Install Tor on Fedora

Posted on Tue 19 April 2011 in Fedora

This tutorial explains how to install Tor on a Fedora system. If you are looking for an easy to use solution check you this new all in one package here.

There is a Fedora package of Tor. We need to install 2 packages:

  • tor
  • privoxy

(if you don't install tor via yum check if your version not was manipulated)

1. Install necessary packages:

yum install tor privoxy

2. Configure privoxy add this line to /etc/privoxy/config:

forward-socks4a / 127.0.0.1:9050 .

3. On Fedora 14 create SELinux rule

On Fedora 14 you need to create a own rule for SELinux.
Try to start tor with:
service tor start
This will fail if SELinux is up and running.
Now run the following commands to generate a rule for your needs:
grep tor /var/log/audit/audit.log | audit2allow -M mytor
semodule -i mytor.pp

4. Start privoxy and tor service

service tor start

service privoxy start

If you want to start tor automatically at boot time add theses two services to your default runlevel:

chkconfig --levels 35 tor on

chkconfig --levels 35 privoxy on

5. Install Firefox Addon Torbutton and activate Tor in Firefox

Now you should be able to surf via Tor. You can check this via http://check.torproject.org/ (thanks to Brad for this comment).

6. Setup your tor as bridge (optional)

Please setup a Tor server or at least a Tor bridge to make Tor more powerful and safe for users in countries without free internet access.

If you want to run a tor bridge you only need to add this lines to your torrc file:

SocksPort 0
ORPort 443
BridgeRelay 1
Exitpolicy reject *:*

Now configure port forwarding in your router to the IP of your Computer with TCP port 443 to make it possible for your tor instance to act as bridge.

Click on the links for more information about what a bridge is and how you can run a public relay or server.

Fedora Tor