Tor browser without tor network

Hello to all!

I need to use tor browser without tor network.
I have Linux Debian 10 Buster with the latest updates.
$ cat /etc/debian_version
10.12

Tor browser was installed from the official debian repository
$ dpkg -l|grep -i " tor"
ii torbrowser-launcher 0.3.3-6~bpo10+1 amd64 “helps download and run the Tor Browser Bundle”

Latest version of Tor browser installed
11.0.10 (based on Mozilla Firefox 91.8.0esr) (64-bit).

On the Internet, I found instructions for using the tor browser without the tor network.
I created two config files and put them in the right places.

~/.local/share/torbrowser/tbb/x86_64/tor-browser_en-US/Browser/defaults/pref$ cat autoconfig.js
pref(“general.config.filename”, “firefox.cfg”);
pref(“general.config.obscure_value”, 0);

~/.local/share/torbrowser/tbb/x86_64/tor-browser_en-US/Browser$ cat firefox.cfg
// user_pref(“extensions.torbutton.startup”, false);
lockPref(“extensions.torlauncher.start_tor”, false);
lockPref(“network.dns.disabled”, false);
lockPref(“network.proxy.socks_remote_dns”, false);
lockPref(“network.proxy.type”, 0);

I have two computers with almost the same configuration (Linux Debian 10 Buster with latest updates).
However, on one computer the tor browser work good (without the tor network) (I did this 2 months ago),
but the second computer (set up today), with the same configuration - did not work (without the tor network), with an error message
" Hmm. We’re having trouble finding that site.
We can’t connect to the server at duckduckgo.com."

I have spent a lot of time comparing the difference between linux settings configuration and tor browsers settings, but found no difference.
On the computer where the tor browser did not work, I ran tcpdump and found that the tor browser is try accessing a non-existent dns server 127.0.0.1:

tcpdump output:
16:28:42.955284 IP 127.0.0.1.51257 > 127.0.0.1.53: 2171+ A? duckduckgo.com. (32)
16:28:42.955306 IP 127.0.0.1 > 127.0.0.1: ICMP 127.0.0.1 udp port 53 unreachable, length 68

I have a different dns address in /etc/resolv.conf, the real address of my ethernet provider. I have no address 127.0.0.1 in my configs.
Tell me please, why is the tor browser using the wrong dns address ?

Thank you for your attention!

maybe have a look, where the network interface gets it DNS from:
systemd-resolve --status
is NetworkManager involved?

Thanks for the advice.
On both computers output the same:
$ systemd-resolve --status
Failed to get global data: Unit dbus-org.freedesktop.resolve1.service not found.

On both computers NetworkManager is used. It is work good.

All network programs work good, except for the tor browser.

maybe a “dirty” hack with just providing a DNS-forwarder at 127.0.0.1:53 works?

https://wiki.debian.org/dnsmasq

1 Like

Thank you! It works.

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