how can I check if Tor is running?
 

Xubuntu Dapper, Firefox 1.5.0.7

sudo apt-get install privoxy
sudo apt-get install tor

And yet, upon configuring my browser proxy settings as per the instructions on tor website, I can't get anything. How can I check to make sure Tor is even running? Any way to see if Tor is able to get anything from the internet?

So to see if something is running I would use
of course you can also use 'top' which will tell you the current processes that are taking up the most cpu cycles. To see if something is taking to the internet I would use
it's really useful and has tons of options which are nice and helpful.