Feature #7438

Design a progress indicator until Tor is ready

Added by Anonymous 2014-06-22 00:25:50 . Updated 2017-07-10 19:15:46 .

Status:
Duplicate
Priority:
Normal
Assignee:
Category:
Target version:
Start date:
2014-06-22
Due date:
% Done:

0%

Feature Branch:
Type of work:
User interface design
Blueprint:

Starter:
0
Affected tool:
Deliverable for:

Description

suggestion by sajolida:
Maybe something like this VPN indicator, replacing the padlock with an
onion: https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/GnomeShell/Design/Research/StatusIndicators#Network-3


Subtasks


Related issues

Related to Tails - Bug #7721: "Tor is ready" notification sometimes appears before the end of time synchronization Resolved 2014-08-02
Blocks Tails - Feature #7440: Implement a progress indicator while establishing a connection to Tor Duplicate 2014-06-22

History

#1 Updated by intrigeri 2014-06-22 00:52:41

  • blocks Feature #7440: Implement a progress indicator while establishing a connection to Tor added

#2 Updated by intrigeri 2014-06-22 00:53:20

  • Subject changed from Design a progress indicator to Design a progress indicator while establishing a connection to Tor

#3 Updated by sajolida 2014-06-22 09:31:59

Actually, having a progress bar, like in the Tor launcher would be even
better.

Especially on crappy connections to know if it’s worth waiting :)

#4 Updated by intrigeri 2014-07-19 16:12:31

I’m unsure about having progress information about connecting to the Tor network only: even once Tor is ready, at least for some usecases, one also needs to wait for the time to have been synchronized. So, I’m tempted to rephrase this ticket into “Design a progress indicator while establishing a fully-working Internet connection”, which would cover both (and anything else that the user is supposed to wait for before attempting to connect to online services). Thoughts?

#5 Updated by sajolida 2014-07-21 10:27:33

That makes sense to me. But maybe there is only a misunderstanding on
terminology here, as for me “a connection to Tor” is established once
the “Tor is ready” notification appeared. And that is already after time
synchronization.

But maybe I missed something, could you clarify what else do you mean by
“anything else that the user is supposed to wait for before attempting
to connect to online services”?

#6 Updated by intrigeri 2014-07-21 10:37:23

> That makes sense to me.

OK, good.

> But maybe there is only a misunderstanding on terminology here, as
> for me “a connection to Tor” is established once the “Tor is ready”
> notification appeared. And that is already after
> time synchronization.

Yes and no: it’s after the initial rough time synchronization (via the Tor consensus), but when “Tor is ready”, the finer-grained htpdate time sync’ process is still running, and the user is shown a notification that tells them “Synchronizing the system’s clock” and “Tor needs an accurate clock to work properly, especially for Hidden Services. Please wait…” until htpdate is done.

#7 Updated by sajolida 2014-07-31 16:07:30

  • Subject changed from Design a progress indicator while establishing a connection to Tor to Design a progress indicator until Tor is ready

In the tests I did the notification about time sync disappeared way before the “Tor is ready notification”, but indeed there was sometimes still an htpdate process running in the background.

I didn’t know that even when the “Tor is ready” notification appeared, Tor was not “fully-working” in some cases… Nitpicking aside, can this have concrete implications for the user in terms of usability?

- If so, then maybe the “Tor is ready” notification needs to be fixed to appear only when “ready” means “fully-working”.
- Otherwise, a progress bar until this notification appears would be enough I guess.

Anyway, I think the idea here is to match the end of the progress bar with the “Tor is ready” notification.

#8 Updated by intrigeri 2014-08-01 15:07:13

> I didn’t know that even when the “Tor is ready” notification appeared, Tor was not “fully-working” in some cases… Nitpicking aside, can this have concrete implications for the user in terms of usability?

I think there are two possible problems with using Tor before the time is correct:

  1. we want all Tails users to have the same clock, as part of the protection against fingerprinting Tails tries to provide;
  2. IIRC, accessing hidden services can be problematic when one’s clock is not correct; the notification we display tends to confirm my (poor) memory; sadly, I don’t remember the details.

> - If so, then maybe the “Tor is ready” notification needs to be fixed to appear
> only when “ready” means “fully-working”.

Yes, probably.

> Anyway, I think the idea here is to match the end of the progress bar with the “Tor is ready” notification.

Agreed.

#9 Updated by sajolida 2014-08-02 10:13:31

  • related to Bug #7721: "Tor is ready" notification sometimes appears before the end of time synchronization added

#10 Updated by intrigeri 2014-09-22 12:26:05

  • Status changed from New to Confirmed

#11 Updated by Anonymous 2015-03-10 21:01:44

  • related to Feature #9002: Replace Vidalia's green onion feature added

#12 Updated by Anonymous 2015-03-10 21:02:30

  • related to deleted (Feature #9002: Replace Vidalia's green onion feature)

#13 Updated by Anonymous 2017-06-30 08:48:57

  • Status changed from Confirmed to Resolved

I think we do now have such an indicator as part of OnionCircuits. This indicator could be improved, so that, when people hover it with their mouse they get the “Tor is not ready.” notification bubble. I’ll open another ticket for this proposal.

#14 Updated by Anonymous 2017-06-30 09:19:22

#15 Updated by Anonymous 2017-06-30 09:19:50

#16 Updated by sajolida 2017-07-10 19:15:46

  • Status changed from Resolved to Duplicate

I’ll instead mark this as a duplicate of Feature #10491. We’re talking here about progress indication which Onion Circuits doesn’t provide: it only provides a binary “ready/not ready” indication but no information about the progress in itself.