Using Orbot fails, please bring back inbuild Tor!

[Alex71btc]

As many users on X stated also yesterday after the new release, the use of an external tor vpn for custom tor electrum server is a huge set back for us!

I am running an umbrel node as well as a start9 server.

With orbot the connection to my tor address of electrs or fulcrum as well as the connecting to acinq service fails completely.

I was able to get it work with InviZible Pro VPN app for Android, the only alternative on app store. But this is highly unpractical for me since i also run a tailscale VPN or a wireguard VPN to connect other services to my umbrel and start 9 servers...so I can't run the Tor VPN in addition, I can only run it when tailscale or other VPN are disconnected.

So the new version of phoenix is only useful without personal electrs server for me, what means that i would have to trust other unknown servers...

The inbuild Tor client of Phoenix wallet was running just fine for me until now in the background so please bring it back!

Also it would be even better to have a possible connection to my fulcrum/electrs server on umbrel without tls port, this was implemented recently by green wallet and works great with umbrel but is impossible to make it work on phoenix unfortunately.

Please consider this as you can see many users have the same problem here that world be great and we would be happy again.

Thanks

[barfinger]

Phoenix should be enabling the local SOCKS proxy to add Tor support with Orbot, not require switching VPN profiles... The VPN function of Orbot is only for intercepting traffic in apps that don't have a SOCKS proxy Tor toggle.

Here is an example an App with proper use of Orbot: https://simplex.chat/docs/guide/privacy-security.html#using-tor

This enables you to continue using any VPN service while Phoenix would SOCKS proxy to Orbot.

[dpad85]

With orbot the connection to my tor address of electrs or fulcrum as well as the connecting to acinq service fails completely.

Note that by default Phoenix will not connect to a non-onion address unless you've explicitly told it to in the Electrum settings. Then you should be able to connect. If that's not the case would you mind sharing the address of that server so I can test against it? If you don't want to reveal the address here you can send an email to phoenix@acinq.co

[Alex71btc]

Thanks, as i said, testet with onion address and i could connect with InviZible Pro tor vpn. With orbot it doesn't even connect to phoenix service either.... I world rather not share my personal fulcrum server. But using a vpn for Tor is totally impractical since i can only run one Vpn service simultaneously and then i need it more for tailscale and other apps. Gesendet von Outlook für Android<https://aka.ms/AAb9ysg>

…

________________________________ From: Dominique Padiou ***@***.***> Sent: Wednesday, March 5, 2025 2:23:46 PM To: ACINQ/phoenix ***@***.***> Cc: Funman2 ***@***.***>; Author ***@***.***> Subject: Re: [ACINQ/phoenix] Using Orbot fails, please bring back inbuild Tor! (Issue #681) With orbot the connection to my tor address of electrs or fulcrum as well as the connecting to acinq service fails completely. Note that by default Phoenix will not connect to a non-onion address unless you've explicitly told it to in the Electrum settings. Then you should be able to connect. If that's not the case would you mind sharing the address of that server so I can test against it? If you don't want to reveal the address here you can send an email to ***@***.******@***.***> — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub<#681 (comment)>, or unsubscribe<https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AZCNVIYVNHU3EUJE2TWR4N32S33GFAVCNFSM6AAAAABYLJLS3OVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZDOMBQHEZDANBSGQ>. You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***> [dpad85]dpad85 left a comment (ACINQ/phoenix#681)<#681 (comment)> With orbot the connection to my tor address of electrs or fulcrum as well as the connecting to acinq service fails completely. Note that by default Phoenix will not connect to a non-onion address unless you've explicitly told it to in the Electrum settings. Then you should be able to connect. If that's not the case would you mind sharing the address of that server so I can test against it? If you don't want to reveal the address here you can send an email to ***@***.******@***.***> — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub<#681 (comment)>, or unsubscribe<https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AZCNVIYVNHU3EUJE2TWR4N32S33GFAVCNFSM6AAAAABYLJLS3OVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZDOMBQHEZDANBSGQ>. You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[Alex71btc]

Quick update: after reinstalling Orbot it worked now.

But since running the Orbot VPN permanently make absolutely no sense for me because of other Vpn needed, i will sadly have to go back to prior phoenix version with integrated tor service sich matched my needs way better.
Another good solution for me would be to have the option to connect without tls to a clearnet electrum server. Then I could ditch the Tor completely and have better performance.

[toshmop]

With orbot the connection to my tor address of electrs or fulcrum as well as the connecting to acinq service fails completely.

Note that by default Phoenix will not connect to a non-onion address unless you've explicitly told it to in the Electrum settings. Then you should be able to connect. If that's not the case would you mind sharing the address of that server so I can test against it? If you don't want to reveal the address here you can send an email to phoenix@acinq.co

[toshmop]

Disable Private DNS on Android. Select automatic

[Alex71btc]

Ok thanks, in what aspects this could help?
I disabled private dns settings but that didn't help with connecting to http non tls port...

[toshmop]

1 uninstall and reinstall Orbot

2 configure orbot and enable the list of applications that will use the VPN

3 enable orbot VPN: start the RVP

4 in the Phoenix Wallet app go to electrum server and paste the onion address of your electrum node with port 50001

5 in the Phoenix Wallet app go to Tor and enable and confirm.

[Alex71btc]

Yes sure thing that works but it is a giant step backwards since i now would rather run without personal electrum server since i can't run orbot and my tailscale or wireguard vpn at the same time while tor service of the prior phoenix version was running just perfectly fine in the background.
It's a pity, please bring back integrated tor service as optional setup!

[martinbarilik]

❗ PROTON VPN USERS ❗

If this helps anybody who uses proton VPN, connect to a server that supports TOR.

This way you can use proton's tor service and still connect to your own electrum server via tor in phoenix.

I have no idea how this works behind the scenes, but it just does :)

[Alex71btc]

Quick update: For those on android who want to run Tor via Orbot and use another VPN simultaneously, with the help of chat GPT I found a working solution/workaround: An app called Shelter allows 2 profiles (personal and work) to run on android

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/net.typeblog.shelter/

You can run orbot VPN and for instance tailscale or wireguard simultaneously then in your personal profile( the regular one) and run phoenix in work profile together with orbot VPN.

You also may want to to set phoenix app battery settings to "not optimized" to allow notifications to stay visible otherwise they will disappear after 15 seconds ... same for orbot to keep connection alive... but this way phoenix runs with onion electrum server in the background and you still can use wireguard or tailscale at the same time !

[barfinger]

Orbot provides a localhost route for apps to proxy to via SOCKS while you use Proton VPN, Mulvad, tailscale, any VPN. Described here #681 (comment). The Orbot VPN profile is for forcing unsupported apps through Tor. Which makes everything you aren't excluding suffer. localhost routing is unsupported on iOS last I checked. It looks an awful lot like all these compromises around Tor were done entirely because of iOS issues and they don't want to support feature differences between operating systems.

I'm glad you're happy with the solution you found. It seems like a legit project.

[Alex71btc]

I agree that this solution with 2 working profiles is a bit clunky and not that elegant but works perfect for me, the so called "power user mode" of orbot does not work. for me, since you can't configure phoenix to connect to the proxy provided by Orbot (or maybe i couldn't figure out the necessary configuration of Orbot?), so far only Orbot VPN mode works for me since my node does not offer tls for fulcrum/elects ...
It still would be much better and easier to bring back inbuilt Tor for Phoenix.

Or otherwise less elegant rely on socks proxy of Orbot as you mentioned, if only it would be configurable in Phoenix , but this also is far from average user friendly or working out of the box solution/configuration...