17 RC1: "Power User Mode" doesn't actually work, still sets up Android system VPN, disconnects existing VPN

[infinity0]

I'm in China and need to connect through Tor via VPN. (This is what works for me, no bridges don't work, I don't have the time to debate this right now.)

17 RC 1 breaks this. Power User Mode doesn't actually do as it claims, it immediately disconnects my existing VPN and tries to connect to Tor outside of the VPN (and fails, because China). In other words the "Power User Mode" setting seems to have no effect and Orbot still acts as an Android system VPN. 16.6.4-RC-1 worked fine, I could switch Tor and the Tor-Android-VPN on/off separately just fine.

Incredible that such high-level functionality wasn't tested before release. Nothing in Tor logs as this is not a Tor issue but an Orbot-specific issue.

[infinity0]

adb install -d Orbot-16.6.4-RC-1-tor.0.4.7.11-fullperm-universal-release.apk works around the issue for now.

[n8fr8]

inconceivable!

That said, it is still a release candidate and we haven't rolled it out to all of our production users yet.

@bitmold is on the case.

[Alexey104]

I faced with the same problem after upgrading Orbot on LineageOS, and this is how I solved this: Go to your phone Settings->Network & Internet->VPN, select Orbot in the list of your VPN apps and tap Forget VPN. Now you can start Orbot in power user mode, and it won't disable your other VPN.

[infinity0]

That said, it is still a release candidate and we haven't rolled it out to all of our production users yet.

What is the "production release" channel? I've only ever seen RC/BETA releases on both Github releases and the Guardian Project F-Droid repo. Orbot was removed from the official F-Droid repo a while back. I don't regularly check Google Play but it also currently has a RC version 16.6.3-RC-1-tor.0.4.7.10.

Is there some secret "production release" channel I'm not aware of, that includes non-RC/BETA releases?

[infinity0]

[..] tap Forget VPN. Now you can start Orbot in power user mode, and it won't disable your other VPN.

Ideally one ("power users") should be able to start Tor and start the VPN service separately like it worked in version 16. Outside of China I frequently switch between using Tor as my VPN service vs a regular VPN, because Tor is often captchad, but I need Tor running as non-VPN all the time to access my own hidden services.