[tor-bugs] #20691 [Applications/Tor Browser]: Updates are not getting properly applied when trying to update to 6.5a4(-hardened) on Linux

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#20691: Updates are not getting properly applied when trying to update to
6.5a4(-hardened) on Linux
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 Reporter:  gk                        |          Owner:  tbb-team
     Type:  defect                    |         Status:  new
 Priority:  Immediate                 |      Milestone:
Component:  Applications/Tor Browser  |        Version:
 Severity:  Critical                  |     Resolution:
 Keywords:  TorBrowserTeam201611      |  Actual Points:
Parent ID:                            |         Points:
 Reviewer:                            |        Sponsor:
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Comment (by gk):

 Replying to [comment:10 mcs]:
 > It is possible that we missed something, but after reading the updater
 and update service code, Kathy and I have concluded that the only
 workarounds are:
 > * Users can set `app.update.staging.enabled` to false before attempting
 the update.
 > * Users can disable the control port Unix domain socket by setting
 `extensions.torlauncher.control_port_use_socket` to false and restarting
 their browser before attempting the update.
 >
 > The other thing to think about is "what will happen during the next
 update, i.e., 6.5a4 to 6.5a5?" The answer is that updates may fail (since
 the 6.5a4 updater which we already shipped is flawed in the same way as
 the 6.5a3 one). There is some good news though: because of the fix for
 #20185, users who have XDG_RUNTIME_DIR set (most people?) will not
 encounter this bug because the Unix domain sockets will be outside of the
 TB installation directory.
 >
 > If XDG_RUNTIME_DIR is not set, similar workarounds will be needed for
 the 6.5a4 to 6.5a5 update. Note that the "disable Unix domain socket"
 prefs in 6.5a4 are `extensions.torlauncher.control_port_use_ipc` and
 `extensions.torlauncher.socks_port_use_ipc` (both would need to be set to
 false).
 >
 > There are also prefs that control the location of the Unix domain
 sockets; these could be used to ensure that the sockets are created
 somewhere outside of the installation directory.

 Thanks for looking into it. So, what do you suggest? Enabling the updates
 for Linux as well and doing a final update to our blog post? It seems in
 the worst case users are downloading the update again and again until they
 get the "Update failed x times" dialog. Can we say something sensibly on
 it conveying the current issue (with some attribute in the XML files)? I
 guess not? Or would we just leave the updater disabled and getting the
 onion to flash getting users to find the "Check for Tor Browser Update..."
 in the Torbutton menu? I guess this is suboptimal, at least for the reason
 that it is probably an unusal update flow even for alpha users.

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/20691#comment:13>
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