thanks for the good info. so far, Electrum 1.9.8 works with
Linux amnesia 3.12-1-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 3.12.9-1 (2014-02-01) x86_64 GNU/Linux

56ckl5obj37gypcu.onion is pretty reliable, haven't tried many so far. the -v switch is very helpful, if it doesn't try to sync within 60 seconds, best to Ctl-C and try again.

i see that it does try to talk to others.