Archives For November 30, 1999

Transmission, Ubuntu’s default BitTorrent client, announced new 4.0.4 release with various bug-fixes.

For users of Transmission 4.0.x, it’s recommended to update to the new release for stability improvements. For me, the last 4.0.3 crashes often when downloading Kali Linux image in 7z format. Now, it’s working good in the new 4.0.4 release.

For Qt client, it now correctly display the magnet name in compact mode, “Move torrent file to trash” option also removes .added files, and the app icon has been updated with improved resolution.

It also updated WebUI to make the main menu accessible on smaller browser window. Fixed “no such file or directory” warning when adding a magnet link via CLI.

Other changes according to the release note include:

  • Fixed bug in sending torrent metadata to peers.
  • Avoid unnecessary heap memory allocations.
  • Fixed filename collision edge case when renaming files.
  • Fixed locale errors that broke number rounding when displaying statistics, e.g. upload / download ratios.
  • Always use a fixed-length key query in tracker announces. This isn’t required by the spec, but some trackers rely on that fixed length because it’s common practice by other BitTorrent clients.
  • Fixed potential Windows crash when getstdhandle() returns NULL.
  • Fixed 4.0.0 bug where the port numbers in LDP announces are sometimes malformed.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented editing the query part of a tracker URL.
  • Fixed a bug where Transmission may not announce LPD on its listening interface.
  • Made small performance improvements in libtransmission.

How to Install Transmission 4.0.4 in Ubuntu

The Transmission team does not provide pre-build Linux packages. Though, Ubuntu user can easily install the new release as the Snap package (maintained by Sameer Sharma) in Ubuntu Software.

For those who do NOT like app running in sandbox, there’s also unofficial Ubuntu PPA contains the packages for Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, and Ubuntu 23.04.

1. First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open a terminal window. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/transmission

Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it asks and hit Enter to continue.

2. After adding the PPA, you can then launch Software Updater (Update Manager) and upgrade the system pre-installed transmission package to the new release.

For Ubuntu based system without the BitTorrent client pre-installed, you may run command below to install it:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install transmission-gtk

You may replace transmission-gtk with (or add) following package:

  • transmission-qt – Qt user interface for KDE, LXQt, etc.
  • transmission-cli – command line interface.
  • transmission-daemon – the daemon for running in background, and access via webUI, remote client, etc.

Uninstall Transmission 4.0.4

You can choose to downgrade the BitTorrent client to system pre-installed version, by running command in terminal:

sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/transmission

Or, remove the software packages instead by running command:

sudo apt remove --autoremove transmission-gtk transmission-qt transmission-cli transmission-daemon

And remove the PPA repository either via “Software & Updates” tool by removing the source line under “Other Software” tab, or by running command:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/transmission

That’s all. Enjoy!

Got a Ubuntu PC or Server and want to use it as remote download server? This is the step by step guide shows you how to do the job using Transmission Daemon.

Ubuntu’s default Transmission torrent client has a daemon package, that can run silently as a background service, allowing you to manage downloads anywhere around the world with internet connection and a web browser.

To use the service, you just need to install the package, enable the service, do some changes on the config file, and grant user permission. And here’s how to do it step by step.

Step 1: Install Transmission Daemon & Enable the service

Firstly, press Ctrl+Alt+T on your Ubuntu PC to open terminal. Or connect to your remote Ubuntu server via SSH.

1. To install the Daemon package, run command:

sudo apt install transmission-daemon

In Ubuntu Desktop, you might have dependency issue if you’ve tried 3rd-party Transmission package. In the case, try sudo apt remove transmission* to remove the torrent packages first, then re-run the command above.

2. Run the daemon service. The daemon should run automatically after installation. Just in case, you may run it manually by running the 2 commands below one by one:

systemctl enable transmission-daemon
systemctl start transmission-daemon

For Ubuntu server, you may need to add sudo in the beginning for each command.

Step 2: Set up Downloads folder & Grant Permission

You can skip this step, if you’d like to use default location to save downloads. It’s “/var/lib/transmission-daemon/downloads/“, which however is NOT a good choice.

