More info on my own tor problems

[Praedor Atrebates <praedor@xxxxxxxxx>]

I have had a long-running problem upgrading to tor-0.2.1.7-alpha.  I usually 
use Tork as my tor manager (version 0.29.2 rpm - I can't build the latest 
because I am using kde 4 and it wont build on such a system) and run the 
configuation wizard after every tor upgrade.  This has worked perfectly up 
until 0.2.1.7-alpha.  

The problem is that no matter what I do, be it configure tor via Tork or do it 
manually with a text editor, I cannot get tor to run.  It crashes very quickly 
and, from Tork, produces no useful log information.  It just stops.

I have now tried with vidalia and I am still unable to run tor but I am 
getting useful log data:

Dec 04 08:05:41.407 [Notice] Tor v0.2.1.7-alpha (r17216). This is experimental 
software. Do not rely on it for strong anonymity. (Running on Linux i686)
Dec 04 08:05:41.409 [Warning] Unable to open configuration file 
"/etc/tor/torrc".
Dec 04 08:05:41.410 [Error] Reading config failed--see warnings above.
Dec 04 08:06:24.666 [Notice] Tor v0.2.1.7-alpha (r17216). This is experimental 
software. Do not rely on it for strong anonymity. (Running on Linux i686)
Dec 04 08:06:24.669 [Warning] Skipping obsolete configuration option 'Group'
Dec 04 08:06:24.673 [Notice] Initialized libevent version 1.4.7-stable using 
method epoll. Good.
Dec 04 08:06:24.675 [Notice] Opening OR listener on 0.0.0.0:9001
Dec 04 08:06:24.679 [Notice] Opening Socks listener on 127.0.0.1:9050
Dec 04 08:06:24.682 [Notice] Opening Control listener on 127.0.0.1:9051
Dec 04 08:06:24.686 [Warning] Error setting configured groups: Operation not 
permitted
Dec 04 08:06:24.689 [Warning] Failed to parse/validate config: Problem with 
User value. See logs for details.
Dec 04 08:06:24.693 [Error] Reading config failed--see warnings above.


I have no idea what the problem is with the torrc file.  I merely took the 
sample provided with the software and uncommented the applicable parts (after 
Tork failed to configure it) and copy it to torrc.  What is the deal with 
tor-0.2.1.7?  What has changed vis a vis configuration that appears to break 
it compared to the any and all of the previous versions?  Most important of 
all, how do I get past this so I can start running tor again?

praedor