Fixing Slow Camoufox Proxy Download

Fixing Slow Camoufox Proxy Download | Generated by AI

Home 2026.04

Question: Why is the Camoufox download stuck at 0% with proxychains4 npx camoufox-js fetch showing 15659.0s remaining, and how do I install Hermes?

Answer:

The issue you’re facing is that the Camoufox download is extremely slow (estimated ~4 hours or more at current speed) or completely stuck at 0% progress. This is very common when using proxychains because:

Proxychains forces every connection through your proxy (SOCKS/Tor/etc.), which often makes large binary downloads painfully slow or unstable.
Many CDNs and download hosts (like those serving Camoufox binaries) have poor performance or even block/abort connections coming from proxies/Tor.
The progress bar is shown by the downloader inside npx camoufox-js, and it’s not handling slow/unstable proxy connections well.

Quick fixes to try (in order):

Skip proxychains for the download (recommended first step) Run the command without proxychains:
```
npx camoufox-js fetch
```
This lets the download use your normal internet connection, which is usually much faster.
If you really need the proxy for privacy:
- Try a different/better proxy in your /opt/homebrew/etc/proxychains.conf
- Use a faster proxy (residential or high-bandwidth one) instead of Tor if you’re using Tor.
- Increase the number of threads/chains in proxychains config if supported.
Alternative installation methods for Hermes (assuming you want to install Hermes agent with Camoufox)

If the above still fails, try these steps:
- Cancel the current stuck process (Ctrl+C)
- Clear any partial download cache:
```
rm -rf ~/.cache/camoufox* || true
rm -rf /tmp/camoufox* || true
```
- Then retry without proxy:
```
npx camoufox-js fetch
```
After successful fetch, continue with Hermes installation. Typically it would be something like:
```
# After Camoufox is fetched
npx camoufox-js install   # or whatever the Hermes install command is
```
If you are following a specific Hermes installation guide, share the exact commands or GitHub repo link for more precise help.
Other common causes & solutions:
- Low disk space → check with df -h
- Network issues even without proxy → test normal speed with curl -I https://example.com or speedtest
- Old npx cache → try npx --yes camoufox-js fetch or clear npm cache: npm cache clean --force
- Antivirus/Firewall interfering (rare on macOS)

The “15659 seconds” (~4.35 hours) is the estimated time remaining based on current download speed. At 0% with such high ETA, it usually means the connection is either extremely throttled or barely moving.

Best immediate action:
Cancel it (Ctrl+C), remove proxychains from the command, and retry the fetch. It should complete in seconds or a couple of minutes on normal internet.

If it still fails, please provide:

The exact Hermes installation guide you’re following
Your proxychains.conf content (hide sensitive parts)
Any error messages after it eventually fails

That will help me give more targeted troubleshooting.

Back Donate