If you care about privacy, you might be wondering how to browse the web without giving away too much information. Many companies misuse your data and have been caught spying on people. One solution is to use a browser that protects your privacy, like Tor Browser by the Tor Project. It may not be the most user-friendly browser, but it is very secure and the best option if you want to be extra careful.

This article will briefly demonstrate different methods of getting the Tor browser on your Arch Linux system.

Contents:

• How to Install Tor Browser on Arch Linux
• Install Tor Browser Using Pacman
• Install Tor Browser Using Flatpak
• Install Tor Browser Using AUR Repository
• Install Tor Browser Using AUR Helper (Yay)
• Install Tor Browser Using Pamac (GUI Method)
• Conclusion

1. How to Install Tor Browser on Arch Linux

To install the Tor browser on Arch Linux, you can use Pacman. Using Pacman, you can get Tor with a single command. Alternatively, you can try the AUR package for the Tor browser. To get the AUR package of the Tor browser, you can either clone the Tor browser repository or directly download it using any AUR helper such as Yay.

Let’s cover each of these installation methods in detail.

2. Install Tor Browser Using Pacman

To install the Tor Browser using Pacman, first, update your system using this command:

sudo pacman -Syu

Next, to install the torbrowser-launcher package, use the below Pacman command:

sudo pacman -S torbrowser-launcher

The above command will install the torbrowser-launcher package and the Tor browser. A most updated version of Tor Browser will be downloaded.

Next, if you want to install the Tor software only, which is a network of servers that anonymize your internet traffic, you can run this command:

sudo pacman -S tor

The Tor package downloaded by the above command is the core component of the Tor network. It will enable anonymous communication between you and the online world. It also installs the required dependencies for Tor to work properly.

Note: If you have run the Tor launcher command, then you don’t have to run the Tor command separately.

To verify the Tor installation, you can check its version using this command:

tor --version

 

Launch the Tor browser from the application menu.

You will see a new popup with the Tor browser being started to download.

Once the Tor browser is downloaded, you will see it on your screen.

You can also directly launch the Tor browser launcher from the app’s menu.

Tor Browser Launcher is a tool that connects you to the Tor network or configures a Tor Browser connection. It starts your Tor Browser automatically when you launch it. It also checks the version update for Tor. It only has one parameter (–settings) which opens a settings dialog as shown in the image.

That’s it! Tor browser is successfully installed on Arch Linux, and it’s time to browse the internet anonymously and more securely.

Remove the Tor Browser Installed Using Pacman

To remove the Tor Browser Launcher and the Tor software from your system, run this command:

sudo pacman -R torbrowser-launcher

If you only want to remove the Tor from your system, run this command on the console:

sudo pacman -R tor

3. Install Tor Browser Using Flatpak

Flatpak is a universal way of downloading packages on any Linux distro. It will install the updated version of the Tor browser.

To get the Tor browser from Flatpak, run:

flatpak install flathub com.github.micahflee.torbrowser-launcher -y

After the Tor browser installation, you will see the completion message.

Run the Tor browser from the App’s section.

You can also run this command to launch the Tor browser directly from the terminal:

flatpak run com.github.micahflee.torbrowser-launcher

Remove Tor Browser Installed Using Flatpak

To remove the Tor browser installed using Flatpak, you can use the following command:

flatpak remove --delete-data com.github.micahflee.torbrowser-launcher -y

This will delete the data folder of the Tor browser and remove it from your system.

4. Install Tor Browser Using AUR Repository

To install the Tor browser using the AUR repository, you need to follow these steps:

First, enable the AUR repository on your Arch system. For that, you have to download the necessary tools that are required for cloning and building the AUR packages in Arch Linux. You can get these tools by running this command:

sudo pacman -S base-devel git

Next, clone the tor-browser-bin package from the AUR repository using git:

git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/tor-browser-bin.git

Before you can compile the Tor AUR package using the makepkg command, you must first run the below-given command as a normal user:

gpg --auto-key-locate nodefault,wkd --locate-keys [email protected]

The above command will fetch the public key for the Tor Browser Developer’s signing key from the keyserver network. This key verifies the authenticity of the Tor Browser releases. You need to import this key into your GnuPG (gnupg) or GnuPG2 (gnupg2) before you can run makepkg and compile the Tor AUR package.

Then, you need to enter the cloned directory and build the package using makepkg:

cd tor-browser-bin

makepkg -si

Press the Y key to allow the Tor package installation.

Once installed, start the Tor browser directly from the console.

Or run it from the app’s menu:

That’s it! Tor browser is installed using the AUR repository on Arch Linux.

Remove the Tor Browser Installed Using the AUR Repository

To remove the Tor browser installed using the AUR repository, run this command:

sudo pacman -Rns tor-browser-bin

If you have any configuration files or folders related to the Tor browser in your home directory, you can delete them manually or use the command:

sudo rm -rf ~/.config/TorBrowser/

If you have any configuration files or folders related to Tor network service in your /etc directory, you can delete them manually or use the command:

sudo rm -rf /etc/tor/

5. Install Tor Browser Using AUR Helper (Yay)

If you prefer the AUR package of the Tor browser for its installation, then you must have any AUR helper installed. Using an AUR helper will make the installation task easier. Let’s check the steps for downloading the Tor browser using the Yay AUR helper.

To download the Tor browser AUR package using Yay, run the given command:

yay -S tor-browser-bin

Once installed, you can launch it from the terminal application menu.

Uninstall the Tor Package Installed Using AUR Helper

AUR packages can be easily uninstalled during the Pacman command, simply use the -R option with the Pacman command followed by the package name:

sudo pacman -Rns tor-browser-bin

6. Install Tor Browser Using Pamac (GUI Method)

You have learned how to install the Tor browser from the terminal. But if you like GUI methods, or you are new to Linux, you should try Pamac.

Pamac is a package manager that works with both AUR and Appstream packages. You can run Pamac from both GUI and CLI. To get Pamac GUI, run the given commands in the console:

sudo pacman -S --needed base-devel git

git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/pamac-aur.git

cd pamac-aur

makepkg -si

Then you can open Pamac GUI from your application menu. Look for Add/Remove Software.

Pamac lets you manage both Arch and AUR packages. You can browse for new packages in the Browse section.

To install the Tor browser from AUR, you need to enable AUR support first. By default, it’s off, to turn it on, open Pamac and click the hamburger icon. Then go to Preferences.

Here, check the box for AUR support in the Third-Party tab.

Now you can search for any AUR package in Pamac. To get the Tor browser, type Tor in the search box, and you will see all the Tor browser packages, including the Tor browser launcher. Click download and Pamac will install the Tor browser for you.

Conclusion

Tor Browser is an anonymous communication software that provides more security and privacy while browsing the Web. To install Tor on Arch Linux, you can try different methods. The simplest method is to use the Pacman. However, if you are not bound to Arch Linux, you can try the Flatpak method. You can also get the Tor browser AUR packages. To get the AUR package either you can directly clone the Tor repository or use any AUR helper to directly install it from the terminal. Check all these Tor browser installation methods in this article.