Troubleshooting and FAQ

Short answers to common questions, each with a link to the page that covers it in full.

License and accountCopy Anchor Link

The page sees the real machine, not the personaCopy Anchor Link

When the browser applies a persona, it prints [bauta] persona: <file> on stderr. If the page sees the real machine instead, stderr says why: a license that is missing, expired or not ours, or a persona file that cannot be read or contradicts itself. Check the license with bauta status, and activate one with bauta activate <license key> or bauta login. A license that expires while the browser runs does not stop it.

The server cannot be reachedCopy Anchor Link

The last license token holds until it expires, and a persona that is running is never stopped. See Your license key.

What happens when the trial ends?Copy Anchor Link

The account keeps 3 sessions, on the free plan. The dashboard and bauta status show the date the trial ends, and in its last three days bauta status adds a reminder. See Plans and sessions.

bauta login says the GitHub account has no verified emailCopy Anchor Link

Add a verified email to your GitHub account at https://github.com/settings/emails, then run bauta login again.

bauta login in a script or a containerCopy Anchor Link

bauta login needs a terminal. Set BAUTA_LICENSE_KEY to your license key instead.

Signing in or out asks about new fingerprintsCopy Anchor Link

A persona's fingerprint is derived from its name and your license's secret, so the same persona under another license reads differently. When this machine has personas, bauta login and bauta logout ask before they change the license. If you answer no, nothing changes.

The installer asked nothingCopy Anchor Link

The installers and the bautabrowser packages never prompt when stdin or stdout is not a terminal, CI is set, /.dockerenv exists or BAUTA_NO_PROMPT=1; they then activate the free plan, with one session, without asking. To add an account later, run bauta login on a terminal.

The installer says the signature was not checkedCopy Anchor Link

On a stock Mac without OpenSSL 3, the installer prints one line saying the signature was not checked and why; the checksums still come over HTTPS. Set BAUTA_REQUIRE_SIGNATURE=1 to refuse that case.

The gatewayCopy Anchor Link

A new connection waitsCopy Anchor Link

Your plan sets how many personas run at once, across your machines. When all your sessions are in use, a new persona's connection stays open and waits in a queue until a session is free or a new license arrives. A running persona is never stopped for it. The gateway prints a queued line on stderr, and bauta stats shows the active and queued personas against the license.

A persona's browser closes 30 seconds after its last client leaves (bauta serve --idle), and its session is then free. New personas also wait while the license has expired. See Sessions.

The browser runs headless on a serverCopy Anchor Link

On a machine without a display, install Xvfb, and bauta serve opens the browsers' windows on a virtual display of its own:

apt install xvfb

Without Xvfb it falls back to Chrome's headless mode, which a page can tell apart, and says so. See Servers.

The sandbox on Ubuntu 24.04Copy Anchor Link

AppArmor stops a Chrome it does not know from using unprivileged user namespaces. Point CHROME_DEVEL_SANDBOX at a SUID sandbox helper (stock Chrome's /opt/google/chrome/chrome-sandbox works), or launch with --no-sandbox. A persona applies either way.

ProxiesCopy Anchor Link

The proxy refuses the credentialsCopy Anchor Link

If the proxy turns the credentials away, requests fail at once, and bauta serve says so. Check the user name and password in the persona's "proxy", and %-escape any :, @ or / in them. See Proxies.

The timezone does not follow the proxyCopy Anchor Link

With a proxy, and neither "timezone" nor "locale" in the persona file, both follow where the proxy exits. bauta serve asks an IP echo through the proxy (https://api.ipify.org, unless BAUTA_IP_ECHO names another) and places the address with the database that bauta geo update keeps. Fetch it first:

bauta geo update

If no place can be found, and none was found before, the persona's browser does not start, rather than show this machine's timezone behind a foreign address. To set them yourself, put "timezone" and "locale" in the persona file, e.g. "America/New_York" and "en-US".

Files and dataCopy Anchor Link

Where bauta keeps its filesCopy Anchor Link

In ~/.bauta, or the directory BAUTA_HOME names. It holds personas/, license (the license token) and fonts/. To move a persona to another of your machines, copy its directory, ~/.bauta/personas/<name>.

What bauta sends to our serverCopy Anchor Link

Only bauta and its gateway talk to our server; the browser never does. Nothing about pages, URLs, proxies or personas is sent. The full list is in the data reference.

BillingCopy Anchor Link

How do I cancel?Copy Anchor Link

From your dashboard, through Manage billing. Your plan stays until the end of the period you paid for, and then the license returns to the free plan. See Plans and sessions.

Where are refunds handled?Copy Anchor Link

Paddle, the merchant of record, handles refunds under the Refund Policy. For billing questions, write to support@bauta.dev.

NextCopy Anchor Link

• Your license key: activate, sign in and check your license.
• Plans and sessions: what each plan allows.
• CLI reference: the bauta commands and their options.