Open Nurmagoz opened 9 months ago
This is a known issue that is being worked on and will hopefully be fixed soon. However, your question is valid - it will sadly require existing users to wipe the app data and reinstall Tor Browser. :-/
Anyway, please take a look at this ticket: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/42293
This is a known issue that is being worked on and will hopefully be fixed soon. However, your question is valid - it will sadly require existing users to wipe the app data and reinstall Tor Browser. :-/
Anyway, please take a look at this ticket: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/42293
I need some clarification.
The linked issue is closed. I see that an env var TORBROWSER_LAUNCHER
was introduced but it doesn't fix anything (it is reserved for future use, if you will). The codebase of TB Launcher was moved from GitHub to TB Project's Gitlab.
It should be fixed when Tor Browser 13.0.10 gets released. This will hopefully happen soon (see this ticket). Unfortunately, current torbrowser-launcher Flatpak users will need to remove the existing data directory (can be done via GUI when uninstalling torbrowser-launcher via GNOME Software / KDE Discover) to trigger the latest Tor Browser archive download.
I will probably add some temporary (Zenity) message window suggesting users to do this after TBB 13.0.10 is out.
@AsciiWolf there's already Tor Browser 13.0.11. Is something blocking updating or you simply had no time/forgot?
it works fine but redownload of the TB Bundle is needed.
Yep, it works, but sadly, there is no other solution available for existing users (with older TBB without the fix) than deleting the Flatpak data to trigger the TBB re-download.
Yep, it works, but sadly, there is no other solution available for existing users (with older TBB without the fix) than deleting the Flatpak data to trigger the TBB re-download.
i might be wrong here but i am pretty sure that you could just launch the tbb from the binary in the package instead of the flatpak launcher that way you could update normally and might even be able to keep all your data from before Requires you to manually navigate to the tbb inside the flatpak trough that can be a bit hard to find ngl
Yes, that is a possible workaround.
If needed, both me and the Ubertus.Org team would be happy to contribute testing and documentation for upgrading TB using internal updater.
Any volunteer to implement this new feature?
There is a working internal updater, problem is that it was added in TBB 13.0.10. I am thinking about adding some mechanism to detect TBB version directly by torbrowser-launcher and updating it if it is too old, however my free time is sadly very limited. :-/ The current transition process for current users sadly is to manually wipe the Tor Browser Launcher Flatpak data to trigger a clean, latest TBB package download. Everything should work fine from that point.
About the temporary workaround to either deleting the Flatpak data to trigger the Tor Browser Bundle (TBB) re-download or using Tor Browser Launcher (TBL) to reinstall TB. This works great to install or reinstall a fresh new TBB. But from the end-user's point of view, this workaround is not an update. This is just a plain delete TBB and its configuration, then reinstall a new TBB. Update and reinstall are not to be confused.
I mean, for most end-users, the word "update" means that after the TBB update their TBB configuration remains. But, as you know, presently, as of April 12th, 2024, TBL is not yet able to both update TBB and keep the user's TBB configuration. I understand that adding an automated update feature to TBL is in development.
About this Flathub page at https://flathub.org/apps/org.torproject.torbrowser-launcher The challenge is that it claims that Tor Browser Launcher (TBL) version 0.3.7 is able to automatically update Tor Browser Bundle (TBB).
To resolve this challenge above, I suggest this new ticket https://github.com/flathub/org.torproject.torbrowser-launcher/issues/19
Thanks @AsciiWolf :) For both your reply and your contribution to Tor Browser Launcher (TBL) on Flathub
The current transition process for current users sadly is to manually wipe the Tor Browser Launcher Flatpak data to trigger a clean, latest TBB package download. Everything should work fine from that point.
This is to confirm this always fails with the present TBL version 0.3.7. In other words, it does not work fine from that point.
Steps to reproduce:
For most end-user, the word "update" means that after the TBB update, their TBB configuration remains. But, per the steps to reproduce above, TBL is not yet able to both update TBB and keep the user's TBB configuration. What TBL presently really does is fully delete both the TBB and delete the user's TBB configuration, then reinstall a fresh TBB.
What most users need is this:
Any volunteer to add this new feature so that TBL is able to both update TBB and keep its configuration?
If needed, both me and the Ubertus.Org team would be happy to contribute testing and documentation for upgrading TBB using internal updater, while keeping its configuration
The current transition process for current users sadly is to manually wipe the Tor Browser Launcher Flatpak data to trigger a clean, latest TBB package download. Everything should work fine from that point.
