[tor-talk] Tor Browser standalone without videla/tor bundle

[Roger Dingledine]

On Wed, Dec 21, 2011 at 12:21:58PM +0100, Sebastian G. <bastik.tor> wrote:
> > Unfortunally it seams not possible if one is either using the
> > Tor/Videla/Polipo bundle, as Tor/Videla will be already started then.
> > 
> > Rather it's also not possible if one is using Tor as a transparent proxy
> > or Vpn (JanusVM, TorVM...).
> > 
> > So if it won't be to much work I'd like to have a seperate version of Tor
> > Browser.
> > 
> > Or as an alternative some instructions how to take it from there?
> 
> I don't know if that's recommendable, but I changed the torrc,
> vidalia.conf and Aurora (in the TorButton ext.) for testing purpose.
> That works under windows at least.
> 
> torrc
> ...
> ControlPort 9052 // One higher that usual
> SocksPort 9060 // 9050 is the default, any unused should do
> 
> vidalia.conf
> ...
> ControlPort 9052 // has to match the one in torrc
> 
> Torbutton settings
> change the proxy port to the Socks Port in torrc, otherwise the other
> Tor instance might be used, in the case it allows local access.
> 
> Any concerns or additions?

That should work.

Another way to do it, for those who don't like editing text files,
is to go to Vidalia's 'advanced' settings panel and click "Configure
ControlPort automatically" (and then close and restart TBB until it
works). That will make Tor pick random unused ports, have Vidalia learn
about them, and have Vidalia tell Torbutton when it launches Firefox.

That's actually the default behavior on TBB OSX and TBB Linux. We tried
it on Windows, but too many people had antivirus systems that freaked
out when Tor asked the system to give it an unused port.

--Roger