I purchased my Eee PC primarily for mobile web browsing.  To make me feel a little better about my security when browsing from open access points, I decided to install Tor and Privoxy.  This configuration provides me with an extra layer of anonymity when I feel like I need it, though you should not rely solely on Tor for strong anonymity.  For more information on Tor and Privoxy, check out the project website.

These instructions work for me on Ubuntu, though they should also work for any other Ubuntu variant.  They may even work with the default Xandros OS, but I have not tested it.

First open a terminal window and install the necessary programs:

sudo apt-get install tor privoxy

Make sure the torrc file exists (no editing necessary):

sudo nano /etc/tor/torrc

Edit the Privoxy config file:

sudo nano /etc/privoxy/config

Comment out: “logfile logfile” by adding a '#' in front of it.
Comment out: “jarfile jarfile” by adding a '#' in front of it.
Locate a line with: listen-address 127.0.0.1:8118
On the next line add: forward-socks4a / localhost:9050 . (including the trailing dot)

Restart (or start) Tor and Privoxy with:

sudo /etc/init.d/tor restart && sudo /etc/init.d/privoxy restart

You can now configure your applications to work with the newly installed proxy.  Since I mainly use Tor in the firefox web browser and want to be able to turn it off and on, I just installed TorButton.

To use this proxy with other applications you can use one of the following settings:
HTTP Proxy:
localhost:9118
or
SOCKS 4 Proxy:
localhost:9050

*IMPORTANT*
If you are like me and you have turned off logging by adding a tmpfs entry for /var/log in your /etc/fstab file, you have more work to do in order for Tor to work after a reboot. (If you did not turn off logging, you REALLY should because you are wasting write cycles on your flash drive.)

Basically we have to create a log file for both Tor and Privoxy before they are initialized or they will not start. To do this I edited the two start up scripts. First edit the Tor script:

sudo nano /etc/init.d/tor

Now add the following code on the second line right after '/bin/bash':

# CUSTOM ADDITION FOR EEE PC
# Added for eeePC to create logfiles in tmpfs
# Also needed is an addtion to /etc/fstab
# tmpfs      /var/log        tmpfs        defaults           0    0
#
# ensure that the logs dont already exist.
if [ ! -d /var/log/tor ]
  then
  mkdir /var/log/tor
  touch /var/log/tor/log
  chown -R debian-tor:adm /var/log/tor
fi

# END CUSTOMIZATION

And now edit the Privoxy script with:

sudo nano /etc/init.d/privoxy

Add the following code to the second line right after '/bin/sh':

# CUSTOM ADDITION FOR EEE PC
# Added for eeePC to create logfiles in tmpfs
# Also needed is an addtion to /etc/fstab
# tmpfs      /var/log        tmpfs        defaults           0    0
#
# ensure that the logs dont already exist.

if [ ! -d /var/log/privoxy ]
  then
  mkdir /var/log/privoxy
  touch /var/log/privoxy/errorfile
  touch /var/log/privoxy/logfile
  chown -R privoxy:adm /var/log/privoxy
fi

# END CUSTOMIZATION

Hope that all makes sense!  Good Luck.

Last edited by schwieb (2008-02-15 2:34:12 pm)