Tor Browser+VPN?

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mackronickson
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Joined: Sat Oct 13, 2018 4:33 am

Tor Browser+VPN?

#1 Post by mackronickson »

Just started using MX Linux 17.1 little over a week ago (as LiveCD), and plan to install on my secondary HDD early next month. Never really used Linux before now. Anyway, is there an easy (non-CLI) way to install Tor Browser, and tie it to a VPN? Something a newbie can do, or do I need to have my tech guy come by to handle it? I want the Tor Browser, but not the deadly slow Tor Network...I have TAILS CD for that. Thanks for any help.

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Last edited by mackronickson on Tue Oct 16, 2018 4:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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richb
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Re: Tor Browser+VPN?

#2 Post by richb »

Tor and Privoxy are available via the MX Package Installer/Popular Applications/Network. I am not sure of the release number, the configuration or if the browser is included as I messed with it some time ago and just opted for a VPN.

The Tor browser is available from their website and should install in MX.
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fehlix
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Re: Tor Browser+VPN?

#3 Post by fehlix »

mackronickson wrote: Tue Oct 16, 2018 11:19 am I want the Tor Browser, but not the deadly slow Tor Network...I have TAILS CD for that. Thanks for any help.
You might consider to post a package request within this sub forum Package Requests/Status - MX 17.
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skidoo
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Re: Tor Browser+VPN?

#4 Post by skidoo »

Repackaging TorBrowser would break the chain of trust.

Here's a list of steps (possibly incomplete) howto achieve "just the browser" after installing the official TorBrowserBundle package:

From within a running TorBrowser instance:
1) Visit "Preferences > Advanced > Network > Settings"; speciffy "No proxy" and uncheck "Remote DNS"
2) Type "about:addons" in address bar; disable the "Torbutton" extension
3) optional (but probably necessary to prevent your changes from being overwritten): specify "disable automatic updates" in preferences
4) optional (suggested): Change the user-agent string reported by the browser, by visiting "about:config" and editing the prefkey named "general.useragent.override"
(or create a new prefkey of that name if it doesn't already exist)

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:62.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/62.0
or
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:62.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/62.0
... or maybe you'd prefer to spoof Chromium in the user-agent string?

After making the above changes, shutdown the browser and
1) edit the .desktop "launcher" file to directly invoke the browser executable (vs torbutton wrapper script)
2) perform a desktop menu update/refresh/rebuild
3) (optional) launch synaptic, inspect the list of "installed files" for torbrowser package. Delete from disk (or just rename until certain) any non-needed installed files.

Upon restarting the browser, some further tweaks to various default preference values will probably be desirable.
Maybe you don't want the browser to automatically startup in "pRiVaTe BrOwSiNg" mode each session.
Maybe you don't care to have the other pre-packaged addons activated (NoScript? hPeeEvywhere?) ...

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fehlix
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Re: Tor Browser+VPN?

#5 Post by fehlix »

skidoo wrote: Tue Oct 16, 2018 3:16 pm Repackaging TorBrowser would break the chain of trust.
Yes, I know. We have a couple of "remote installer" packages within our popular apps.
The packaging team will certainly find a way to handle such requests, when nicely formulated :p
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MichealHeitz
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Apr 13, 2018 3:51 pm

Re: Tor Browser+VPN?

#6 Post by MichealHeitz »

skidoo wrote: Tue Oct 16, 2018 3:16 pm Repackaging TorBrowser would break the chain of trust.

Here's a list of steps (possibly incomplete) howto achieve "just the browser" after installing the official TorBrowserBundle package:

From within a running TorBrowser instance:
1) Visit "Preferences > Advanced > Network > Settings"; speciffy "No proxy" and uncheck "Remote DNS"
2) Type "about:addons" in address bar; disable the "Torbutton" extension
3) optional (but probably necessary to prevent your changes from being overwritten): specify "disable automatic updates" in preferences
4) optional (suggested): Change the user-agent string reported by the browser, by visiting "about:config" and editing the prefkey named "general.useragent.override"
(or create a new prefkey of that name if it doesn't already exist)

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:62.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/62.0
or
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:62.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/62.0
... or maybe you'd prefer to spoof Chromium in the user-agent string?

After making the above changes, shutdown the browser and
1) edit the .desktop "launcher" file to directly invoke the browser executable (vs torbutton wrapper script)
2) perform a desktop menu update/refresh/rebuild
3) (optional) launch synaptic, inspect the list of "installed files" for torbrowser package. Delete from disk (or just rename until certain) any non-needed installed files.

Upon restarting the browser, some further tweaks to various default preference values will probably be desirable.
Maybe you don't want the browser to automatically startup in "pRiVaTe BrOwSiNg" mode each session.
Maybe you don't care to have the other pre-packaged addons activated (NoScript? hPeeEvywhere?) ...
Very nicely put.....thanks

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