[tor-relays] Confusing bridge signs...

Well so here is the current torrc file:

Nickname gbridge
ORPort 8080
SocksPort 0
BridgeRelay 1
PublishServerDescriptor bridge
BridgeDistribution email
ServerTransportPlugin obfs4 exec /usr/bin/obfs4proxy
ServerTransportListenAddr obfs4 0.0.0.0:8081
ExtOrPort auto
Log notice file /var/log/tor/notices.log
ExitPolicy reject :
AccountingMax 50 GB
ContactInfo keiferdodderblyyatgmaildoddercom

Strangely, nothing whatsoever is being written to the notices.log file, upon checking it it is completely empty, nothing there. I wonder why that would happen and how else to tell what’s going on? Tor is running as root so it’s not a permission issue, and I also set up a port forwarding rule for the obfs4 port. Thanks.

–Keifer

Keifer,

Have you tried starting the Tor process manually (without the startup script)?

Example:

/opt/sbin/tor -f /tmp/torrc

Starting Tor manually is a great way of diagnosing torrc startup issues.

Keep at it. You’re almost there.

Kind Regards,

Gary

···

On Wednesday, March 8, 2023, 11:13:08 AM MST, Keifer Bly keifer.bly@gmail.com wrote:


This Message Originated by the Sun.
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Strangely, nothing whatsoever is being written to the notices.log file,
upon checking it it is completely empty, nothing there.

That can't be, please post:
~# ls -A /var/log/tor

In general, everything is always written to /var/log/syslog & systemd-journald
to /var/log/journal (binaries).
~$ man journalctl

I wonder why that

Read what _logrotate_ does. Every tor restart creates a new empty log file.

would happen and how else to tell what's going on? Tor is running as root

Why do you change security-related default settings? Default tor user is:
debian-tor. (On Debian and Ubuntu systems)

so it's not a permission issue, and I also set up a port forwarding rule

Why? You have a server in the data center. You only need forwarding on a
router! Packet forwarding is also disabled in /etc/sysctl.conf per default.

Your iptables must start like this.
*filter
:INPUT DROP [0:0]
:FORWARD DROP [0:0]
:OUTPUT ACCEPT [0:0]
...
-A INPUT -p tcp --dport <Your-Tor-ORPort> -j ACCEPT
...

No FORWARD, no OUTPUT rules.

···

On Mittwoch, 8. März 2023 18:13:01 CET Keifer Bly wrote:

--
╰_╯ Ciao Marco!

Debian GNU/Linux

It's free software and it gives you freedom!

I do not use any scripts to start tor, I just type tor to start the process on debian. And yes the datacenter I run in has an external firewall which requires setting up port forwarding.

The result of running ls -A /var/log/tor

root@instance-1:/home/keifer_bly# ls -A /var/log/tor
notices.log notices.log.1 notices.log.2.gz notices.log.3.gz notices.log.4.gz notices.log.5.gz
root@instance-1:/home/keifer_bly#

So it’s creating separate .gz files for some reason. I don’t know why that is or what to do from here. Thanks.

···

–Keifer

I do not use any scripts to start tor, I just type tor to start the process
on debian.

That's where your problems begin. You start a 2nd tor process as root that
doesn't take the default configs from:
/usr/share/tor/tor-service-defaults-torrc & /etc/tor/torrc

You have a systemd system & tor.service is activated by default. You don't
have to do anything, tor runs automatically after a reboot|server start.

The systemd services are controlled with the following commands:
systemctl start tor.service
systemctl stop tor.service
systemctl restart tor.service
systemctl reload tor.service
systemctl status tor.service

And yes the datacenter I run in has an external firewall which
requires setting up port forwarding.

Ok, anything in the customer interface for the datacenter router.

The result of running ls -A /var/log/tor

root@instance-1:/home/keifer_bly# ls -A /var/log/tor
notices.log notices.log.1 notices.log.2.gz notices.log.3.gz
notices.log.4.gz notices.log.5.gz

There are 6 log files of one of the tor processes. Both write to syslog.

So it's creating separate .gz files for some reason. I don't know why that
is or what to do from here. Thanks.

I wrote, learn what _logrotate_ does. Hint: without that, the hd fills up.
man logrotate

···

On Sonntag, 12. März 2023 04:45:21 CET Keifer Bly wrote:

--Keifer

On Fri, Mar 10, 2023 at 8:15 AM <lists@for-privacy.net> wrote:
> On Mittwoch, 8. März 2023 18:13:01 CET Keifer Bly wrote:
> > Strangely, nothing whatsoever is being written to the notices.log file,
> > upon checking it it is completely empty, nothing there.
>
> That can't be, please post:
> ~# ls -A /var/log/tor
>
> In general, everything is always written to /var/log/syslog &
> systemd-journald
> to /var/log/journal (binaries).
> ~$ man journalctl
>
> > I wonder why that
>
> Read what _logrotate_ does. Every tor restart creates a new empty log
> file.
>
> > would happen and how else to tell what's going on? Tor is running as
> > root
>
> Why do you change security-related default settings? Default tor user is:
> debian-tor. (On Debian and Ubuntu systems)
>
> > so it's not a permission issue, and I also set up a port forwarding rule
>
> Why? You have a server in the data center. You only need forwarding on a
> router! Packet forwarding is also disabled in /etc/sysctl.conf per
> default.
>
> Your iptables must start like this.
> *filter
>
> :INPUT DROP [0:0]
> :FORWARD DROP [0:0]
> :OUTPUT ACCEPT [0:0]
>
> ...
> -A INPUT -p tcp --dport <Your-Tor-ORPort> -j ACCEPT
> ...
>
> No FORWARD, no OUTPUT rules.
>
> --
> ╰_╯ Ciao Marco!
>
> Debian GNU/Linux
>
> It's free software and it gives you
> freedom!_______________________________________________
> tor-relays mailing list
> tor-relays@lists.torproject.org
> tor-relays Info Page

--
╰_╯ Ciao Marco!

Debian GNU/Linux

It's free software and it gives you freedom!

Ok, so when this happens, what would be the best command to use for reading the newest tor log?

I am also needing this for another relay, my middle relay at https://metrics.torproject.org/rs.html#search/udeserveprivacy also keeps going offline with no warning and nothing written to the log file. Thanks.

···

–Keifer

Well so the bridge now jumped to being online for 18 days. But despite the torrc it is now saying it’s still no distribution mechanism??

Thanks.

···

–Keifer