1. To create a folder for saving download files, for example ‘transmission‘ sub-folder under Downloads,run command:

mkdir -p ~/Downloads/transmission

For Ubuntu Desktop, you can just open ‘Files’ (Nautilus file browser) to create a folder anywhere that you want!

For Ubuntu Server, you may even don’t have “Downloads” folder, so change the command accordingly! If you want, just run mkdir -p ~/transmission to create the folder under your user home directory.

2. Add read and write permission to that folder, for anyone in your user group.

chmod g+rw ~/Downloads/transmission

In the command, replace ~/Downloads/transmission if you selected another location for saving downloads.
In Ubuntu 22.04 Desktop edition, you can skip this command since group by default have read & write to user created folders.

3. Finally, add ‘debian-transmission’ to your user group. So, Transmission daemon has read & write permission to the folder you just created.

sudo gpasswd --add debian-transmission $USER

NOTE: This change seems needing system restart to take effect in Ubuntu Desktop, but not sure if required in Server.

Step 3: Edit the Daemon config file

The daemon by default has only one config file. It’s /etc/transmission-daemon/settings.json.

1. To edit the file, run command:

sudo gedit /etc/transmission-daemon/settings.json

Here you may replace gedit with gnome-text-editor for Ubuntu 23.04 and higher, or use nano for Ubuntu Server and other Desktop Environment that you don’t know which text editor to use.

2. When file opens, edit it with following changes:

The file includes many configure lines, that I only write some important ones here. You can leave all others default, or edit it according to you need.

  • First, change the value of "download-dir" and "incomplete-dir" to the folder you created in Step 2.

    In my case, it’s /home/ji/Downloads/transmission. (replace ‘ji’ to your username!) Also, set “incomplete-dir-enabled” to true, or unfinished download files are not visible.

  • Then, change the values of “rpc-username” and “rpc-password” to your desired username & password for remote authentication. Set “rpc-whitelist-enabled” to false, so anyone with the username & password can access. Or, set it to true, and add you client IP address to “rpc-whitelist”.
  • Finally, change value of “umask” to 18.
    Value 022 means 0 (read, write, execute for ‘debian-transmission’, the owner), 2 (read for group & others). It’s OK but .json file does not allow octal notation. So, use 18 instead (octal 22 = decimal 18).

3. Finally, save file. For nano text editor, press Ctrl+X, type y and hit Enter to save changes.

Step 4: Reload daemon to apply changes

After editing the config file, you need to reload the daemon to apply the changes.

To reload the daemon, run command:

systemctl reload transmission-daemon.service

It must be reload! Because restart or start the service somehow will reset the password to default.

You may also run command to check the service status by running command:

systemctl status transmission-daemon.service

Step 5: Set up Firewall

Ubuntu Desktop does not active firewall by default, but Servers are mostly have firewall activated.

To check firewall status, run command:

sudo ufw status

If firewall is activated, run command to allow port 9091:

sudo ufw allow 9091,51413/tcp

Step 6: Access Transmission Remotely

Finally, you can access the transmission service on remote Ubuntu Desktop or Server, in anywhere with a web browser. By visiting ip-address:9091/transmission/web/.

Or, use any client app with Transmission RPC support!

Transmission, Ubuntu’s default BitTorrent Client, released new major 3.00 version a days ago. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 19.10, Ubuntu 18.04.

Transmission 3.00 features:

  • Allow RPC server to listen on IPv6.
  • Limit incorrect authentication attempts to prevent brute-force attacks.
  • Add Peer ID for Xfplay, PicoTorrent, Free Download Manager, Folx, Baidu Netdisk torrent clients
  • Make transmission slightly faster by adding TCP_FASTOPEN support
  • Add support for mbedtls and wolfssl, LibreSSL
  • Add queue up/down hotkeys
  • Improve Qt UI look on hi-dpi displays
  • And much more other changes.

How to Install Transmission 3.00 in Ubuntu:

The official Transmission PPA has built the packages for Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 19.10, Ubuntu 18.04.