This is to confirm this always fails with the present TBL version 0.3.7. In other words, it does not work fine from that point.
Which version of Tor Browser do you have installed?
There was a bug that disabled the updater when running torbrowser-launcher flatpak, but this was fixed with Tor Browser 13.0.10 and torbrowser-launcher 0.3.7.
If you have Tor Browser 13.0.10 or newer installed, the updater is expected to work. If it still doesn't work then this is a different bug.
Thanks for your reply @boklm :) My replies are below. Including two questions for you down below.
Which version of Tor Browser do you have installed?
Tor Browser (TB) 13.0.9 (based on Mozilla Firefox 115.7.0esr). Which was installed with Tor Browser Launcher (TBL) 0.3.7. This screenshot shows that within TB, the TB updater somehow failed. It is not displayed at all. So I'm assuming it did not check for update.
Just now, we tried using Tor Browser Launcher (TBL) 0.3.7 to reinstall TB 13.0.14 (Based on Mozilla Firefox 115.10.0esr). This screenshot shows that the updater successfully checked for update. Yayaya :) This screenshot is in French. As you know, the green checkmark means the update check was successful.
After using Tor Browser Launcher (TBL) 0.3.7 reinstalled TB 13.0.14 over an already installed and configured TB 13.0.9, all the user's TB configurations were lost :(
As for the TB update using TB, in the future, after the next TB version is released, we will know if this TB updater work
Question 1. In the future, if the user needs to keep its already installed TB configuration, we need to use TB to update TB. Correct? Not use TBL to update TB.
Question 2. Assuming the TB was installed with TBL. TBL itself, alone, and independently, is not able to update an already installed TB, and keep the user's TB configuration. Because TB updates are done within TB itself. In other words, if TB was installed with TBL, after that, TB is able to both update itself and keep the user's configuration. Correct?
On Wed, 17 Apr 2024, Francois Carpentier wrote:
Thanks for your reply @boklm :) My replies are below. Including two questions for you down below.
Which version of Tor Browser do you have installed?
Tor Browser (TB) 13.0.9 (based on Mozilla Firefox 115.7.0esr). Which was installed with Tor Browser Launcher (TBL) 0.3.7. This screenshot shows that within TB, the TB updater somehow failed. It is not displayed at all. So I'm assuming it did not check for update.
Yes, this is expected with Tor Browser 13.0.9.
However the issue only happens when running torbrowser-launcher with the flatpak. If I remember correctly a possible workaround is to run the browser without using flatkpak (just one time), which should allow the browser to update itself.
Question 1. In the future, if the user needs to keep its already installed TB configuration, we need to use TB to update TB. Correct? Not use TBL to update TB.
Yes.
Question 2. Assuming the TB was installed with TBL. TBL itself, alone, and independently, is not able to update an already installed TB, and keep the user's TB configuration. Because TB updates are done within TB itself. In other words, if TB was installed with TBL, after that, TB is able to both update itself and keep the user's configuration. Correct?
Yes.
If I remember correctly a possible workaround is to run the browser without using flatkpak (just one time), which should allow the browser to update itself.
@boklm, this is to confirm this workaround was successful. Thanks :) We restored the user's TB configuration from a backup. Then, after the workaround, the configuration remains.
Close Tor Browser (TB)
Using Terminal/Console, execute this command as user to change to the appropriate directory. Where the TB was installed to by Tor Browser Launcher (TBL) for example, for Debian, the command is:
cd /home/<DEBIAN USER NAME>/.var/app/org.torproject.torbrowser-launcher/data/torbrowser/tbb/x86_64/tor-browser/Browser/
Note:
<DEBIAN USER NAME>
for your Linux user nameUsing Terminal, execute this command to launch TB outside Flatpak:
./start-tor-browser
Note:
./
is requiredTB will open. Using TB, navigate to [Options] » button ---> « Help » option ---> « About Tor Browser »
TB will automatically check for update and down it if any. This screenshot shows this.
After the update is fully downloaded, close this « About Tor Browser ». Do not click on "Restart" button.
Using GNOME, launch TB. It will automatically start with Flatpak. All TB previous configuration successfully remains.
In the future, to update TB, using TB, navigate to [Options] » button ---> « Help » option ---> « About Tor Browser ». After the update is fully downloaded, click on "Restart" button.
Yep, this is also a possible workaround, in fact it is the one I used on my systems. Thanks for documenting these steps!
How can TB upgrade itself while it has no ability to do that from within the browser? (even notification of new version its not shown, i need to do that all manually)