Tor Browser doesn't work in Slackware64-14.2 anymore

FlinchX · 11-09-2021, 10:14 PM

I have Tor Browser installed through the SBo buildscript. Despite SBo not accepting updates for months, it has been working fine, since it can self-update. Until today. I have noticed it downloaded an update, it restarted and ... nothing. Starting tor-browser from console exits with a 255 return code.

I have assumed that the latest update that Tor Browser downloads must be the same as the binary tarball for Linux that is offered on the Tor Browser site.

I downloaded that and ran it, this is the output:

Code:

./start-tor-browser --verbose
XPCOMGlueLoad error for file /home/user/tor-browser_en-US/Browser/libxul.so:
/home/user/tor-browser_en-US/Browser/libxul.so: undefined symbol: gdk_wayland_display_get_wl_compositor
Couldn't load XPCOM.

All I know about wayland is that this is some kind of new thing that is supposed to replace xorg, and that Slackware (14.2 at least) doesn't have it.

What are my options to keep Tor Browser functional? Updating to -current (if Tor Browser happens to work there, which I don't know) is not an option.

LuckyCyborg · 11-10-2021, 01:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FlinchX

I have Tor Browser installed through the SBo buildscript. Despite SBo not accepting updates for months, it has been working fine, since it can self-update. Until today. I have noticed it downloaded an update, it restarted and ... nothing. Starting tor-browser from console exits with a 255 return code.

I have assumed that the latest update that Tor Browser downloads must be the same as the binary tarball for Linux that is offered on the Tor Browser site.

I downloaded that and ran it, this is the output:

Code:

./start-tor-browser --verbose
XPCOMGlueLoad error for file /home/user/tor-browser_en-US/Browser/libxul.so:
/home/user/tor-browser_en-US/Browser/libxul.so: undefined symbol: gdk_wayland_display_get_wl_compositor
Couldn't load XPCOM.

All I know about wayland is that this is some kind of new thing that is supposed to replace xorg, and that Slackware (14.2 at least) doesn't have it.

What are my options to keep Tor Browser functional? Updating to -current (if Tor Browser happens to work there, which I don't know) is not an option.

I suggest you to rollback to an older (and knowing to work) version of Tor Browser and keep using it.

From what the shown error says, the newer versions are linked against libraries with Wayland support, which Wayland does not exists at all on Slackware 14.2

Long story short, looks like the Slackware 14.2 is too old for the latest releases of Tor Browser.

FlinchX · 11-10-2021, 07:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LuckyCyborg

Slackware 14.2 is too old for the latest releases of Tor Browser.

How's the situation on -current?

drgibbon · 11-10-2021, 07:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LuckyCyborg

I suggest you to rollback to an older (and knowing to work) version of Tor Browser and keep using it.

Hm, Tor is one network where I'd really want to stay up to date.

Perhaps a build from source could get Tor working on 14.2 (I'm guessing that's a painful exercise though). Another alternative if you're really stuck could be to install Brave and use its "New private window with Tor" option (Alt-Shift-N; assuming Brave even works on 14.2...).

drgibbon · 11-10-2021, 07:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FlinchX

How's the situation on -current?

Yes it runs, no problem.

vonbiber · 11-10-2021, 07:44 AM

I just launched tor-browser on my slackware 64 14.2.
It updated itself, and it seems to work ok.
I attached a screenshot.

FlinchX · 11-10-2021, 07:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by drgibbon

Brave

This is not an option as well. Never used Brave with Tor, and won't. And it already compromised Tor users at least once

https://www.techradar.com/in/news/br...k-web-activity

FlinchX · 11-10-2021, 07:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vonbiber

I just launched tor-browser on my slackware 64 14.2.
It updated itself, and it seems to work ok.
I attached a screenshot.

What's the output of `start-tor-browser -v` ?

vonbiber · 11-10-2021, 09:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FlinchX

What's the output of `start-tor-browser -v` ?

The screenshot shows the browser version: 10.5.6

I must say that I didn't use a SlackBuild to install the browser.
I extracted the files in one mounted partition.
The full path is

Code:

/mnt/sda3/www/torbrowser/Browser/start-tor-browser

and the contents of that directory:

Code:

#cd /mnt/sda3/www/torbrowser/Browser/start-tor-browser
# ls -F
Browser/ start-tor-browser.desktop

I edited the file start-tor-browser.desktop to reflect that.

Code:

# grep 'Exec=\|Icon' start-tor-browser.desktop
Exec=sh -c '"/mnt/sda3/www/torbrowser/Browser/start-tor-browser" --detach || \
 ([ !  -x "/mnt/sda3/www/torbrowser/Browser/start-tor-browser" ] && \
 "$(dirname "$*")"/Browser/start-tor-browser --detach)' dummy %k
Icon=/mnt/sda3/www/torbrowser/Browser/browser/chrome/icons/default/default128.png

(Exec=... is a single line)

I ran the command with the -v option thus

Code:

# sh -c "/mnt/sda3/www/torbrowser/Browser/start-tor-browser -v"

The terminal displayed a bunch info, and towards the beginning:

Code:

Tor 0.4.5.10 (git-fd74f7628eba2525) running on Linux with Libevent 2.1.12-stable,
 OpenSSL 1.1.1l, Zlib 1.2.8, Liblzma N/A, Libzstd N/A and Glibc 2.23 as libc.

Does that answer your question?

drgibbon · 11-10-2021, 09:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vonbiber

The screenshot shows the browser version: 10.5.6

The latest version is 11.0 though, does that run for you on 14.2?

Quote:

Originally Posted by FlinchX

This is not an option as well. Never used Brave with Tor, and won't. And it already compromised Tor users at least once

Fair enough. I'd move to -current myself, although another option would be Tor inside Whonix/VirtualBox.

phenixia2003 · 11-10-2021, 10:05 AM

Hello,

gentoo is impacted too by this as stated in this bug report.

--
SeB

enorbet · 11-10-2021, 12:01 PM

So far - LibreWolf looks quite interesting.

jbuckley2004 · 11-10-2021, 01:22 PM

Tor browser 11 is not working correctly in Fedora 35 (Wayland, fully updated) KDE either. But I think my symptoms are a bit different. Seems like all that text that goes in a "click" box (for instance, the text that goes along with the icon in each tab) is indecipherable. Looks like a graphic icon of some sort for each letter.

Everything's in the same order as my firefox browser, so I can often make out what it's supposed to be, but it's not unusable.

vtel57 · 11-12-2021, 03:25 PM

The Tor 10.5.6 is the last version that I can run on my Slackware64 14.2. Tor Browser v.11 will not run. This is annoying.

vtel57 · 11-12-2021, 03:38 PM

Read more here --> https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/ap...-/issues/40693