How-to run Tor, Vidalia and Polipo from USB:

This guide details how to easily run Tor, Vidalia and Polipo from a USB.

Download and compile:

I will not describe how to compile these programs because it is not within the scope of this guide.
When you compile the programs _do not_ run 'make install'

1a. Download and compile Tor, Vidalia and Polipo.

Optional: Build Tor statically to create a portable USB for use at home, Internet cafes, etc.

1b. When you compile Tor use the following line in place of "./configure":

"LDFLAGS="-static" CFLAGS="-static" ./configure --prefix=/tor"'

1c. Compiling Tor as above creates a static Tor binary without the dependency upon Libevent1 or other external libraries.

1d. Note: If you update openSSL you must then re-compile Tor. Thanks to Simon B. for the static build info

Prepare the USB:

In this guide I use /media/usbdisk/ for the path to USB
Optional: You should format the USB as ext2 (eg. non-Journaling File System)

1. Create the following directories in the root of the USB:

Vidalia/
Vidalia/datadir/
Polipo/
Tor/
Tor/datadir/

Copy compiled binaries to the USB:

1. Copy the compiled binaries to the appropriate directories on the USB:

Vidalia/vidalia
Polipo/polipo
Tor/tor
Tor/tor-resolve (optional)

Create Tor configuration file "torrc" on USB:

1a. Copy over your current torrc to /media/usbdisk/Vidalia/datadir/

1b. Add these line to your torrc:

DataDirectory /media/usbdisk/Tor/datadir

AvoidDiskWrites 1

Or...

2a. Create an empty file titled "torrc" in /media/usbdisk/Vidalia/datadir/

2b. Add these lines to the empty torrc file:

DataDirectory /media/usbdisk/Tor/datadir

AvoidDiskWrites 1

Create Polipo configuration file "config" on USB:

1. Copy over your current Polipo configuration file to /media/usbdisk/Polipo/ and rename to "config"

Or...

2a. Create an empty file titled "config" in /media/usbdisk/Polipo/

2b. Copy/paste the following text into /media/usbdisk/Polipo/config

#-General

cacheIsShared = false

socksParentProxy = "localhost:9050"

socksProxyType = socks5

#-DNS

dnsQueryIPv6 = no

#-Cookies (Optional-Disable cache of cookies)

dontCacheCookies = true

#-Local web server (Optional-Disable local web server)

localDocumentRoot = ""

#-Memory (Optional-Disable on-disk cache)

diskCacheRoot = ""

#-Memory (Optional-Use a _very_ small amount of RAM)

#chunkHighMark = 819200

#objectHighMark = 128

Setup Vidalia:

1a. Open a terminal window and type:

cd /media/usbdisk/Vidalia

./vidalia -datadir "./datadir"

1b. When Vidalia starts it will open a window titled "Error Starting Tor"

1c. Click the button "Show Settings"

1d. Under the title "Tor Executable" enter the path to the Tor binary:

/media/usbdisk/Tor/tor

1e. Click the button "Save"

1d. Right-click on the Vidalia icon and scroll to "Start"

1f. After Vidalia starts all required files will be created in /media/usbdisk/Vidalia/datadir/ and /media/usbdisk/Tor/datadir/

Run programs:

Use the following directions to start the programs in the future.

1. Polipo: Open a terminal window and type:

cd /media/usbdisk/Polipo

./polipo -c config

2. Vidalia: Open another terminal window and type:

cd /media/usbdisk/Vidalia

./vidalia -datadir "./datadir"

Regards: LightZoo

If you have suggestions, gripes, etc, use IRC on #tor with irc.oftc.net or email me at lightzook AT yahoo DOT com