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#1551 Fatal Error and read-only config file
When I start Privoxy, I get the following error:
Fatal error: init_error_log():can't open logfile:'.+AA0-\privoxy.log+AA0-'
And, on top of that, the config.txt file opens as read-only and won't allow me to alter it. I am running the following:
Privoxy version 3.0.19
Windows 7 Home Premium SP1
AVG Firewall
no other proxy
How did you install Privoxy and how do you start it?
Did you make any config changes in the past?
By default Privoxy shouldn't try using a logfile and it looks like there's an encoding issue which is another indication for custom modifications that could explain the problem.
I downloaded it from Sourceforge and ran it from the privoxy.exe file
I did not make any config changes.
I did however uninstall 3.0.19 and installed 3.0.21 and I think it is working now
OK, I tried viewing the config page with my web browser and it states that Privoxy is not working :-(
Sounds like you didn't configure your browser to use Privoxy.
For details see: http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/startup.html
If you are sure your browser is using Privoxy, please post the exact error message.
Fatal error: Directive toggle used with invalid argument '1+AA0-'. Use either '0' or '1'.
It strikes me that all the fatal errors reference elements with unexpected characters ("+AA0-") pre/appended to them:
Fatal error: init_error_log():can't open logfile:'.+AA0-\privoxy.log+AA0-'
Fatal error: Directive toggle used with invalid argument '1+AA0-'. Use
either '0' or '1'.
My first thought would be some sort of character encoding problem that is breaking the content of the config file. Could you attach your config.txt file? The fact that it is opening read-only also suggests that one of Windows 7's various 'protection' methods is coming into play. Did you run the installer as Administrator? I should say that I am not the Windows package maintainer hence I don't know whether this is necessary, but might be worth re-installing this way if you did not do so.
Ian
Here is my config.txt file. I did not run the program as administrator yet.
config.txt file
Hi,
The config file you attached has been corrupted along the way, though this is not a form of character set corruption I've ever seen before. We could go through and correct this file, but I would have guessed the same corruption affects all other text files that form part of the installation.
I've confirmed that the installers available at Sourceforge are not corrupted so the corruption must have occurred at your machine during or after installation.
I would recommend uninstalling and re-running the .exe installer as Administrator. I do not think that running as Admin has any direct relationship on the file corruption but it certainly can't hurt.
What language settings is this Windows install using? I can't think of any other reason for the character set corruption you're getting.
Ian
As far as I know my Windows installer is running English. I will uninstall and reinstall as Admin as you suggested.
Okay - once reinstalled just open config.txt - it should look similar to the one I've just attached (config), i.e. be using the # character to identify comments and the newline characters should be effectively invisible.
With respect to your language settings I meant those in your Windows installation itself (the language settings in Control Panel) rather than those used by Windows Installer.
Ian
Uninstalled, reinstalled as Admin, configured browser to use address and port as started in the config.txt file and it was able to bring up the config page in the browser now. That seems to have done the trick
Excellent, glad it's sorted now even if the corruption was something of mystery!
Ian
Well, now it's 2019 and this happens still!
Why is this closed, nobody else sees this?
Workaround is to re-install privoxy almost every 2nd reboot of the system.
What a pain!
System: Windows 10 Enterprise
Version: 1803
Installed on 02/28/2019
OS build 17134.648
On 3/17/19, lionneik wrote:
Read the FAQ
https://www.privoxy.org/faq/trouble.html#FILE-PERMISSIONS
Related
Support Requests:
#1551Same problem with Windows 10 (1903) & Privoxy 3.0.28 ... I tried the suggestions in this thread, but I get the same results. Installed as Administrator (also Run as Administrator just to be sure). No fatal error on first run, but it also does not run, there is nothing in the log and setting proxy to 127.0.0.1:8118 does nothing. Second run, fatal error as seen in attachment. Should I start another ticket?
Last edit: Hard Wired 2019-10-13
On 10/13/19, Hard Wired hard-wired@users.sourceforge.net wrote:
In general it's not a good idea to piggy-back on a ticket that's over
6 years old and closed, but since you're here..
take another look at this:
https://www.privoxy.org/faq/trouble.html#FILE-PERMISSIONS
If it's a problem with your userid not being able to open privoxy.log
for writing this should fix it -- assuming privoxy is installed in
C:\Program Files (x86)\Privoxy
open an elevated command prompt
icacls "c:\Program Files (x86)\Privoxy\privoxy.log" /grant Users:F
and you might need to do
icacls "c:\Program Files (x86)\Privoxy" /grant Users:F
if privoxy.log doesn't exist and your userid doesn't have the
necessary permissions to create files in "c:\Program Files
(x86)\Privoxy\"
Regards,
Lee
The original problem here was caused by wrong file endings in the config file.
If you see the error message:
Privoxy Error: Fatal Error: init_error_log(): can't open logfile: '\privoxy.log'
(without the +AA0- or similar) then you might be running into bug https://sourceforge.net/p/ijbswa/bugs/927/
Please see there for the solutions.
Sorry and thank you very much. I was searching the docs with a query that was too specific and missed that section. Taking the time to read the full docs also help me along with other options I wanted. I do wish there was a smoother install process for the Windows platform. There seems to be a lot of manual system settings, user privs, firewall settings, etc. just to get things going.