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General => Users => Topic started by: gurumaia on December 28, 2011, 12:52:16 pm

Title: Torrent installation
Post by: gurumaia on December 28, 2011, 12:52:16 pm
Ok, so I finished my first (successful) core installation. I then added my first MD, ripped a DVD and was able to play it on the MD. All was fine and I thought to myself: Time to install a torrent client. Should be simple, I'll do it remotely from work tomorrow.
Well, simple it wasn't (or isn't). At least for me.
Let me put forth the requirements I have:
- Can't be any torrent client, must be one of the following: rTorrent, kTorrent, Transmission or Deluge. Also, no any version, each of them have to be a specific version.
- Must be able to administer remotely (from outside my network).
- Must be able to use rss (even if it is through an external rss downloader).

So after a bit of research I decided on trying Deluge. For this specific client, I need it to be one of the following versions: 1.2.3, 1.3.2 or 1.3.3.
I saw that the version available through the repos was 0.5.something so I knew I would either have to install it manually or add newer repos.
I decided to go with the latest, 1.3.3.

I first tried installing the .deb with dpkg but it would fail on some dependencies. I saw that there were a lot of dependencies and got lazy to install them one by one.
I then tried to compile it by hand (first installing the dependencies listed on the documentation) and everything besides building libtorrent went fine (something involving boost was not working). Since this is the backend, nothing worked.
Then, after a bit of researching, I found that the jaunty repos have the 1.3.3 version. I added it to my sources.list and tried to install it to no avail, it said some dependencies could not be installed. I tried to resolve these dependencies issues and was able to resolve all of them but the last one which was Python 2.6. I had Python 2.5 installed. I searched a bit about upgrading Python on the forums and wasn't able to find anything conclusive apart from a thread with no final information. So I decided to go ahead and try it.

This is where all hell broke loose.
First thing I noticed was it wanted to uninstall a lot of packages (about 15), wanted to install a bunch of new ones and upgrade some others. I figured the time to screw up my install is now, while I don't have it running at full speed. So I decided to go ahead.
I think my main mistake was I did it through Synaptic. Remotely, via SSH with X forwarding. On a 3G connection. I don't really know what happened but at some point near the end, everything froze. My connection dropped and I think Synaptic didn't finish its process.
When I got home, I went to check it and "apt-get update" would fail saying dpkg didn't finish successfully and that I should run "dpkg --configure -a".
Running "dpkg --configure -a" also didn't finish throwing out a core dump.
LinuxMCE seemed to be running fine and I was able to stream media to the MD perfectly. I could not go into kde on the core though.
I could try to resolve this but I would never know if everything was 100% ok. And I can't afford too much time to resolve this, so I decided to reinstall my core. This is where I'm at right now. I left it reinstalling at home (I'm at work right now) and will probably finish it up tonight.

Since this is giving me so much trouble, whenever I get this right, I'll try to make a guide of sorts and post it to the wiki. Perhaps this would help others.

But I also need some help. I'm not sure if I should attempt to upgrade python once again. Has anyone ever done it successfully? Does LinuxMCE use python for anything? I'm starting to think I should attempt to install rtorrent (which seems to have less dependencies), which would be my second choice after deluge.

Thanks!
Title: Re: Torrent installation
Post by: JoakimL on December 28, 2011, 02:13:01 pm
Hmm, you're in for a re-install my friend. By adding the Jaunty (9.04) repos you messed up you installation seriously. You can only use repos with the same version as Kubuntu (8.10 or 10.04). With mixed versions you'll get all dependencies going crazy...

After a re-install, I'd go the compile route, if you cannot find a repo with a back-ported or retrofitted torrent package. And do document your solution on the Wiki, that way we all improve. ;-)

/Joakim
Title: Re: Torrent installation
Post by: gurumaia on December 28, 2011, 02:40:31 pm
Hmm, you're in for a re-install my friend. By adding the Jaunty (9.04) repos you messed up you installation seriously. You can only use repos with the same version as Kubuntu (8.10 or 10.04). With mixed versions you'll get all dependencies going crazy...

