Tor Browser in a dvm: Whonix Documentation Contradicting itself. What to do?

Qubes-Whonix
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There is some contradicting literature in the Whonix documentation that makes it unclear weather to use Tor Browser in a DisposableVM or not.

In the Tor Browser Whonix Documentation located at: wwwDOTwhonixDOTorg/wiki/Qubes/Tor_Browser

on the TOP of the page (located at : wwwDOTwhonixDOTorg/wiki/Qubes/Tor_Browser#Update_Tor_Browser) it says:

Update Tor Browser
Do not run Tor Browser in a Template (whonix-workstation-17) or Disposable Template (whonix-workstation-17-dvm)!

Clearly stating NOT to run Tor Browser in a Disposable VM.

Yet, on the BOTTOM of the page, in the “Comparison of Applications, Recommended and Discouraged Use” table, it says:

Tor Browser
Useful to run in:

  1. Whonix-Workstation App Qube (anon-whonix)
  2. Disposables

In addition to these contradicting statements, I noticed a message in my whonix-workstation-17 Template VM’s xfce terminal after running the following command:

update-torbrowser --resume

it outputs this message:

INFO: Finished installing ‘Tor Browser’. Can be found in ‘/var/cache/tb-binary/.tb/tor-browser’. Not asking to start Tor Browser, because running in a Template.
To run ‘Tor Browser’, start an App Qube, Standalone or Disposable, then run:
torbrowser

Again, here, it says it’s okay to run Tor Browser in a Disposable (such as whonix-workstation-17-dvm).

QUESTION:

The Whonix documentation above says that Tor Browser shouldn’t be run in whonix-workstation-17-dvm, and yet, it also says Tor Browser is “Useful to run in Disposables”. Isn’t whonix-workstation-17-dvm a disposable? If so, should we or should we not run Tor Browser in whonix-workstation-17-dvm or any other DisposableVM’s for that matter? The documentation is unclear and has conflicting bits of information. Please advise!

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Do not run Tor Browser in the Disposable Template VM (“-dvm”), but do run Tor Browser in Disposable VMs (“Disposables”) spawned from that Template.

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The Qubes nomenclature around disposables / disposable templates / disposable VMs is confusing IMO, but it’s ingrained, probably no changing it now. Disposable templates in Qubes like default-dvm, whonix-workstation-17-dvm, maybe would have been better named as *-dt (for “disposable template”).

Actual disposables have names like disp2079. If you’re using standard Qubes, then through the GUI you can get a Whonix workstation disposable by selecting whonix-workstation-17-dvm (note the italics) in the launch menu.

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Wiki has been improved just now.

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:+1: A lot clearer now I think, when compared to the most recent snapshot on Wayback Machine

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Thank you for clarifying. I think I understand now!

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Great! Thank you!

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This link to the improved documentation doesn’t seem to work. It says “The connection has timed out. The operation timed out when attempting to contact wwwDOTwhonixDOTorg. Is it the Whonix server or is it something on my end?

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This is much clearer. However, I have a suggestion. I think you should modify a line in “Quick rules”, so the section looks like this:

Quick rules:
• Run Tor Browser only in App Qubes or Disposables (not disposable templates or disposable VM’s, such as default-dvm or whonix-workstation-17-dvm. Instead be sure you are using a disposable. EX: Qubes Menu → default-dvm–> disp2079).
• Run Tor Browser Downloader by Whonix (update-torbrowser) only in the Template and/or in an App Qube.
• Never run Tor Browser or the downloader inside the Disposable Template (whonix-workstation-18-dvm).

Might be a bit redundant, but I don’t think it’s redundant enough to omit my suggested version. Reading the whole thing from start to finished, I still get confused about Disposable’s, DisposableVM’s, and App Qubes. This modification helps reinforce the differences for the reader, earlier on in the documentation, so that the reader understands what you are talking about earlier on the page, thus, making the rest of the page easier to understand.

Just my thoughts. Let me know if you make changes.

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The quick rule modification is incorrect regarding a few information:

  1. whonix-workstation-17-dvm, which is now obsolete against Whonix 18, is a Disposable Template, not a Disposable VM.
  2. “Instead be sure you using a disposable” should be further explicitly defined to “Instead be sure you using a Disposable VM”.

I modified the Qubes Tor Browser Update Template wiki page to state these Quick rules instead:

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