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Vidalia Quit Unexpectedly

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WALPOLE (Rixstep) — In these uncertain times, it's more important than ever to have secure communications that can't be cracked by nosy governments. Tor is a good start, provided it works.

Tor is available for a number of platforms, including 64-bit OS X. Unfortunately it has a reliable propensity to crash.

The crashing thread says a lot.

Thread 0 Crashed:: Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread
0   ???                           	000000000000000000 0 + 0
1   libQtNetwork.4.dylib          	0x000000010130bcf1 QAbstractSocket::disconnectFromHostImplementation() + 87
2   libQtNetwork.4.dylib          	0x0000000101308b2e QAbstractSocket::metaObject() const + 322
3   libQtCore.4.dylib             	0x00000001014e6d7c QMetaMethod::invoke(QObject*, Qt::ConnectionType, QGenericReturnArgument, QGenericArgument, QGenericArgument, QGenericArgument, QGenericArgument, QGenericArgument, QGenericArgument, QGenericArgument, QGenericArgument, QGenericArgument, QGenericArgument) const + 1214
4   libQtCore.4.dylib             	0x00000001014e8414 QMetaObject::invokeMethod(QObject*, char const*, Qt::ConnectionType, QGenericReturnArgument, QGenericArgument, QGenericArgument, QGenericArgument, QGenericArgument, QGenericArgument, QGenericArgument, QGenericArgument, QGenericArgument, QGenericArgument, QGenericArgument) + 1570
5   libQtNetwork.4.dylib          	0x0000000101309422 QAbstractSocket::disconnectFromHost() + 408
6   net.vidalia-project.vidalia   	0x00000001001d76e6 QList::operator<<(ReplyLine const&) + 2388
7   net.vidalia-project.vidalia   	0x00000001001d2236 QForeachContainer::QForeachContainer(QStringList const&) + 12486
8   net.vidalia-project.vidalia   	0x00000001001fc84b tc::DebugMessage::DebugMessage(QtMsgType, QString const&) + 86657
9   net.vidalia-project.vidalia   	0x00000001001fcc9d tc::DebugMessage::DebugMessage(QtMsgType, QString const&) + 87763
10  net.vidalia-project.vidalia   	0x0000000100179bb0 Log::LogMessage::arg(int) + 40356
11  net.vidalia-project.vidalia   	0x000000010016f5cb non-virtual thunk to ZImageView::~ZImageView() + 4587
12  net.vidalia-project.vidalia   	0x0000000100004624 0x100000000 + 17956

It's a Qt module written mostly in C++. Vidalia is what launches Tor. It's also what exits Tor. It can also show you assorted stats and reconnect you to the Tor network. But the crash scenario happens perhaps 9 out of 10 times when exiting. And it's been like that for almost a year. And nothing gets fixed, nothing changes.

The Vidalia module (not the actual tweaked FF browser) is a monster at 7.5 MB. And it needs four additional modules to run.

4 items, 16260696 bytes, 31776 blocks, 0 bytes in extended attributes.

Vidalia.app/Contents/Frameworks/libQtCore.4.dylib
Vidalia.app/Contents/Frameworks/libQtGui.4.dylib
Vidalia.app/Contents/Frameworks/libQtNetwork.4.dylib
Vidalia.app/Contents/Frameworks/libQtXml.4.dylib

Not counting resources files such as the NIB for the control panel, that's 24 MB. And it can't exit reliably without crashing.

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