Bug #16473

"Tor is not ready. Start Tor Browser anyway?" dialog when opening a link in Thunderbird

Added by sajolida 2019-02-19 16:58:25 . Updated 2019-02-21 15:35:05 .

Status:
Resolved
Priority:
Elevated
Assignee:
Category:
Target version:
Tails_4.0
Start date:
2019-02-19
Due date:
% Done:

100%

Feature Branch:
Type of work:
Code
Blueprint:

Starter:
Affected tool:
Email Client
Deliverable for:

Description

To reproduce:

  • Start Tails
  • Connect to Tor
  • Open Thunderbird
  • Click on a link in an email

I get “Tor is not ready. Start Tor Browser anyway?” while Tor is started already.

I thought we already had a ticket for that but I can’t find it.

I think it’s a regression.

Subtasks

Related issues

Related to Tails - Feature #8061: Customize "Proxy is refusing connections" error messages in Tor Browser and remove the "Tor is not ready" popup Confirmed 2014-10-11
Is duplicate of Tails - Bug #16169: Inconsistent "Tor is not ready" notification Duplicate 2018-11-29

History

#1 Updated by sajolida 2019-02-19 16:58:38

Assigning to intrigeri for triaging.

#2 Updated by intrigeri 2019-02-19 17:53:38

  • related to Feature #8061: Customize "Proxy is refusing connections" error messages in Tor Browser and remove the "Tor is not ready" popup added

#3 Updated by intrigeri 2019-02-19 17:54:55

  • Assignee set to intrigeri

sajolida wrote:
> Assigning to intrigeri for triaging.

Good idea :)

#4 Updated by intrigeri 2019-02-19 17:57:03

  • Subject changed from Thunderbird thinks that Tor is not started when opening a link to "Tor is not ready. Start Tor Browser anyway?" dialog when opening a link in Thunderbird

(This dialog is not displayed by Thunderbird itself: it comes from /usr/local/bin/tor-browser.)

#5 Updated by intrigeri 2019-02-19 18:21:17

  • Status changed from Confirmed to Resolved
  • Assignee deleted (intrigeri)
  • Target version set to Tails_4.0
  • % Done changed from 0 to 100

This does ring a bell but I could not find another ticket about it either.

I’ve reproduced this bug. Thunderbird runs /bin/sh /usr/local/bin/tor-browser $URL under the sanitized_helper AppArmor profile, which prevents execution of /usr/local/sbin/tor-has-bootstrapped. This was (incidentally) fixed in AppArmor upstream and the fix is in Buster ⇒ marking as resolved in 4.0.

Looking at code history, it seems that this bug has been here for at least 3 years (but I did not test with older versions of Tails) so I guess we can wait 8 more months. But if that’s a recent regression, we should probably backport the fix to Tails 3.x (and drop the backport on feature/buster).

Note that fixing Feature #8061 would also fix this bug, in addition to bringing other UX improvements.

#6 Updated by emmapeel 2019-02-20 07:35:18

A user has written scared to support yesterday with the same issue…

That leads me to believe on the regression hypothesis.

#7 Updated by klaudiaisnotmyname 2019-02-20 11:17:37

emmapeel wrote:
> A user has written scared to support yesterday with the same issue…
>
> That leads me to believe on the regression hypothesis.

i am the “scared user” reporting this, from within Tails 3.12.1. while i haven’t used Tails in a longer while, i can tell that at least Tails 3.12 already had this issue. i stumbled upon it prior upgrading to 3.12.1. earlier versions i cannot tell.

#8 Updated by intrigeri 2019-02-21 08:22:48

> That leads me to believe on the regression hypothesis.

This is indeed a regression, introduced at some point between Tails 3.5 (20180123) and 3.7.1 (20180610). Fixing this earlier than 4.0 would take ~1h of FT time. Given it took at least 8 months for someone to report this bug, and this does not fully prevent opening links from email, I’m unsure it’s worth it and I’m inclined to focus our limited resources on higher impact problems.

#9 Updated by sajolida 2019-02-21 14:35:14

> Given it took at least 8 months for someone to report this bug

Please don’t rely on reported bugs to judge the frequency and severeness
of UX issues. Feature #15678 hasn’t been reported to us in 4 years.

> I’m unsure it’s worth it and I’m inclined to focus our limited resources on higher impact problems.

Nonetheless, I agree!

#10 Updated by intrigeri 2019-02-21 15:35:05

> Please don’t rely on reported bugs to judge the frequency and severeness of UX issues. Feature #15678 hasn’t been reported to us in 4 years.

Very true, thanks for the reminder.

FTR I try to always take this tiny piece of data with a big grain of salt (even if that’s all the data I have access to wrt. frequency), and to use other criteria when evaluating impact (“this does not fully prevent opening links from email”).

#11 Updated by intrigeri 2019-04-16 07:38:08

  • is duplicate of Bug #16169: Inconsistent "Tor is not ready" notification added