# CentOS 9 Tor relay setup keeps getting this error
**URL:** https://forum.torproject.org/t/centos-9-tor-relay-setup-keeps-getting-this-error/12321
**Category:** Relay Operator
**Tags:** tor
**Created:** [April 15, 2024, 8:57am UTC](https://forum.torproject.org/t/centos-9-tor-relay-setup-keeps-getting-this-error/12321 "2024-04-15T08:57:56Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@redacted4ever](https://forum.torproject.org/u/redacted4ever)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2024, 8:57am UTC](https://forum.torproject.org/t/centos-9-tor-relay-setup-keeps-getting-this-error/12321/1 "2024-04-15T08:57:56Z")
So on CentOS 9 im trying to set up a relay, but whenever i try to start/restart tor it results in an error. I tried to find solutions online, but couldn’t find any. Here’s the logs from journalctl -xeu tor.service
**Subject: Unit failed**
**Defined-By: systemd**
**Support: [Red Hat Customer Experience & Engagement - Red Hat Customer Portal](https://access.redhat.com/support)**
**The unit tor.service has entered the ‘failed’ state with result ‘exit-code’.**
**Apr 14 19:46:40 ip-172-26-6-114.ap-northeast-1.compute.internal systemd[1]: Failed to start Anonymizing overlay network for TCP.**
**Subject: A start job for unit tor.service has failed**
**Defined-By: systemd**
**Support: [Red Hat Customer Experience & Engagement - Red Hat Customer Portal](https://access.redhat.com/support)**
**A start job for unit tor.service has finished with a failure.**
**The job identifier is 1734 and the job result is failed.**
**Apr 14 19:46:41 ip-172-26-6-114.ap-northeast-1.compute.internal systemd[1]: tor.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 5.**
**Subject: Automatic restarting of a unit has been scheduled**
**Defined-By: systemd**
**Support: [Red Hat Customer Experience & Engagement - Red Hat Customer Portal](https://access.redhat.com/support)**
**Automatic restarting of the unit tor.service has been scheduled, as the result for the configured Restart= setting for the unit.**
**Apr 14 19:46:41 ip-172-26-6-114.ap-northeast-1.compute.internal systemd[1]: Stopped Anonymizing overlay network for TCP.**
**Subject: A stop job for unit tor.service has finished**
**Defined-By: systemd**
**Support: [Red Hat Customer Experience & Engagement - Red Hat Customer Portal](https://access.redhat.com/support)**
**A stop job for unit tor.service has finished.**
**The job identifier is 1797 and the job result is done.**
**Apr 14 19:46:41 ip-172-26-6-114.ap-northeast-1.compute.internal systemd[1]: tor.service: Start request repeated too quickly.**
**Apr 14 19:46:41 ip-172-26-6-114.ap-northeast-1.compute.internal systemd[1]: tor.service: Failed with result ‘exit-code’.**
**Subject: Unit failed**
**Defined-By: systemd**
**Support: [Red Hat Customer Experience & Engagement - Red Hat Customer Portal](https://access.redhat.com/support)**
**The unit tor.service has entered the ‘failed’ state with result ‘exit-code’.**
**Apr 14 19:46:41 ip-172-26-6-114.ap-northeast-1.compute.internal systemd[1]: Failed to start Anonymizing overlay network for TCP.**
**Subject: A start job for unit tor.service has failed**
**Defined-By: systemd**
**Support: [Red Hat Customer Experience & Engagement - Red Hat Customer Portal](https://access.redhat.com/support)**
**A start job for unit tor.service has finished with a failure.**
**The job identifier is 1797 and the job result is failed.**
---
### Author:  [@capole](https://forum.torproject.org/u/capole)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2024, 10:23am UTC](https://forum.torproject.org/t/centos-9-tor-relay-setup-keeps-getting-this-error/12321/2 "2024-04-15T10:23:57Z")
Whenever I got this problem in the past (doesn’t matter the OS) it had to do with the `torrc` config file. If I had to bet on it, I’d say it is some bad config or typo.
Kindly share your configuration here (censor any information you may consider relevant for you).
If `torrc` is fine, the next thing I’d check are directory and files permissions.
---
### Author:  [@redacted4ever](https://forum.torproject.org/u/redacted4ever)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2024, 10:48am UTC](https://forum.torproject.org/t/centos-9-tor-relay-setup-keeps-getting-this-error/12321/3 "2024-04-15T10:48:41Z")
```auto
Nickname [thename]
ORPort 443
ContactInfo [myemail]
SocksPort 0
ExitRelay 0
ControlPort 5009
```
> **···**
>
> On Mon, Apr 15, 2024 at 4:04 PM capole via Tor Project Forum \<[noreply@forum.torproject.org](mailto:noreply@forum.torproject.org)\> wrote:
>
> > >  | [capole](https://forum.torproject.org/u/capole)
> > > April 15 |
> > >
> > > - | - |
> >
> > Whenever I got this problem in the past (doesn’t matter the OS) it had to do with the `torrc` config file. If I had to bet on it, I’d say it is some bad config or typo.
