How to start tor as non root user

Question

I've installed tor package from archlinux repo.

I can run tor as root with

sudo systemctl start tor

but I want to use tor without root. How can I do that ? I don't want to use official tor-browser

Answer 1

but I want to use tor without root. How can I do that ? I don't want to use official tor-browser

You're not, you're starting the systemd service with root.

Take a look at your service file. Here's what mine looks like:

    > cat /usr/lib/systemd/system/tor.service
<snip>
    ExecStart=/usr/bin/tor --runasdaemon 0 --defaults-torrc /usr/share/tor/defaults-torrc -f /etc/tor/torrc --user tor --hush
</snip>

You can see in the ExecStart line, the tor binary is being run as the "tor" user, not as root.

Answer 2

You need to enable the service like that systemctl enable tor - so it will be automatically fire up when the system is rebooted e.t.c.

Answer 3

Starting a systemd service requires root privileges but anyway you can enable the service and can make a symlink for the same. So every time you boot up your PC the service will automatically restart. Not only for tor but all other services also require root privileges to start a systemd process.