Torbrowser not starting

Patrick · June 15, 2020, 6:30pm

Generally, see Do not start GUI Applications with Root Rights - because that creates file permission issues. Also don’t use sudo to manipulate files in /home/user folder - same reason.

Command

sudo chown --recursive user:user /home/user

fixes permissions issues in user home folder.

firefox-esr

(Debian decision to call it that way.)

but not advised as per Tor Browser Essentials

KVM? See this Whonix / Kicksecure KVM 15.0.1.3.4 Released

a means alpha as in “testing”.

That text is already saying “In most cases you are best off choosing the lowest version number among them.”

I don’t know. It’s a Debian / XFCE question. Best resolved as per Self Support First Policy for Whonix

zuass · June 15, 2020, 10:32pm

Referring to the ERR_NAME_RESOLUTION_FAILED, I do not understand why chromium does not load any tab, I can’t connect to any page. Why can’t I run any browser? Because it seems I have all connection good with whonixcheck.

I have read the correlation and all this stuff. It could be very useful to have a different identity in different workspaces. And the kicksecure vm it seems is to run non-tor connections. But I prefer whonix because it is secure + run tor connection, and the kicksecure vm only is secure.

About torbrowser, I still get the same error, and I do not know what to do:

/usr/bin/torbrowser script bug.

No panic. Nothing is broken. Just some rare condition has been hit.
Try again later. If this is a transient issue, it can be safely ignored.

There is likely a solution for this problem.

* Please see the Whonix News. https://forums.whonix.org/tags/important-news
* Whonix User Help Forum. https://forums.whonix.org
* And Whonix Documentation. https://www.whonix.org/wiki/Tor_Browser

It may or may not be possible to fix but further information may be required.

* Try start from command line. https://www.whonix.org/wiki/Tor_Browser#From_the_Command_Line
* Try start from command line with debugging enabled. https://www.whonix.org/wiki/Tor_Browser#In_Debugging_Mode
* If you don't mind to repair that Tor Browser install, reinstall of Tor Browser would also likely solve this. https://www.whonix.org/wiki/Tor_Browser#reinstall

Debugging information:

BASH_COMMAND: cp --verbose --recursive --no-clobber "/var/cache/tb-binary/$tb_install_folder_dot/$tb_browser_name" "$tb_browser_folder"
exit_code: 1

tb_browser_folder: /home/user/.tb/tor-browser

tb_user_js_target_file: /home/user/.tb/tor-browser/Browser/TorBrowser/Data/Browser/profile.default/user.js

output: /usr/lib/msgcollector/msgcollector
output_opts: --icon /usr/share/icons/anon-icon-pack/tbupdate.ico --parentpid 1846 --identifier torbrowser --parenttty /dev/pts/0 --whoami user
progressbaridx: 

Experts only:
bash -x torbrowser

I execute another time the command you have told me before running tor browser, but no luck.

sudo chown --recursive user:user /home/user

How can I do to run torbrowser without errors? I am a little panic

Patrick · June 16, 2020, 5:58am

There’s no need to panic. This works well for most users for a very long time.

Possibly you’re doing something which you shouldn’t be doing. If something doesn’t work, then often using sudo / root isn’t an option either. It often won’t - unless indicated - solve the issue but cause permission issues.

Could you please run the following command and post the output here? Probably won’t work but good for debugging.

cp --verbose --recursive --no-clobber "/var/cache/tb-binary/.tb/tor-browser" "/home/user/.tb/tor-browser"

Next, delete /var/cache/tb-binary folder. There shouldn’t be anything there unless you know you modified that folder.

sudo rm -r /var/cache/tb-binary

Also delete this /home/user/.tb folder.

sudo rm -r /home/user/.tb

And delete /home/user/.cache/tb folder.

sudo rm -r /home/user/.cache/tb

Then this should be fixed. Does it work now?

Does it break after the while? If yes, what kind of modifications are you making to Tor Browser / running sudo / root inside browser folder?

zuass · June 16, 2020, 10:53pm

You are my man. You solved the problem! This command

cp --verbose --recursive --no-clobber "/var/cache/tb-binary/.tb/tor-browser" "/home/user/.tb/tor-browser"

I had to executed with root privileges because without it, it said I haven’t permissions. Then I did this:

sudo rm -r /var/cache/tb-binary
sudo rm -r /home/user/.tb
sudo rm -r /home/user/.cache/tb

But after I did that, linux just freezed, I did not know why (I do not think it was because the commands I ran, but because some strange error I get since of resizing my swap partition and root partition to give more GB, I think the error is in the swap partition because I runned in recovery mode and said timed out).
But after those commands I took a photo with a external device, and pop up a window saying
“”"
Tor Browser Starter (by Whonix Developers)
Tor Browser is currently not installed.
(Folder /home/user/.tb/tor-browser does not exist.)