After a re-install, I go the compile route, if you cannot find a repo with a back-ported or retrofitted torrent package. And do document your solution on the Wiki, that way we all improve. ;-)

/Joakim

About the repos, I only added it in order to install the packages I needed and would remove them after being done with it, so I don't think I would ruin my installation so seriously. But since I messed everything up I'm doing the reinstall anyway.
btw, I don't think I've mentioned it but I'm using the 810 final version.
I've been thinking about going with 1004, but I don't have a lot of free time at home and the wiki says that it might drive me insane. Is it *that* unstable or has it developed a bit since then? I'm able to fix stuff on my own but time restrictions are what made me choose 810.

I'll definitely add it to the wiki. There is an article about using wine to run uTorrent but that's a no-go for me. I've never been able to use wine with much success and I'd like to give linux clients a try.

As for the python upgrade, was anybody ever successful in upgrading it to 2.6?

Thanks for the help!
Title: Re: Torrent installation
Post by: JoakimL on December 28, 2011, 02:52:24 pm
I'm running 10.04 as my main LMCE, most things work absolutely fine. But - it's still alpha code, so anything could happen. But by doing a proper backup before doing any upgrades would take care of that. An of course your mileage will vary, I can only talk about my setup on my hardware.

/Joakim
Title: Re: Torrent installation
Post by: gurumaia on December 28, 2011, 02:56:46 pm
I'm running 10.04 as my main LMCE, most things work absolutely fine. But - it's still alpha code, so anything could happen. But by doing a proper backup before doing any upgrades would take care of that. An of course your mileage will vary, I can only talk about my setup on my hardware.

/Joakim

Great. If this continues to give me headaches, I'll try 10.04. Thanks for the help.
Title: Re: Torrent installation
Post by: gurumaia on January 27, 2012, 04:29:22 pm
Ok, I feel really stupid now. I just installed 1004 (because of unrelated issues I had with 810) and tried to install deluge again. And I found out that the deluge team has a ppa repository for ubuntu with the latest version available. It was as simple as
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:deluge-team/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install deluge

I don't even think this is worth a wiki page. Am I wrong?
Title: Re: Torrent installation
Post by: l3mce on January 27, 2012, 05:25:23 pm
Ok, I feel really stupid now. I just installed 1004 (because of unrelated issues I had with 810) and tried to install deluge again. And I found out that the deluge team has a ppa repository for ubuntu with the latest version available. It was as simple as
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:deluge-team/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install deluge

I don't even think this is worth a wiki page. Am I wrong?

What would be worthwhile... is dredging up this thread.
http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php/topic,8442.0.html

I don't use torrents and have attached myself to other projects... but SOMEONE needs to make this. Seems a very easy entry into real dev work.
Title: Re: Torrent installation
Post by: Aviator on January 27, 2012, 06:21:31 pm
I'm on it, I just finished the Radio Thermostat driver I was working on.
Title: Re: Torrent installation
Post by: gurumaia on January 27, 2012, 06:38:36 pm
What would be worthwhile... is dredging up this thread.
http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php/topic,8442.0.html

I don't use torrents and have attached myself to other projects... but SOMEONE needs to make this. Seems a very easy entry into real dev work.
Yeah, I remember that thread. If I get to a point where my system is stable and I have free time, I'll try to devote some effort into this.
Title: Re: Torrent installation
Post by: purps on January 27, 2012, 11:38:21 pm
Didn't read all the posts, but...

rtorrent has been fantastic for me, both in 810 and 1004, I recommend you use that.

I like it because it's lightweight, I can leave it running (using "screen" command), it can be configured to automatically start/stop (so you can "scp" torrents to a specific folder wherever you happen to be, and it will start), just great all round. I can furnish you with my config file if you like.

This was handy too.... http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2007/05/02/howto-use-rtorrent-like-a-pro/

Cheers,
Matt.
Title: Re: Torrent installation
Post by: davegravy on January 28, 2012, 04:05:43 am
Fwiw

Transmission has been great to me. Simple install, remote torrent management apps  available for the major mobile platforms. Seems lightweight too.
Title: Re: Torrent installation
Post by: purps on January 28, 2012, 09:57:23 am
I never had any joy with the remote stuff in transmission, but apart from that yes transmission is very good.

I should have mentioned (in case it wasn't clear), that rtorrent is command line only (but still very simple and easy to use). But that makes it easy to manage remotely because it's just a case of SSHing in - no extra apps to install (although there are web-based methods I believe i.e. control it in a browser).

