[tor-qa] Tor Browser 7.0a3 is ready for testing

[Mark Smith]

On 4/19/17 8:41 AM, Wilton Gorske wrote:
> Testing: TorBrowser-7.0a3-osx64_en-US.dmg (based on Mozilla Firefox
> 52.1.0) (64-bit)
> Platform: macOS 10.12.4 (16E195)
> 
> TBB Launches successfully: yes
> Connects to the Tor network: yes
> Browser toolbars and menus work, tab dragging works: yes
> Circuit display present: yes
> 
> *Able to create new identity: NO*
> *Able to create new tor circuit for site: NO*
> Note that these errors only apply to a TBB instance running from a disk
> image. Copying the app to the Downloads folder works as expected.
> Screenshot:
> https://cl.ly/2N0O362k0m1o/Image%202017-04-19%20at%2008.09.10.png
> "Torbutton: Unexpected error during offline cache clearing:
> [Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80040111
> (NS_ERROR_NOT_AVAILABLE) [nsICacheStorage.asyncEvictStorage]"  nsresult:
> "0x80040111 (NS_ERROR_NOT_AVAILABLE)"  location: "JS frame ::
> chrome://torbutton/content/torbutton.js :: torbutton_do_new_identity ::
> line 1190"  data: no]"
> There is no error when trying to create a new tor circuit for a site;
> nothing happens but the circuit display is exactly the same.
> 
> Also, unlike when saving a local copy, when running off a disk image,
> all my bookmarks are preserved and two tabs open on the first run: the
> successful update and changelog, and the homepage with the warning the
> bundle is out of date. This is good though; it's very helpful to be able
> to preserve bookmarks across TBB updates.
> 
> I'm an unable to view add ons (Tools>Add Ons) when running from a disk
> image as well. I get stuck with a loading gif:
> https://cl.ly/2W1W412N433U/Screen%20Recording%202017-04-19%20at%2008.08.gif

Thank you for testing our Tor Browser alpha candidate!
Unfortunately, there are some known issues with running directly from
the dmg. See:
  https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/21445
For now, please do not run from a disk image.

> Note: Saving TorBrowser.app to the Downloads folder and running it
> created another folder in Downloads called "TorBrowser-Data". This makes
> sense, but I don't think I've noticed this before when testing other
> bundles the same way.

On macOS, Tor Browser always stores user profile and other configuration
data in a TorBrowser-Data folder. That folder will be created next to
the application if the app is not inside a folder that has
"Applications" in the name (which is the behavior you saw when you ran
from your Downloads folder). When Tor Browser is installed in
/Applications or ~/Applications, the TorBrowser-Data folder is located
at ~/Library/Application Support/TorBrowser-Data/

> All extensions are present and functional: yes
>  - HTTPS-Everywhere 5.2.14
>  - NoScript 5.0.2
>  - TorButton 1.9.7.2
>  - TorLauncher 0.2.12
> 
> WebBrowsing works as expected:
>  - HTTP, HTTPS, .onion browsing works (http://duskgytldkxiuqc6.onion/)
>  - HTML5 videos work on http://videojs.com/ and YouTube
> 
> SOCKS/external apps work as expected: NO
> 
> This is probably the biggest issue. I was not able to send an email
> using Thunderbird + Torbirdy except when running the Tor Browser 6.5.1.

The alpha Tor Browser uses a Unix domain socket for its SOCKS port,
which means you will need to make some adjustments to provide a TCP
SOCKS port (which is what Torbirdy expects). One simple solution is to
use about:config to toggle the following preference so its value is false:
  extensions.torlauncher.socks_port_use_ipc
The other solution is to edit your torrc file (using a text editor) to
add an additional SocksPort for Torbirdy.

> Some or all of these issues might be because I'm running TBB off of a
> disk image or from my Downloads folder as opposed to actually installing
> it over the current stable version in the Applications folder. Feel free
> to let me know if I'm testing this incorrectly.

It should be fine to run from any location other than a read-only file
system such as the disk image.

> ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
> 
> Sandboxed Tor Browser:
> 
> I'm probably doing something wrong here, but I can't get this to work.
> 1. Download and open Tor Browser disk image TorBrowser-7.0a3-osx64_en-US.dmg
> 2. Copy "Sandboxed Tor Browser" folder to Downloads
> 3. Copy TorBrowser.app into the folder
> 4. Open terminal and execute start-tor-with-sandbox file
> Get error message: sandbox-exec: tor.sb: No such file or directory
> (I see the tor.sb file in the folder, though.)
> 5. Decide to keep going anyway and execute start-browser-with-sandbox
> Get error message: sandbox-exec: /Users/wiltongorske/tb.sb: No such file
> or directory

Please cd to the "Sandboxed Tor Browser" directory before running the
./start-tor-with-sandbox and ./start-browser-with-sandbox commands. That
said, we still need to update the macOS sandbox rules to be compatible
with the browser's multiprocess mode (see
https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/22000). For now, you can
workaround that problem by doing something like this:
  MOZ_FORCE_DISABLE_E10S=1 ./start-browser-with-sandbox

-- 
Mark Smith
Pearl Crescent
http://pearlcrescent.com/