Does installing Tor as root user cause problems?

Question

I'm new to Linux. I've installed Tor as root user. Will I have issues?

I did this as per the instructions:

You need to add the following entry in /etc/apt/sources.list or a new file in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/:

deb http://deb.torproject.org/torproject.org xenial main
deb-src http://deb.torproject.org/torproject.org xenial main

But then I did all this as sudo su:

Then add the gpg key used to sign the packages by running the following commands at your command prompt:

gpg --keyserver keys.gnupg.net --recv A3C4F0F979CAA22CDBA8F512EE8CBC9E886DDD89
gpg --export A3C4F0F979CAA22CDBA8F512EE8CBC9E886DDD89 | sudo apt-key add -

You can install it with the following commands:

$ apt-get update
$ apt-get install tor deb.torproject.org-keyring

But when I went to download Tor Browser on the next page it says:

do not install or run as root.

Will using sudo cause problems? I didn't run the Browser as sudo. Just installed and signed the packages as sudo.

Answer 1

No.

The tor package available through apt-get isn't needed or related to using Tor Browser.

As such the steps you performed as root won't affect the steps you performed to install Tor Browser, assuming you followed the steps given on the Tor Project site, e.g.:

# Download Tor Browser and it's signature
wget https://www.torproject.org/dist/torbrowser/6.0.7/tor-browser-linux64-6.0.7_en-US.tar.xz{,.asc}
# Fetch the Tor Browser GPG signing key
gpg --recv-keys 0x4E2C6E8793298290
# Verify the signature
gpg --verify tor-browser-linux64-6.0.7_en-US.tar.xz{.asc,}
if [[ $? -ne 0 ]]; then exit;fi
# Extract it
tar vxaf tor-browser-linux64-6.0.7_en-US.tar.xz
# Launch Tor Browser
./tor-browser_en-US/Browser/start-tor-browser