How to Install the Tor Browser on Ubuntu Linux by Compiling from the Source in 2024

[Eli]

Here are instructions how to install the Tor Browser on Ubuntu Linux from the source code contained in .tar.xz file.

1. Download the file that contains the Tor browser source code from here

2. Extract the contents of the file by opening a Terminal and move to the directory containing the .tar.xz file:

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1. Ctrl + Alt +  T
2. cd Downloads
3. tar -xf tor-browser-linux-x86_64-13.0.9.tar.xz
4. cd tor-browser/

3. From inside the tor-browser directory, launch Tor Browser by running:

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1. ‪./start-tor-browser.desktop

Follow instructions to configure and establish connection

Note: If this command fails to run, you may need to make the file executable. From within this directory run:

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1. chmod +x start-tor-browser.desktop

Once launching/installation is complete

Run './start-tor-browser.desktop --help' to display the full set of options of some additional flags that can be used with start-tor-browser.desktop from the command-line:

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1. $./start-tor-browser.desktop --help

Create a Shortcut to Launch the Tor Browser by just typing tor in the terminal


1. Open a terminal window.

2. Create a symbolic link in the /usr/local/bin directory, which is part of the system's PATH variable and contains executable files that can be run from any directory. Run the following command:

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1. sudo ln -s /home/user/Downloads/tor-browser/start-tor-browser.desktop /usr/local/bin/tor

Please replace /home/user/Downloads/tor-browser with the actual path to the Tor Browser directory.

3. Enter your password when prompted.

4. Now you can launch the Tor Browser by typing "tor" in the terminal.

Note: You may need to restart your terminal session or log out and back in for the changes to take effect.


Verify the Symbolic Link

You can use the ls -l command to verify that the symbolic link is pointing to the correct location:

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1. ls -l /usr/local/bin/tor

The output should look something like this:

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 62 Feb 20 09:49 /usr/local/bin/tor -> /home/username/Downloads/tor-browser/start-tor-browser.desktop


Remove a Symbolic Link

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1. sudo rm /usr/local/bin/tor

NB:

You can create a symbolic link for tor browser and add it to the environmental variable path:

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1. sudo ln -s /home/elimboto/Downloads/tor-browser/start-tor-browser.desktop /usr/local/bin/tor && echo 'export PATH="$PATH:/usr/local/bin"' >> ~/.bashrc

One of the environmental variable advantages is that it makes programs or scripts available from anywhere on your system. When you add a program or script to your environmental variables, it means that you can run it from any directory on your system, without having to specify the full path to the program or script. This can be especially useful for programs that you use frequently, or for scripts that you need to run from multiple locations.