Tor Browser ended with non-zero (error) exit code! - AGAIN

Komms · December 23, 2020, 5:29pm

I am not so sure what this post is; more of a venting / rhetorical statement than anything.

Per the thread title -

I realize this has been asked in some limited fashion in the past and from what I have read the reasoning is - it’s Tor’s fault. Tor v 10 in my non-Whonix VM has been a real hemorrhoid compared to v 9 just a variety of small issues, high cpu usage, I often lose the drop-down visibility of the relays in the URL bar for some reason requiring me to reinstall the browser, odd episodes where all of my extensions disappear in the extension screen (but still appear in the browser toolbar) requiring me to reinstall. And then there is Whonix. The browser routinely crashes giving me the -

ERROR: Tor Browser ended with non-zero (error) exit code!

From what I read here;
http://www.dds6qkxpwdeubwucdiaord2xgbbeyds25rbsgr73tbfpqpt4a6vjwsyd.onion/wiki/Tor_Browser#Tor_Browser_Launch_Errors

this usually happens on startup / failure to start for others that have reported it. I have never experienced this on startup only when it crashes, and takes my open window history with it. For me this has never happened prior to v 10 and it has never happened outside of Whonix which is why I am mentioning it here. I use non-Whonix Tor as my daily driver browser far more than the Whonix machine and its never happened outside of Whonix.

Just thought I would bring to the attention that this is a crashing issue not s start-up issue which only happens inside of Whonix.

Patrick · December 24, 2020, 2:05pm

The error message is imperfect. If it crashes after 1 minute and/or after active browser use, it’s not really a launch issue. It’s a crash issue. I will improve that error message. If Tor Browser exits with a non-zero exit code within 3 seconds, it will be considered a launch issue. Otherwise it will be considered a crash issue. Hope that makes sense. Maybe not worth to detect launch issues since these could be considered a crash issue too? A failed start being in over arching category crash issue?

But none of above will help with an actual resolution of this issue.

Since I cannot reproduce this, I won’t be able to do anything about it.

Whonix doesn’t do anything which should result in a crash of Tor Browser.

For an actual resolution, you’d probably have to provide an strace and/or core dump to the Tor Browser developers.

For core dump risks, see this:

Easiest might be to install package debug-misc (to permit creation of core dumps). Reboot required.

Keyword is debugging Tor Browser.

Then start Tor Browser in debugging mode.

https://www.whonix.org/wiki/Tor_Browser#In_Debugging_Mode

If there is interest, I might be able to provide instructions how how to (likely) generate core dump files / ftrace for Tor Browser in Whonix. (Likely, because I am not sure how I can force test a crash. I’ll soon force crash using some testing code in a standalone application to make sure a core dump file will be created.)

Even without core dump enabled / providing core dump and/or strace, running Tor Browser in debug mode might if you are lucky show a good enough crash message allowing Tor Browser developers to fix the issue.

Finally, if nobody provides Tor Browser developers with the required debug information the issue, it might not be fixed for a very long time.

Patrick · December 25, 2020, 1:15pm

Komms · December 26, 2020, 2:03pm

I didn’t persue the debugging since I was under the impression that only applied to failure to launch issues from what I read. I will take a look at the links. It sounds like if I create a core dump it should be presented to Tor not Whonix.

For clarification the browser is typically running for an hour before it crashes with the error code not just a few seconds / minutes. Thanks.

Patrick · December 28, 2020, 7:42am

Documentation updated. A launch failure is now considered a subset of a crash. Either launch failure or crash, debugging is required.

Indeed. Tor Browser is developed by The Tor Project, not Whonix.