Start Tor Browser Downloader (by Whonix Developers)?
“”"
So I restart my computer, and got the same screen after trying to execute tor browser. Then automatically installed tor-browser, using the terminal when clicked ok.

user@host:~$ torbrowser
INFO: Auto detecting ARCH...
INFO: ARCH x86_64 detected.
INFO: Auto detecting ARCH_DOWNLOAD...
INFO: ARCH_DOWNLOAD linux64 detected.
[INFO] [torbrowser-downloader] INFO: CURL_PROXY: --proxy socks5h://tb-updater_865b862f-ad23-463b-bb22-2ed866ed92c5:password@10.152.152.10:9115
[INFO] [torbrowser-downloader] INFO: tbb_version_previous_downloaded_version: none
[INFO] [torbrowser-downloader] INFO: stdin connected to terminal, setting TB_INPUT to stdin, will use terminal for input, ok.
[INFO] [torbrowser-downloader] INFO: Alternatively, if want to run from command line, but still use the graphical user interface for input, you could add to command line: --input gui
INFO: not running inside Qubes DVM Template, ok.
INFO: tbb_download_alpha_version: false
INFO: Running Tor enabled check... Done.
INFO: Running Tor bootstrap check... Done.
INFO: Running connectivity check... 
INFO: CURL_OUT_FILE: /home/user/.cache/tb/temp/tbb_remote_folder
INFO: Connectivity check succeeded.
INFO: Find out latest version... Downloading: https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser/RecommendedTBBVersions... 
INFO: CURL_OUT_FILE: /home/user/.cache/tb/RecommendedTBBVersions
INFO: Done, downloaded https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser/RecommendedTBBVersions.
INFO: tbb_download_alpha_version: false
INFO: Lowest online version might be: 9.5
INFO: Currently installed version: None installed. (Folder /home/user/.tb/tor-browser does not exist.)
Only versions still considered secure should be listed here. Higher version numbers does not necessarily mean more secure here. Could be alpha or beta versions. In most cases you are best off choosing the lowest version number among them.
Learn more about this Download Confirmation Screen.
https://www.whonix.org/wiki/Tor_Browser/Download_Confirmation_Screen
QUESTION: Download now?
n/9.5/10.0a1?
9.5
INFO: Version 9.5 chosen.
INFO: Tor Browser language variable TB_LANG was not yet set. Therefore defaulting TB_LANG to 'en-US', ok.
INFO: Because you are not using --nokilltb, now killing eventually still running instances of Tor Browser...
firefox: no process found
INFO: Downloading GPG signature... Will take a moment...
INFO: Downloading:
      https://dist.torproject.org/torbrowser/9.5/sha256sums-unsigned-build.txt.asc ... Will take a moment...
INFO: CURL_OUT_FILE: /home/user/.cache/tb/files/sha256sums-unsigned-build.txt.asc
INFO: Done, downloaded https://dist.torproject.org/torbrowser/9.5/sha256sums-unsigned-build.txt.asc.
INFO: Downloading sha256sums file... Will take a moment...
INFO: Downloading:
      https://dist.torproject.org/torbrowser/9.5/sha256sums-unsigned-build.txt ... Will take a moment...
INFO: CURL_OUT_FILE: /home/user/.cache/tb/files/sha256sums-unsigned-build.txt
INFO: Done, downloaded https://dist.torproject.org/torbrowser/9.5/sha256sums-unsigned-build.txt.
INFO: Downloading Tor Browser Bundle: 9.5
INFO: Downloading:
      https://dist.torproject.org/torbrowser/9.5/tor-browser-linux64-9.5_en-US.tar.xz ... Will take a while...
INFO: CURL_OUT_FILE: /home/user/.cache/tb/files/tor-browser-linux64-9.5_en-US.tar.xz
INFO: Done, downloaded https://dist.torproject.org/torbrowser/9.5/tor-browser-linux64-9.5_en-US.tar.xz.
INFO: GPG signature verification... This will take a moment...
gpg: WARNING: no command supplied.  Trying to guess what you mean ...
INFO: GPG signature verification ok.
INFO: Checking hash... This will take a moment...
INFO: Hash check ok.
Installation confirmation
Currently installed version:  None installed. (Folder /home/user/.tb/tor-browser does not exist.)
Downloaded version         :  9.5
We have not previously accepted a signature yet. Therefore assisted check for downgrade or indefinite freeze attacks skipped. Please check the Current Signature Creation Date looks sane.
Previous Signature Creation Date:  Unknown. Probably never downloaded a signature before.
Last Signature Creation Date    :  June 01 19:54:51 UTC 2020
According to your system clock, the signature was created 15 days 2 hours 43 minutes 57 seconds ago.
gpg reports:
gpg: Signature made Mon 01 Jun 2020 07:54:51 PM UTC
gpg:                using RSA key EB774491D9FF06E2
gpg: Good signature from "Tor Browser Developers (signing key) " [ultimate]
Primary key fingerprint: EF6E 286D DA85 EA2A 4BA7  DE68 4E2C 6E87 9329 8290
     Subkey fingerprint: 1107 75B5 D101 FB36 BC6C  911B EB77 4491 D9FF 06E2
Learn more about this Installation Confirmation Screen.
https://www.whonix.org/wiki/Tor_Browser/Installation_Confirmation_Screen
QUESTION: Install now?
y/n?
y
INFO: Extracting /home/user/.cache/tb/files/tor-browser-linux64-9.5_en-US.tar.xz ...
extraction percent done: 14 / 100
extraction percent done: 38 / 100
extraction percent done: 51 / 100
extraction percent done: 65 / 100
extraction percent done: 78 / 100
extraction percent done: 91 / 100
extraction percent done: 100 / 100
INFO: Extraction of /home/user/.cache/tb/files/tor-browser-linux64-9.5_en-US.tar.xz done.
INFO: Deleting old folder /home/user/.tb/tor-browser.
INFO: Moving temporary folder /home/user/.cache/tb/tor-browser to /home/user/.tb/tor-browser.
INFO: Deleting no longer required file /home/user/.cache/tb/files/tor-browser-linux64-9.5_en-US.tar.xz to save space.
INFO: Saved 9.5 in /home/user/.cache/tb/tbb_version_last_downloaded_save_file.

