Nixpkgs: tor-browser-bundle-bin: Unable to connect, does not connect to Tor network

[schmittlauch]

Describe the bug

After upgrading to NixOS release-19.09, I discovered that tor-browser from 8hv55zrk16w20pxggx41zq68n05qfari-tor-browser-bundle-bin-8.5.5 is unable to load any websites with the error message "The proxy server is refusing connections".
After further investigations it turns out that the tor client does not connect to the Tor network.
When starting the tor-browser build 1fym1h6b3l3319b0nzp93xkc25nkxy71-tor-browser-bundle-bin-8.5.5 from the release-19.03 channel (which was still left in my Nix store), the console output contains info messages of tor as it connects to the tor network. These log messages are entirely missing when using the release-19.09 build.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. nix-shell -I nixpkgs=https://github.com/nixos/nixpkgs-channels/archive/nixos-19.09.tar.gz -p tor-browser-bundle-bin --run 'tor-browser'
2. check the console output for any tor-related messages
3. close tor-browser
4. try to visit a website in Tor browser e.g. https://nixos.org/
5. nix-shell -I nixpkgs=https://github.com/nixos/nixpkgs-channels/archive/nixos-19.03.tar.gz -p tor-browser-bundle-bin --run 'tor-browser'
6. check the console output for any tor-related messages
7. try to visit a website in Tor browser e.g. https://nixos.org/

Expected behavior

At the start of tor-browser, the console logging messages are expected to contain tor connection messages like

Oct 11 23:18:03.636 [notice] Tor 0.4.1.5 (git-439ca48989ece545) running on Linux with Libevent 2.1.8-stable, OpenSSL 1.0.2s, Zlib 1.2.11, Liblzma N/A, and Libzstd N/A.
Oct 11 23:18:03.636 [notice] Tor can't help you if you use it wrong! Learn how to be safe at https://www.torproject.org/download/download#warning
Oct 11 23:18:03.636 [notice] Read configuration file "/nix/store/1fym1h6b3l3319b0nzp93xkc25nkxy71-tor-browser-bundle-bin-8.5.5/share/tor-browser/TorBrowser/Data/Tor/torrc-defaults".

The tor-browser Firefox component shall be able to retrieve websites.

With the release-19.09 build, tor connection log messages are entirely missing and wbesites do not load with "The proxy server is refusing connections"

Additional context

channel state: 19.09.716.88bbb3c8096

tor-browser-bundle (without -bin) is affected as well on release-19.09

Metadata

• system: "x86_64-linux"
• host os: Linux 5.3.5, NixOS, 19.09.716.88bbb3c8096 (Loris)
• multi-user?: yes
• sandbox: yes
• version: nix-env (Nix) 2.3
• channels(root): "home-manager-19.09, nixos-19.09.716.88bbb3c8096, nixos-unstable-20.03pre196201.07d4df59626"
• channels(user): "home-manager-19.03"
• nixpkgs: /nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/root/channels/nixos

Maintainer information:

# a list of nixpkgs attributes affected by the problem
attribute: [ tor-browser-bundle-bin, tor-browser-bundle ]
# a list of nixos modules affected by the problem
module:

pinging maintainers: @offline @matejc @doublec @thoughtpolice @joachifm

[joachifm]

I'm unable to reproduce this. Can you try running TBB_HOME=$(mktemp -d) tor-browser to rule out the possibility of corrupt/stale profile (this should not happen but still ...).

[schmittlauch]

This indeed seems to be caused by corrupt state: Deleting ~/.local/share/tor-browser/TorBrowser/ resolved this issue.
Until someone else complains about a similar issue, I assume I'm the only one affected.

[schmittlauch]

I have to re-open this issue. I am reliably able to reproduce this issue by

1. start with a fresh state directory: rm ~/.local/share/tor-browser/TorBrowser -rf
2. start tor-browser, connect to tor, load a website, close the window
3. start tor-browser again, load a website, close the window
4. start tor-browser again, load a website. Now the issue described above appears.

So for me tor isn't started anymore the third time I launch tor-browser.

[Ma27]

I can reproduce the issue as well. Will try to look into this :)

[schmittlauch]

This seems to be fixed with tor-browser-bundle-bin-9.0.1 in release-19.09.

/cc @l0b0