Tor browser not opening

Question

Whenever I start Tor in Ubuntu 13.04, the Vidalia Control Panel opens, loads up and displays a status of "Connected to the Tor network!". However, the tor-infused firefox, does not pop up like it should.

Tor log:

jul. 04 02:09:11.859 [Notice] Tor v0.2.3.25 (git-17c24b3118224d65) running on Linux.
jul. 04 02:09:11.860 [Notice] Tor can't help you if you use it wrong! Learn how to be safe at https://www.torproject.org/download/download#warning
jul. 04 02:09:11.861 [Notice] Read configuration file "/home/joren/.tor-browser/App/../Data/Tor/torrc".
jul. 04 02:09:11.872 [Notice] Initialized libevent version 2.0.21-stable using method epoll (with changelist). Good.
jul. 04 02:09:11.873 [Notice] Opening Socks listener on 127.0.0.1:9150
jul. 04 02:09:11.873 [Notice] Opening Control listener on 127.0.0.1:9151
jul. 04 02:09:11.937 [Notice] Parsing GEOIP file ./Data/Tor/geoip.
jul. 04 02:09:12.178 [Notice] No AES engine found; using AES_* functions.
jul. 04 02:09:12.178 [Notice] This OpenSSL has a good implementation of counter mode; using it.
jul. 04 02:09:12.235 [Notice] OpenSSL OpenSSL 1.0.0k 5 Feb 2013 looks like version 0.9.8m or later; I will try SSL_OP to enable renegotiation
jul. 04 02:09:12.740 [Notice] Reloaded microdescriptor cache.  Found 8497 descriptors.
jul. 04 02:09:12.740 [Notice] I learned some more directory information, but not enough to build a circuit: We have no usable consensus.
jul. 04 02:09:13.758 [Notice] Bootstrapped 5%: Connecting to directory server.
jul. 04 02:09:13.761 [Notice] Heartbeat: Tor's uptime is 0:00 hours, with 1 circuits open. I've sent 0 kB and received 0 kB.
jul. 04 02:09:13.908 [Notice] Bootstrapped 10%: Finishing handshake with directory server.
jul. 04 02:09:14.252 [Notice] Bootstrapped 15%: Establishing an encrypted directory connection.
jul. 04 02:09:14.507 [Notice] Bootstrapped 20%: Asking for networkstatus consensus.
jul. 04 02:09:14.615 [Notice] Bootstrapped 25%: Loading networkstatus consensus.
jul. 04 02:09:16.446 [Notice] We'd like to launch a circuit to handle a connection, but we already have 32 general-purpose client circuits pending. Waiting until some finish.
jul. 04 02:09:16.447 [Notice] Bootstrapped 45%: Asking for relay descriptors.
jul. 04 02:09:16.448 [Notice] I learned some more directory information, but not enough to build a circuit: We have only 113/3851 usable microdescriptors.
jul. 04 02:09:17.755 [Notice] We now have enough directory information to build circuits.
jul. 04 02:09:17.755 [Notice] Bootstrapped 80%: Connecting to the Tor network.
jul. 04 02:09:17.810 [Notice] Bootstrapped 85%: Finishing handshake with first hop.
jul. 04 02:09:17.818 [Notice] Bootstrapped 90%: Establishing a Tor circuit.
jul. 04 02:09:18.156 [Notice] Tor has successfully opened a circuit. Looks like client functionality is working.
jul. 04 02:09:18.157 [Notice] Bootstrapped 100%: Done.

How do I proceed solving this issue?

Solution

Tor Browser 10 fixes Bug 33906: Fix Tor-Launcher issues for Firefox 75.

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Tor Browser (torbrowser-launcher) is available in the default Ubuntu repositories in Ubuntu 16.04 and later. torbrowser-launcher handles downloading the most recent version of Tor Browser Bundle for you, in your language and for your architecture. After installing Tor Browser, it can be launched by searching for tor in the Dash and clicking the Tor Browser icon. The Tor Browser Launcher Settings app is also installed along with Tor Browser.

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Unfortunately the Tor Browser developers change their signing key that is used to install Tor Browser at periodic intervals which makes the torbrowser-launcher package from the default Ubuntu repositories not work because it is not as up-to-date as the current version of Tor Browser.

These are the instructions from the official Tor Browser User Manual in case the Ubuntu torbrowser-launcher package hasn't updated the gpg key that is required to install Tor Browser. When I updated the Tor Browser Developers signing key I noticed that the key that I updated will expire in less than one year.

