Linux - Tor Browser Bundle Ubuntu PPA

 Author: Andrew| Date: Monday, December 02, 2013

Tor Browser Bundle is a web browser based on Firefox ESR (Firefox with extended support), configured to protect users' privacy and anonymity by using Tor and Vidalia, tools that come bundled with it. The bundle also includes 4 Firefox extensions: TorButton, TorLauncher, NoScript and HTTPS-Everywhere.

When launching TorBrowser, it automatically starts the bundled Tor, anonymizing the origin of your traffic and encrypting everything inside the Tor network. Because the traffic between the Tor network and its final destination is not encrypted, Tor Browser ships with HTTPS-Everywhere, an extension produced as a collaboration between The Tor Project and the Electronic Frontier Foundation that encrypts your communications with many major websites, making your browsing more secure.

Once you close TorBrowser, the list of visited websites and the cookies are deleted.

Tor Browser Bundle is easy to run on Ubuntu / Linux, but to make it integrate with the menu / Dash and for easier updates (since you must manually download and install newer versions), I've created an Ubuntu PPA so you can easily install and stay up to date with the latest Tor Browser Bundle.

The Ubuntu package uses the tor-browser-en AUR script, based on work by Alessio Sergi, Benjamin Drung and Max Roder (many thanks!). That's because Tor Browser Bundle runs from a single folder where it creates temporary files, etc., and with the script I mentioned, Tor Browser is automatically installed (or updated) to your home folder the first time you launch it.

But that's not something you need to worry about, as everything is done in the background so all you have to do is add the PPA, install Tor Browser Bundle and start the browser from the menu / dash, like with any other application.

Important notes: 

• because there are separate packages for the supported languages, the Ubuntu PPA packages only support English;
• any TorBrowser changes you make (bookmarks, addons you install, etc.) are deleted on upgrade, unfortunately there's no way around this due to the way TorBrowser works.

Install Tor Browser Bundle in Ubuntu or Linux Mint via PPA

To add the WebUpd8 Tor Browser Bundle PPA and install the application in Ubuntu / Linux Mint and derivatives, use the following commands in a terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/tor-browser
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install tor-browser

Removing Tor Browser Bundle

Removing Tor Browser Bundle requires, besides removing the installed package, to also remove the ~/.tor-browser-en folder - that's where the package is installed after you run it from the menu / Dash for the first time. So if you want to remove Tor Browser Bundle, close it and use the following commands:

sudo apt-get remove tor-browser
rm -r ~/.tor-browser-en