Tor Browser Launcher

Tor Browser Launcher is intended to make the Tor Browser Bundle (TBB) easier to maintain and use for GNU/Linux users. You install torbrowser-launcher from your distribution's package manager and it handles everything else, including:

• Downloading the most recent version of TBB for you, in your language and for your architecture
• Automatically updating (while preserving your bookmarks and preferences)
• Verifying the TBB's GnuPG signature
• Adding a "Tor Browser" application launcher to your desktop environment's menu

Tor Browser Launcher isn't in any Debian repositories yet, but it will be soon.

Quick Start

If you're using a Debian-based distro like Debian, Ubuntu, or Linux Mint, the following instructions will install dependencies, clone this repo, build a .deb, and install it with dpkg.

sudo apt-get install python-stdeb python-gtk2 python-psutil python-twisted python-pygame python-lzma python-parsley python-txsocksx wmctrl gnupg fakeroot
git clone https://github.com/micahflee/torbrowser-launcher.git
cd torbrowser-launcher
./build_and_install.sh

Installing in Ubuntu

I've created a PPA where I'm maintaining torbrowser-launcher binaries. You can install in an Ubuntu-based distribution like this:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:micahflee/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install torbrowser-launcher

Enabling AppArmor Profiles

AppArmor is a Linux kernel hardening technology that lets you confine specific programs to only use specific resources. For example, if you visit a website that exploits a bug in the Tor Browser to get arbitrary code execution, the attacker won't be able to access files in ~/.gnupg. Here's how you turn on the AppArmor profiles for Tor Browser Launcher and for the programs bundled in the TBB.

sudo apt-get install apparmor-utils
sudo aa-enforce /etc/apparmor.d/usr.bin.torbrowser-launcher
sudo aa-enforce /etc/apparmor.d/torbrowser.start-tor-browser
sudo aa-enforce /etc/apparmor.d/torbrowser.Browser.firefox
sudo aa-enforce /etc/apparmor.d/torbrowser.Tor.tor

Building

Dependencies

You need to have stdeb installed. If you're using Debian or Ubuntu you can install it like this:

apt-get install python-stdeb

Also install the torbrowser-launcher dependencies:

apt-get install python-gtk2 python-psutil python-twisted python-lzma wmctrl gnupg fakeroot

Debian packages

To build a Debian source and binary packages:

python setup.py --command-packages=stdeb.command sdist_dsc bdist_deb

Once you've made a .deb, you can install by running this as root:

dpkg -i deb_dist/torbrowser-launcher_VERSION_all.deb