A Script to Install the Tor Browser Bundle

[vitex]

Another problem occurs whan starting the Tor Browser a second time. Just the top name bar of Vidalia is shown unless you maximize it (in which case everything is visible) but then it seems that you have to correct the time for the Tor Browser to work.

I cannot reproduce your problem.  I built a Tor Browser extension and installed it after booting both  the 3.8.4 and the 4.0rc1 ISOs.  In both cases the Vidalia control panel was normal after two or more invocations of the Tor Browser.

I suggest that you try your version of the extension on the 3.8.4 ISO.

[meo]

Hi vitex!

Thanks for your suggestions! I don't change the time to a local time since I get the right time just starting the system. I get the same problem with Vidalia using TC 3.8.4. I forgot to mention that I use fluxbox in my 3.8.4 system. Maybe that's the problem with tha latest stable version of TC. Will keep on trying to get it right. Thanks for your suggestions!!!

Have fun with TC,
meo

[netnomad]

hi vitex,

i can confirm some observations of meo.
i use the tor-bundle on 3.8.4 in fluxbox and when i start it a second time at the beginning only the name bar of the vitalia window is displayed and there is no way to maximize it in that phase.
but i think that problem occurs during that time when tor is preparing and establishing the tor-connection
(during that time the onion is yellow).
later, after establishing the tor-connection the vitalia window maximizes to the normal size,
(after the the onion changed from yellow to green).
when i had more problems, i just deleted the tor-directory and the next start succeeded without problems.
and then the tor-bundle-script just works fine!!!

[vitex]

i use the tor-bundle on 3.8.4 in fluxbox and when i start it a second time at the beginning only the name bar of the vitalia window is displayed and there is no way to maximize it in that phase.

I tried the Tor Browser Bundle with fluxbox, icewm, flwm, wmaker, and jwm.  Only fluxbox had the quirky behavior that you and meo have observed.

[meo]

Hi vitex!

I'm using a brand new installation of TC 3.8.4 on a SD memory card (4 GB). When Vidalia starts it turns the time back two hours (to UTC time I believe). If i correct the time the Torbrowser still works it seems. I tried the: getTime.sh ; hwclock --utc --systohc command but got an error message: hwclock: can't open '/dev/misc/rtc': No such file or directory. After what I can see TC uses the hwclock time on this computer which is UTC+2 with daylight savings time (otherwise UTC + 1). Is there some way to change the script to use local time instead of UTC? As I mentioned before, torbrowser works OK after correcting the time so it's no big deal but it would be nice not having to correct the time when I use the torbrowser. Thanks for your good work!

Have fun working with TC,
meo

[meo]

Hi again vitex!

I've been thinking about a solution of the "time problem". Is there a way to change the script to use hwtime instead of UTC? If there is it would solve the problem for anyone that uses the script (anywhere in the world). Since I'm not so familiar with scripting, I'd be very grateful if you could instruct me how to make this change. Then I could test it on my system right away. Thanks beforehand!!!

Have fun giving us more options how to use TC,
meo

[meo]

Hi!

By the way it seems that it was fluxbox causing Vidala to show only the titlebar starting torbrowser a second time. Not using fluxbox solved that problem.

Have fun making useful scripts available vitex,
meo

[vitex]

I tried the: getTime.sh ; hwclock --utc --systohc command but got an error message: hwclock: can't open '/dev/misc/rtc': No such file or directory. After what I can see TC uses the hwclock time on this computer which is UTC+2 with daylight savings time (otherwise UTC + 1).

The hwclock command failed because I forgot to tell you to use sudo.  Do not execute that until you have tried a few more tests.

Boot your system and execute

    tce-load -wi ntpclient.tcz ; ntpclient -c 1 -h pool.ntp.org | awk '{print $5/(60*60*1000000)}'

which will report the number hours that your system clock is offset.  My guess is that the offset will be about 2 hours, which corresponds to the difference between your local time and UTC.

Boot your system again with the noutc bootcode (tinycore noutc ...) and execute the same commands.  My guess is that the offset will be very small.

What I believe is happening is that the Tor Browser script is having to make a large adjustment to the system time because you did not include the noutc bootcode to tell tinycore that the hardware clock is using local time instead of UTC.  If I am wrong about that, please report what the showbootcodes command prints.

If you decide that you would like to change your hardware clock from local time to UTC, execute

    getTime.sh ; sudo hwclock --utc --systohc

[meo]

Hi!

Right off the bat I can tell you that I got the same result using sudo <command>. I'll see what I can come up with following your suggestions.

Have fun helping TC users,
meo

[meo]

Hi again vitex!

Following your suggestion giving the command to get the time offset gives almost the same results in both cases. Is there something else needed except noutc to get the local time? I can see during bootup that UTC time is set. Don't know what to do to prevent that.

Have fun using TC vitex,
meo

[meo]

Hi again vitex!

I'm getting the feeling that I should "get out of your hair". It makes me frustrated too but even using a cd I get the same result using the noutc boot code (well -1.98074 versus -1.98076). I guess I'm stuck with changing the time when using the torbrowser. Thanks for all your help!!!

Have fun even if I'm bugging you,
meo

[meo]

Hi vitex!

Have tried to make the script work with TC 4.2 but I can't make it work. I think it needs an update?

Have fun,
meo

[vitex]

Try the new version of the getTorBrowser.sh script that is attached to the original announcement.  It should work with 4.2 as well as earlier releases. 

By default the Tor Browser Bundle uses a random port number so its version of Tor will not interfere with the stand-alone version.  The new version of the script has a -t option that configures the extension so the Bundle's version of Tor listens on port 9050 and can thus be used in place of the stand-alone version of Tor.

[meo]

Hi again vitex!

Works perfect! Thanks a lot!

Have fun helping out on the TC board,
meo

P.S. Posting this from the newly created TorBrowser D.S.

[grandma]

Beautiful job on the script and instructions - downloaded the GZ - followed step by step - and within an hour had it all automated nicely - can flip back and forth from minimal Aurora (Firefox - ala TOR) and regular full flash Firefox - automated the PREFS.JS file ...very sweet - nice job - thank you.

HOWEVER - I gotta feeling my ISP is blocking - not sure - tried the BRIDGES METHOD (TOR solution) - but I get a "Vidalia goes half way" bar - then stalls...nothing cures it - tried a different wifi hit - they may have it blocked as well.

So...perhaps its the PROXY SETTINGS? I saw something where you set them all to localhost 8118 - and the last one to 9050 - tried that - same problems - halfway - stalls - hangs - no TOR.

I also don't see a "TOR BUTTON" or any other indicator that the Aurora browser is using TOR....

Any help is appreciated - will be scanning torproject for clues as well.

Thank you again.