This doubletalk is driving me nuts

[Praedor Atrebates]

On Thursday 04 June 2009 13:31:34 Ted Smith wrote:
> On Thu, 2009-06-04 at 13:28 -0400, Praedor Atrebates wrote:
> > I have just built and installed tor-0.2.1.15-rc in replacement for my
> > previous 0.2.0.34 version.
> >
> > Nothing has changed from before this upgrade, not the location or entries
> > in my torrc, not the perms on tor, not the perms on /var/lib/tor, etc. 
> > When I try to start tor via vidalia, it now fails with messages:
> >
> > Jun 04 13:23:43.160 [Warning] Error setting groups to gid 85: "Operation
> > not permitted".
> > Jun 04 13:23:43.160 [Warning] If you set the "User" option, you must
> > start Tor as root.
> > Jun 04 13:23:43.160 [Warning] Failed to parse/validate config: Problem
> > with User value. See logs for details.
> > Jun 04 13:23:43.160 [Error] Reading config failed--see warnings above.
> >
> >
> > I have a "toruser" group set on my system.  I am a member of the toruser
> > group.  It worked before, but now it doesn't.  Then there is the
> > doubletalk - "you must start tor as root" !!!!????  I read that it is a
> > bad idea and totally unnecessary to run tor as root and here this message
> > is telling me I MUST run it as root all of a sudden.
> >
> > I want vidalia to start tor when I run it as a mere user who happens to
> > be a member of the toruser group.  How do I do this?  Nothing I do with
> > the vidalia settings changes anything and I am still prevented from
> > running tor and I will not run it as root.
> >
> > Someone, please explain/help?
> >
> > thx
> > praedor
>
> If you set the "User" option in torrc, Tor will try to change uid to
> that user. That capability is only available to the root user. If you
> want to run Tor as a lower user from the start, unset the "User" option.


Thanks, but if I unset the user option then it fails to start because it 
cannot create /var/lib/tor (which exists and is owned by toruser.toruser of 
which I am a member).

I do not want the lib/tor in my home I want it in one single location on my 
system.  This worked before I upgraded to 0.2.1.15-rc so I don't understand 
why it refuses now.

praedor
-- 
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