Question

2

Vidalia: "Tor is not running"

rated 0 times [ 2] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 15247 / 2 Years ago, sat, june 11, 2022, 11:41:42

This is what I've done:

Installed Tor:
```
sudo apt-get install tor 
```

Installed Vidalia using the Ubuntu Software Center

I then started Vidalia and it said Tor is not running including an error message saying that Vidalia was unable to start Tor.

Tor not running

I searched a bit and I've found out that the problem can be that Tor is already running when Vidalia gets started.

These were my further steps:

Removed Tor from the runlevels
```
sudo update-rc.d -f tor remove 
```

Killed all Tor processes
```
sudo pkill -x tor 
```

Vidialia still displayed the same error messages upon starting it.

The path to Tor in the settings should actually be correct:

/usr/sbin/tor

I verified its existence.

However, I cannot click OK in the settings dialog because the ControlSocket path does not exist. It defaults to /var/run/tor/control

I then activated the Control Socket 9051 in Tor's configuration file (/etc/tor/torrc) and edited Vidalia's settings accordingly.
I also reset Vidalia's path to that Tor config file.

Unfortunately, I'm still getting the same error as above!

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ticeate

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answered 2 Years ago oneeme · Accepted Answer

OP posted:

I tried to manually start Tor (by typing /usr/sbin/tor in the terminal) and afterwards Vidalia and it works perfectly.

From the documentation of Vidalia:

I Can't Start Tor

The most likely reason that Vidalia could not start Tor is because
Vidalia is looking for your Tor installation in the wrong directory.
You can tell Vidalia where Tor is located by updating the Tor
Executable option in the general configuration settings. Another
possible reason that Tor cannot start is because there is already
another Tor process running. Check your list of running process and
stop the previous Tor process, if you find one. Then, try running Tor
again.

If that did not help, check your message log to see if Tor printed any
information about errors it encountered while trying to start.

Vidalia Can't Connect to Tor

Vidalia manages Tor by communicating with it via Tor's control port.

The most common reason that Vidalia cannot connect to Tor is because
Tor started, but encountered an error and exited immediately. You
should check your message log to see if Tor reported any errors while
it started.

If Tor is listening on a different port than Vidalia expects, Vidalia
will be unable to connect to Tor. You rarely need to change this
setting, but if there is another service running on your machine that
conflicts with Tor's control port, you will need to specify a
different port. You can change this setting in Vidalia's advanced
configuration settings.

Tor Exited Unexpectedly

If Tor exits immediately after trying to start, you most likely have
another Tor process already running. Check the message log to see if
any of the last few messages in the list are highlighted in yellow and
contain a message similar to the following:
connection_create_listener(): Could not bind to 127.0.0.1:9050: Address already in use. 

Is Tor already running?
If you find an error message like the one above, you will need to stop
the other Tor process before starting a new one with Vidalia. On
Windows, you would need to look for tor.exe in your Task Manager. On
most other operating systems, the ps command can help you find the
other Tor process.

If Tor had been running successfully for awhile (that is, longer than
a few seconds), then you should check the message log for information
about any errors Tor experienced before it exited. Such errors will be
highlighted in either red or yellow.