chromium is given the same error, but I do not care, I will uninstall chromium and install kicksecure vm, and run a net vm (with free vpn) and connect to that to others vm for non-tor connections.

wikinger · June 17, 2020, 1:26am

Hallo, bin ganz neu, ich habe auch probleme mit dem tor browser, ich kann nicht finden .
ich habe keine ahnung wo er ist.

zuass · June 18, 2020, 5:26pm

Clarify your problem, so we can help you

5h0p1 · April 29, 2021, 5:34pm

Hello I am new I have the same issue it say’s I dont have permission to run the

cp --verbose --recursive --no-clobber “/var/cache/tb-binary/.tb/tor-browser” “/home/user/.tb/tor-browser”

How can I execute it with root privileges?

nurmagoz · April 29, 2021, 5:49pm

5h0p1 · April 29, 2021, 6:04pm

so do I just do sudo/root + command or do I enter it hen put command?

5h0p1 · April 29, 2021, 6:07pm

or could u possibly run me through it on a discord call since I’m a little dumb

nurmagoz · April 29, 2021, 6:24pm

discord is proprietary software which is discouraged to be used anywhere.

please search and learn about using commands in GNU/Linux terminal you
can start with using mint gnu/linux or ubuntu as a starting point.

5h0p1 via Whonix Forum:

5h0p1 · April 29, 2021, 7:10pm

Bruh can u just tell me what command’s to run in what order
please

nurmagoz · April 29, 2021, 9:59pm

try:

sudo cp --verbose --recursive --no-clobber
“/var/cache/tb-binary/.tb/tor-browser” “/home/user/.tb/tor-browser”

5h0p1 via Whonix Forum:

5h0p1 · April 29, 2021, 11:29pm

it says “no such file or directory”
do I also put sudo cp --verbose --recursive --no-clobber ?

Patrick · April 30, 2021, 10:41am

Please read links to Whonix wiki. Answers usually won’t be copied/duplicated here if already answered in wiki.
Safely Use Root Commands

Don’t. There is no need to copy a folder to user home folder and make it owned by root.

Don’t break permissions as per Safely Use Root Commands
Don’t break as per documentation: Tor Browser Essentials

This should also already be mentioned in the error message, link should be already included there.

5h0p1 · April 30, 2021, 12:52pm

well as I said I’m new it gave me a error saying i that tor was not there the first time and said to either debug witch did not work or to run some command to reset the file’s or sum along the line witch also did not work also what do u mean by don’t brake permissions as per? did i brake a rule or something I’m very confused? BTW: I don’t understand coding and scripting that is why i asked if he could just tell me what commands to run in what order I don’t understand what the wiki is saying sorry for the inconvenience

5h0p1 · April 30, 2021, 12:57pm

also I was asking here since I read everything and zuass had the exact same issue as me so I wanted to know how to solve it like him he said he executed the command with root privileges because without it he did not have permission and neither do I.

5h0p1 · April 30, 2021, 1:07pm

ok i made progress I just don’t know how to check my terminal name so I can add it to the list of terminals with root permission’s.

Patrick · April 30, 2021, 1:57pm

Links have been provided to specific chapters that apply here. If you do what’s being said there, that should work.

Also just slowly read the error message. It doesn’t say “do run cp --verbose --recursive”. It’s saying:

Failed to run the following command:

cp --verbose […]

And it’s also mentioning…

To fix this, you could try:

I’ve never head this question.

I’ve never head this question either.

5h0p1 · April 30, 2021, 2:55pm

Nvm it’s fine what I meant by terminal name is that when I was at the file where u need to select what account’s get Root permission’s it said “type list of terminal name’s here” but it’s fine I ended up deleting the gateway and work station and making a new one and it work’s now.