Tor Browser not working after latest update in 16.04

Support & Help Requests
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#1

Hello Ubuntu MATE community,

Today I received an update to my Tor Browser on Ubuntu MATE 16.04. After upgrading, Tor Browser doesn’t work anymore. The icon appears in the Applications > Internet menu, and when I type the name on Synapse, but when I click on it or hit enter, nothing happens.

Any ideas about what might be happening?

Thanks in advance.

Tor Browser won't start
Ubuntu MATE 16.04 LTS - Common Problems, Known Bugs, Workarounds
#2

I can confirm this report.

I believe I just found a quick workaround:

ov@Edge:~/Desktop$ tor-browser-en.sh 
cp: cannot stat '/home/ov/.tor-browser-en/INSTALL/Browser/TorBrowser/Data/Browser/profile.default/search.json': No such file or directory
ov@Edge:~/Desktop$ touch /home/ov/.tor-browser-en/INSTALL/Browser/TorBrowser/Data/Browser/profile.default/search.json
ov@Edge:~/Desktop$ tor-browser-en.sh 
/usr/bin/tor-browser-en.sh: line 71: 13240 Killed                  cd $INSTALL_DIRECTORY && ./Browser/start-tor-browser

After the touch the tor browser started from the command line. After closing it it worked in synapse too.
So basically, just run the command:

touch $HOME/.tor-browser-en/INSTALL/Browser/TorBrowser/Data/Browser/profile.default/search.json

And you should get it back.

@lah7, since this is from a boutique PPA I’m highlighting this for you to be aware of.

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#3

Thanks a lot, @ouroumov. Tor Browser launched just fine from both Synapse and the panel menu.

#4

Thanks @ouroumov… Unfortunately Software Boutique (16.04/16.10) doesn’t have a mechanism to do “dirty fixes” like this… nor would it be practical.

I’m curious to know whether problem happens when Tor is started for the first time (for a new user). Regardless, a bug should be raised to Tor upstream so they are aware existing users need this missing file.

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