Re: [Tails-dev] What do we miss to replace Vidalia [was: Get…

Delete this message

Reply to this message
Author: intrigeri
Date:  
To: The Tails public development discussion list
Subject: Re: [Tails-dev] What do we miss to replace Vidalia [was: Getting rid of Vidalia]
Hi,

sajolida wrote (11 Feb 2015 15:12:02 GMT) :
> $ python tormonitor.py
> [Errno 13] Permission denied
> Traceback (most recent call last):
>   File "tormonitor.py", line 346, in <module>
>     app = TorMonitorApplication()
>   File "tormonitor.py", line 316, in __init__
>     message_format=_("Unable to connect to Tor daemon."))


Seems that there's a bug in this code path.

And/or maybe you're hitting this bug because you're running the code
as the `amnesia' user, who cannot talk to the Tor control port. Try as
the vidalia user?

>> Do we miss something else to replace Vidalia ?


> If I quickly go through what's left from the Vidalia interface and I
> could discuss the relevance of the following features:


Thanks for asking this question!

> - Info about relays in the circuits.


Would be useful, but not a blocker IMO, since that's an advanced
feature and is already provided by arm.

> - Ability to close a circuit manually.


No idea what are the use case for this feature that we would want to
support. If someone really wants it, better add it to arm IMO.

>   - Ability to view logs from Tor without an
>     administration password.


Not sure what action one can easily take based on the info found in
these logs, without an administration password. I say we can forget
that one too. If someone really wants it, better add it to arm IMO.

>   - New identity (the one we have in Tor Browser does something
>     different).


We had plans (#5716) to hide this Vidalia feature, so I don't think we
should add it to this new GUI. This feature is available in arm
already anyway, for advanced users who know what they're doing, and
for people who insist on shooting themselves in the foot.

> - Bandwidth Graph.


Advanced feature IMO, already present in arm. If we care much about
getting this info graphically, then I think some GNOME system monitor
would be a better tool to satisfy the need (it would be a suitable
replacement in the context of Tails, since we're routing almost
everything through Tor).

> Which one of those are you covering already or did you consider?


IMO we should focus on the basic features we would strongly miss if we
drop Vidalia, and leave anything more advanced to arm. This way, we
keep our maintenance workload to the bare minimum, and provide
a simpler GUI.

Cheers,
--
intrigeri