> >
> > Kindly share your configuration here (censor any information you may consider relevant for you).
> >
> > If `torrc` is fine, the next thing I’d check are directory and files permissions.
> >
> > * * *
> >
> > [Visit Topic](https://forum.torproject.org/t/centos-9-tor-relay-setup-keeps-getting-this-error/12321/2) or reply to this email to respond.
> >
> > To unsubscribe from these emails, [click here](https://forum.torproject.org/email/unsubscribe/f8324bd24e1e65defbb032e46c4c38f4d842cffc4cf0b5695ae4c8df8d63dc62).
---
### Author:  [@redacted4ever](https://forum.torproject.org/u/redacted4ever)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2024, 10:52am UTC](https://forum.torproject.org/t/centos-9-tor-relay-setup-keeps-getting-this-error/12321/4 "2024-04-15T10:52:44Z")
Also, this same error came even when I tried in fedora and rhel
> **···**
>
> On Mon, Apr 15, 2024 at 4:17 PM Redacted4ever-2 \<[serveroverseercouncil@gmail.com](mailto:serveroverseercouncil@gmail.com)\> wrote:
>
> > Nickname [thename]
> > ORPort 443
> > ContactInfo [myemail]
> > SocksPort 0
> > ExitRelay 0
> > ControlPort 5009
> >
> > On Mon, Apr 15, 2024 at 4:04 PM capole via Tor Project Forum \<[noreply@forum.torproject.org](mailto:noreply@forum.torproject.org)\> wrote:
> >
> > > >  | [capole](https://forum.torproject.org/u/capole)
> > > > April 15 |
> > > >
> > > > - | - |
> > >
> > > Whenever I got this problem in the past (doesn’t matter the OS) it had to do with the `torrc` config file. If I had to bet on it, I’d say it is some bad config or typo.
> > >
> > > Kindly share your configuration here (censor any information you may consider relevant for you).
> > >
> > > If `torrc` is fine, the next thing I’d check are directory and files permissions.
> > >
> > > * * *
> > >
> > > [Visit Topic](https://forum.torproject.org/t/centos-9-tor-relay-setup-keeps-getting-this-error/12321/2) or reply to this email to respond.
> > >
> > > To unsubscribe from these emails, [click here](https://forum.torproject.org/email/unsubscribe/f8324bd24e1e65defbb032e46c4c38f4d842cffc4cf0b5695ae4c8df8d63dc62).
---
### Author:  [@sunshinecowboy](https://forum.torproject.org/u/sunshinecowboy)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2024, 3:15pm UTC](https://forum.torproject.org/t/centos-9-tor-relay-setup-keeps-getting-this-error/12321/5 "2024-04-15T15:15:06Z")
It may be that the ORPort is not open. Check if you have a firewall blocking the ORPort. Additionally, if you will post the contents of the following: cat /var/log/syslog | grep ‘Tor’
---
### Author:  [@redacted4ever](https://forum.torproject.org/u/redacted4ever)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2024, 5:28pm UTC](https://forum.torproject.org/t/centos-9-tor-relay-setup-keeps-getting-this-error/12321/6 "2024-04-15T17:28:52Z")
I checked the firewall, port 443 is open. And when i ran cat /var/log/syslog | grep ‘Tor’ it just says cat: /var/log/syslog: No such file or directory
> **···**
>
> On Mon, Apr 15, 2024 at 8:55 PM Sunshinecowboy via Tor Project Forum \<[noreply@forum.torproject.org](mailto:noreply@forum.torproject.org)\> wrote:
>
> > >  | [sunshinecowboy](https://forum.torproject.org/u/sunshinecowboy)
> > > April 15 |
> > >
> > > - | - |
> >
> > It may be that the ORPort is not open. Check if you have a firewall blocking the ORPort. Additionally, if you will post the contents of the following: cat /var/log/syslog | grep ‘Tor’
> >
> > * * *
> >
> > [Visit Topic](https://forum.torproject.org/t/centos-9-tor-relay-setup-keeps-getting-this-error/12321/5) or reply to this email to respond.
> >
> > To unsubscribe from these emails, [click here](https://forum.torproject.org/email/unsubscribe/ee73df1899f8de3b91ebdd64738b80c0e7db1e6b238fd44692d7cbc79037736c).
