Introduction[edit]

Note: From Whonix ™ 14, Firefox-ESR is no longer installed by default and must be manually installed via Whonix-Workstation ™ Konsole for these instructions.

Non-Whonix ™ Platforms: If Firefox is available and Tor Browser is to be installed on a non-Whonix ™ platform, proceed to Download and Install Tor Browser. Otherwise, first install Firefox on the respective platform and configure the setting for clearnet onion connections, if desired.
Whonix: If Tor Browser is not installed, then it can be downloaded by using Firefox-ESR. Only complete this action for downloading Tor Browser and nothing else.

Manually Downloading Tor Browser[edit]

Install Firefox-ESR Web Browser[edit]

1. Install Firefox-ESR.

In Whonix-Workstation ™ Konsole, run.

sudo apt install firefox-esr

sudo apt install firefox-esr

2. Optional: Configure clearnet onion service connections.

If users intend to connect to the Tor Project's onion service to download Tor Browser, then adjust the following Firefox-ESR setting to permit these connections.

In Firefox address bar: about:config → I accept the risk! → network.dns.blockDotOnion → toggle to false.

Download and Install Tor Browser[edit]

^[1]

Qubes-Whonix ™ note:

AppVM: The following instructions should be run in anon-whonix.
TemplateVM: Tor Browser upgrades in the whonix-ws-16 TemplateVM are only inherited by newly created AppVMs. In addition, Tor Browser must be stored in /var/cache/tb-binary/.tb rather than /home/user/.tb. For further information, see Qubes-specific Tor Browser issues.

Navigate to https://www.torproject.org/download/ ^[archive] (.onion ^[archive]) and download Tor Browser and the associated (.asc) file signature. Store it in /home/user/.tb.
Read https://2019.www.torproject.org/docs/signing-keys.html ^[archive] (.onion ^[archive]) to learn which PGP keys sign which packages.
Read https://support.torproject.org/tbb/how-to-verify-signature/ ^[archive] (.onion ^[archive]) and learn how to perform GPG verification. Download and import the necessary keys.
Verify the Tor Browser download.
Navigate to /home/user/.tb with the file manger. Dolphin example: Dolphin → View → Show Hidden Files
If the old version of Tor Browser is still open, close it.
Rename the old /home/user/.tb/tor-browser to something else.
Extract Tor Browser: Right-click on the downloaded archive → extract → extract archive here
The process is complete.
To start Tor Browser: ^[2]

If intending to use a graphical user interface: Start Tor Browser from the start menu.
If intending to use a terminal, run the following command.

torbrowser

torbrowser

Footnotes[edit]

↑ Note on platform support: Qubes-Whonix ™ and Non-Qubes-Whonix ™ users should use the 64-bit version.
↑ Note this will not result in a Tor over Tor scenario when using Tor Browser. Whonix ™ has a mechanism to disable Tor stacking.