Install Tor Browser

1. Navigate to the Tor Browser download page.

2. Download the GNU/Linux .tar.xz file

3. (Recommended) Verify the file's signature. The steps for verifying the file's signature are shown below.

4. When the download is complete, extract the archive with the command tar -xf [TB archive] or with the Archive Manager.

5. Navigate to the newly extracted Tor Browser directory. Right-click on start-tor-browser, open Properties and change the permission to Allow executing file as program by clicking the checkbox.

6. Start Tor Browser from the command line by running:

    ./start-tor-browser
   

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Set a keyboard shortcut to start Tor Browser

Remember the location where you downloaded the tor-browser-linux64-xx.x.xx_xx-xx.tar.xz archive. In this example I will call this location /home/your-username/Downloads/ which is the default location of the Downloads directory in Ubuntu if you replace your-username by your own user name.

Remember the directory where you extracted the Tor Browser files. In this example I will call this directory /home/your-username/Downloads/tor-browser_en-US/ where en is the abbreviation for the language and US is the abbreviation for the nation which could be different depending on your language and nation.

Go to Settings -> Keyboard -> View and Customize Shortcuts -> Set Custom Shortcut.

• In the field after Name type Tor Browser.

• In the field after Command type: sh -c '"/home/your-username/Downloads/tor-browser_en-US/Browser/start-tor-browser" --detach || ([ ! -x "/home/your-username/Downloads/tor-browser_en-US/Browser/start-tor-browser" ] && "$(dirname "$*")"/Browser/start-tor-browser --detach)' dummy %k

• In order to fill in an entry in the field after Shortcut press any easy to remember keyboard shortcut combination (e.g. Ctrl + Alt +B).

Now you can start Tor Browser by pressing Ctrl + Alt +B.

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How to verify Tor Browser's signature

Fetching the Tor Developers key

The Tor Browser team signs Tor Browser releases. Import the Tor Browser Developers signing key (0xEF6E286DDA85EA2A4BA7DE684E2C6E8793298290):

gpg --auto-key-locate nodefault,wkd --locate-keys [email protected]

This should show you something like:

gpg: key 4E2C6E8793298290: public key "Tor Browser Developers (signing key) <[email protected]>" imported
gpg: Total number processed: 1
gpg:               imported: 1
pub   rsa4096 2014-12-15 [C] [expires: 2020-08-24]
      EF6E286DDA85EA2A4BA7DE684E2C6E8793298290
uid           [ unknown] Tor Browser Developers (signing key) <[email protected]>
sub   rsa4096 2018-05-26 [S] [expires: 2020-09-12]

After importing the key, you can save it to a file (identifying it by fingerprint here):

gpg --output ./tor.keyring --export 0xEF6E286DDA85EA2A4BA7DE684E2C6E8793298290

Verifying the signature

To verify the signature of the package you downloaded, you will need to download the corresponding ".asc" signature file as well as the installer file itself, and verify it with a command that asks GnuPG to verify the file that you downloaded.

The example below assumes that you downloaded these two files to your Downloads folder.

gpgv --keyring ./tor.keyring ~/Downloads/tor-browser-linux64-9.0_en-US.tar.xz{.asc,}

The result of the command should produce something like this:

gpgv: Signature made 07/08/19 04:03:49 Pacific Daylight Time
gpgv:                using RSA key EB774491D9FF06E2
gpgv: Good signature from "Tor Browser Developers (signing key) <[email protected]>"

Comments

[sameetandpotatoes]

Have you tried stopping Tor and restarting it (without closing the Vidalia program)? I believe that this is a known bug, but this workaround seems to work for me.

[Joren]

Yes, I have tried that and it doesn't seem to work. Thank you for your reply.

[Joren]

I have used the software center to download tor. Maybe i could try it this way.

[karel]

Now I understand what happened. You didn't download the Tor Browser Bundle. Download the Tor Browser Bundle from the Tor Project Download webpage. Choose the version of the Tor Browser Bundle, either 32-bit or 64-bit, that matches your system.

[Admin]

Just a complement: if you do what karel said and you can't open start-tor-browser, it is possible that Files/Nautilus is configured to NOT run exec txt files. To change this, go to Files->Preferences->Behaviors and change the Executable Text Files settings.

[karel]

@user175126: Actually it's Edit->Preferences->Behaviors in Nautilus, and it's not necessary to change the global settings for Executable Text Files in Nautilus. You can use chmod +x to change the permissions of an individual file to allow executing the file as a program.