what is causing "Port 443 is already being handled; removing" error in the Tor debug.log?

Question

After following the Tor Bridge installation docs and the download instructions for Ubuntu, I've successfully confirmed connection to the Tor network via a Raspberry Pi 2 with Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver; although I'm connected as confirmed by the notices.log, the log-file stops after "Performing Bandwidth self-test...done", so I examined the debug.log file- although there is some network activity documented, it appears that the majority of traffic is being scrubbed or "washed" with repeating output "Port 443 is already being handled; removing" (as detailed in the below snapshot).

Although the Tor docs apparently recommend punching holes for 80 and 443, those ports are already in-use on my network, so I set ORPort to 3443 within the torrc-config file, which includes the following parameters within the below markdown (please feel free to review my blog-post detailing my approach if need be):

BridgeRelay1
ORPort 3443
ServerTransportPlugin obfs4 exec /usr/bin/obfs4proxy.
ServerTransportListenAddr obfs4 0.0.0.0:3448
Uncomment line ExtORPort auto.
Nickname choose-whatever-you-want
ContactInfo your-contact-name <[email protected]>

Can someone please confirm if the "Port 443 is already being handled; removing" is an error due to my configuration file or if this is normal under the circumstances (ie unable to utilize 443 due to existing network preferences)? How can I resolve? I'd sincerely appreciate it- thanks!

Answer 1

After repeating the TorProject install on another Raspberry Pi 3, I discovered that I incorrectly transcribed the gpg-keys while adding the repository for the Debian/Ubuntu install as listed within their docs (I recommend folks install Xubuntu to access the Xubuntu Desktop broswer/FireFox so you can accurately copy/paste those keys instead of risking error transcribing by typo on the keyboard). If running a Tor Bridge, I'd also recommend setting your Raspberry Pi 2/3/B+ torrc config-files according to the parameters specified within the below markdown:

RunAsDaemon 1

Log notice file /var/log/tor/notices.log
Log debug file /var/log/tor/debug.log

ORPort 3443

ServerTransportPlugin obfs4 exec /usr/bin/obfs4proxy
ServerTransportListenAddr obfs4 0.0.0.0:3448

ExtORPort auto

Nickname your-nickname
EmailAddress <your-email-address>

ExitPolicy reject *:*

After monitoring the Tor Bridge console files and periodically checking Tor Atlas, I was finally able to confirm success about 4.5 hours later and no longer observed the "Port 443 is already being handled; removing" flag within the debug.log file- hope that helps!