xorg.
Using debian default kernel, so thats not a hardened by default.

But im not aware of any hypervisor fully/natively working on wayland (without xwayland).

anonimac · June 14, 2022, 8:41pm

Kernel 5.15 does not cause any problems on the host but only on all VBox VMs. I tried to install kernel 5.15 on my VMs and so far as i can see it did not do any harm.

midge · June 14, 2022, 9:36pm

@Patrick
Only had to change the booting of workstation to the older 5.14. No change required to VirtualBox or the VM.