Cheers,
Matt.
Title: Re: Torrent installation
Post by: gurumaia on January 30, 2012, 04:42:55 pm
Yeah, prior to installing 1004 I was using rtorrent. While I did like it, I'm finding that deluge is a little better. It's made from scratch as a client/server so there's no need for screen. You can access it remotely either with the gtk app or a web ui. And there are tons of cool features. The console-based interface isn't as good as rtorrent's, at least for me. But all the other pros outweigh the cons for me so far.
Title: Re: Torrent installation
Post by: pointman87 on January 30, 2012, 05:27:04 pm
I also run deluge daemon on my core and client on my office gentoo box and macbook and it works very good =)
Title: Re: Torrent installation
Post by: m3freak on February 01, 2012, 05:14:52 pm
Fwiw

Transmission has been great to me. Simple install, remote torrent management apps  available for the major mobile platforms. Seems lightweight too.

I prefer transmission - it's also been awesome for me.  I can control it remotely from a terminal, a browser, or my phone.  Handy!!!
Title: Re: Torrent installation
Post by: davegravy on February 01, 2012, 05:25:47 pm
I prefer transmission - it's also been awesome for me.  I can control it remotely from a terminal, a browser, or my phone.  Handy!!!

Aye. Chrome extension, android and apple apps, among others.
Title: Re: Torrent installation
Post by: fearingsept on February 02, 2012, 03:17:48 am
Perhaps I skimmed over it and missed it but have you considered using ktorrent?
It's already installed and has plenty of port/directory options and it's easy to use. I use it flawlessly from the kubutu desktop. I've been using it since the 7.10 release of lmce. I currently run 8.10 and have never had a problem.
Title: Re: Torrent installation
Post by: Techstyle on February 02, 2012, 04:41:21 am
I agree with Fearingsept and have been doing the same as him.  I have a directory setup to drop torrent files into it and they automatically start
Title: Re: Torrent installation
Post by: dextaslab on February 04, 2012, 06:32:55 am
I prefer transmission - it's also been awesome for me.  I can control it remotely from a terminal, a browser, or my phone.  Handy!!!

Plus if your as lazy/impatient as I am you can get it to post completion notifications to your orbiters http://www.modlog.net/?p=109
Title: Re: Torrent installation
Post by: bongowongo on February 04, 2012, 10:22:46 am
Plus if your as lazy/impatient as I am you can get it to post completion notifications to your orbiters http://www.modlog.net/?p=109

Why is that post not in the wiki?!??!
Title: Re: Torrent installation
Post by: tschak909 on February 04, 2012, 01:48:33 pm
It is worth noting that with a bit more massaging, a DCE device (Transmission) and a Plugin (Downloader Plugin) could be made on the core.

messages could be sent to the downloader plugin to download stuff, and forwarded to the correct device.

This has a number of implications that may not be immediately evident:

* This means that of course, more and more downloading protocols can be added as time goes on.
* It also means that we could add torrent downloading directly to the file browser, if so desired.
* But it also means, that the downloading aspect could be offloaded not just to the core, but to another machine in the house (i.e. wherever Transmission Daemon is really being loaded...An example of this, would be a Transmission daemon running on a NAS such as the WD My Book Live, which has Transmission Daemon installed by default.

Think about it.
-Thom
Title: Re: Torrent installation
Post by: davegravy on February 04, 2012, 04:36:18 pm
I agree with Fearingsept and have been doing the same as him.  I have a directory setup to drop torrent files into it and they automatically start

I used this feature when at home, but SWMBO found it a bit too complicated and started leaving the torrent downloading to me. That was until I got the transmission remote apps setup as follows:

We queue up torrents via the tablet or our mobile phones via its 3G connection, where we don't have access to the house network shares. With Transmission, the way we have the devices configured, all we need to do is select the magnet link in a browser, and the torrent is queued. No mucking around with downloading or moving .torrent files around. We can manage (pause, delete, resume, prioritize, etc) the whole daemon from wherever.

Also, from what I've read, .torrent files are likely to be phased out and replaced with magnet links by most major trackers for legal reasons.

Just my $0.02.