---
### Author:  [@redacted4ever](https://forum.torproject.org/u/redacted4ever)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2024, 5:28pm UTC](https://forum.torproject.org/t/centos-9-tor-relay-setup-keeps-getting-this-error/12321/7 "2024-04-15T17:28:58Z")
The journalctl logs were a bit different this time, I think this might be the issue, I don’t know for sure.
---
### Author:  [@sunshinecowboy](https://forum.torproject.org/u/sunshinecowboy)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2024, 1:25am UTC](https://forum.torproject.org/t/centos-9-tor-relay-setup-keeps-getting-this-error/12321/8 "2024-04-16T01:25:52Z")
Ahhh, it looks like your user permissions aren’t set correctly. So We can confirm this is the issue, can you paste the contents of /var/log/Tor/log ?
---
### Author:  [@redacted4ever](https://forum.torproject.org/u/redacted4ever)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2024, 2:48am UTC](https://forum.torproject.org/t/centos-9-tor-relay-setup-keeps-getting-this-error/12321/9 "2024-04-16T02:48:28Z")
> [@sunshinecowboy](#):
>
> /var/log/Tor/log
/var/log does not exist.
Log folder does not exist.
---
### Author:  [@sunshinecowboy](https://forum.torproject.org/u/sunshinecowboy)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2024, 8:45pm UTC](https://forum.torproject.org/t/centos-9-tor-relay-setup-keeps-getting-this-error/12321/10 "2024-04-17T20:45:26Z")
Make sure the user tor exists by checking your /etc/passwd file. If it doesn’t create a new one by: sudo useradd -d /var/lib/tor -s /bin/false -g tor
Then make sure tor has ownership of /var/lib/tor by: sudo ls -la /var/lib/tor
if not do: `sudo chown -R tor:tor /var/lib/tor`
Now finally add the following lines to /etc/tor/torrc:
User tor
Log notice syslog
DataDirectory /var/lib/tor
CookieAuthentication 1
Finally, let’s cleanly restart the systemd service:
```auto
sudo systemctl enable tor
sudo systemctl start tor
```
If everything works you should be able to check your relay by installing nyx, if it’s not already installed, and typing: `nyx -i 127.0.0.1:[your_control_port]`
If it doesn’t work now you should get a reading from: `sudo cat /var/log/syslog | grep 'Tor'`
---
### Author:  [@redacted4ever](https://forum.torproject.org/u/redacted4ever)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2024, 8:02am UTC](https://forum.torproject.org/t/centos-9-tor-relay-setup-keeps-getting-this-error/12321/11 "2024-04-18T08:02:48Z")
t worked thanks! I guess the user was not created this whole time then.
> **···**
>
> On Thu, Apr 18, 2024 at 2:25 AM Sunshinecowboy via Tor Project Forum \<[noreply@forum.torproject.org](mailto:noreply@forum.torproject.org)\> wrote:
>
> > >  | [sunshinecowboy](https://forum.torproject.org/u/sunshinecowboy)
> > > April 17 |
> > >
> > > - | - |
> >
> > Make sure the user tor exists by checking your /etc/passwd file. If it doesn’t create a new one by: sudo useradd -d /var/lib/tor -s /usr/sbin/nologin -g tor
> >
> > Then make sure tor has ownership of /var/lib/tor by: sudo ls -la /var/lib/tor
> > if not do: `sudo chown -R tor:tor /var/lib/tor`
> >
> > Now finally add the following lines to /etc/tor/torrc:
> >
> > User tor
> > Log notice syslog
> > DataDirectory /var/lib/tor
> > CookieAuthentication 1
> >
> > Finally, let’s cleanly restart the systemd service:
> >
> > ```auto
> > sudo systemctl enable tor
> > sudo systemctl start tor
> >
> > ```
> >
> > If everything works you should be able to check your relay by installing nyx, if it’s not already installed, and typing: `nyx -i 127.0.0.1:[your_control_port]`
> >
> > If it doesn’t work now you should get a reading from: `sudo cat /var/log/syslog | grep 'Tor'`
> >
> > * * *
> >
> > [Visit Topic](https://forum.torproject.org/t/centos-9-tor-relay-setup-keeps-getting-this-error/12321/10) or reply to this email to respond.
> >
> > To unsubscribe from these emails, [click here](https://forum.torproject.org/email/unsubscribe/af24f9396517c28e604f2b2885b63df5587773b141662245feadb246006e56d0).
---
### Author:  [@sunshinecowboy](https://forum.torproject.org/u/sunshinecowboy)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2024, 5:00pm UTC](https://forum.torproject.org/t/centos-9-tor-relay-setup-keeps-getting-this-error/12321/12 "2024-04-18T17:00:40Z")
CentOS will often create the default user ‘toranon’ for which you would just need to replace the user ‘tor’ with in the steps above.