1. Open terminal either by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard or by searching for ‘terminal’ from your system application menu. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:transmissionbt/ppa

Type user password (no asterisk feedback) and hit Enter to continue.

2. Then launch Software Updater (update manager) and upgrade the torrent client:

How to Restore:

For any reason, you can restore the BitTorrent client to the stock version by running command in terminal:

sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:transmissionbt/ppa

Transmission, the default BitTorrent client, reached the 2.94 release a few days ago. Now you can install it in Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.10, Ubuntu 18.04 easily via PPA.

Transmission 2.94 is a bug-fix release with following changes:

  • Fix building against LibreSSL
  • Fix building against mbedTLS
  • Fix torrents ETA calculation
  • Fix cross-compilation issues caused by miniupnpc configuration test
  • Fix bad downloaded percentage in DetailsDialog for Qt client
  • Fix tracker error XSS in inspector for web client
  • Fix torrent name HTML-escaping in trackers inspector tab for web client.

How to Upgrade Transmission in Ubuntu:

Transmission has a stable PPA that so far maintains the latest packages for Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.10, and Ubuntu 18.04.

1. Open terminal either via Ctrl+Alt+T or by searching for ‘terminal’ from app launcher. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:transmissionbt/ppa

Input your password (no visual feedback while typing) when it prompts and hit Enter to continue.

2. Then launch Software Updater (update manager) and install updates for Transmission to upgrade the software:

How to Restore:

To restore to the default transmission installed by default, run command to purge the PPA as well as downgrade the software:

sudo apt-get install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:transmissionbt/ppa

Transmission, the default BitTorrent client of Ubuntu, has reached the 2.90 release. Now it’s available in PPA for Ubuntu 15.10, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04, and their derivatives.

Transmission 2.90 brings miniupnpc API v14, CyaSSL/WolfSSL and PolarSSL cryptographic backends support, various bug fixes and performance improvements to GTK & Qt clients. Read the changelog for details.

Transmission 2.90

How to Install Transmission 2.90 in Ubuntu:

For Ubuntu 15.10, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04, and derivatives, follow the steps below to install or upgrade the GTK and/or CLI version:

1. Add Transmission PPA.

Launch terminal from App Launcher or via Ctrl+Alt+T shortcut key. When it opens, paste below command and hit run:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:transmissionbt/ppa

Type in your password (no visual feedback when typing) when it asks and hit Enter to continue.

2. Launch Software & Updater and you’ll see the 2.90 release of Transmission available in update list after checking for updates.

3. (Optional) For any reason you want to revert the changes and downgrade to the stock version of transmission available in your Ubuntu release, purge the PPA via ppa-purge:

sudo apt-get install ppa-purge

sudo ppa-purge ppa:transmissionbt/ppa

That’s it. Enjoy!

Transmission, the default bittorrent client comes with Ubuntu installation, gets a new release with various bug fixes, libraries updates and some new features.

Changes in Transmission 2.83:

All Platforms

  • Licensing change: the GNU GPLv2 code can now be used under GNU GPL v2 or v3
  • Fix network hanging issues that could occur when both UTP and DHT were enabled
  • Fix 2.82 file descriptor leak when importing a blocklist
  • Disallow torrents that contain “/../” in the path
  • Fix 2.82 bug that didn’t retain peers between sessions
  • Fix potential dangling memory error in UDP tracker DNS lookups
  • Remember a torrent’s “queued” state between Transmission sessions
  • Updated third party libraries: DHT updated to v0.22; miniupnpc updated to v1.9
  • Autoconf script fixes: better detection of ccache, minupnpc
  • Fix the X-Transmission-Session-Id header to be valid with the SPDY protocol
  • Fix thread safety bugs in the tr_list datatype
  • When determining free disk space on NetBSD>=6, support its Quota feature
  • Windows portability improvements

GTK+ Client

  • Fix threading issue on shutdown

Qt Client

  • Fix toggle-downloading-by-pressing-spacebar in the file list
  • Fix “Open URL” crash from dangling pointer
  • Support launching downloaded files from inside Transmission
  • On Windows, use native Windows icons
  • Improved network status info and tooltip in the status bar
  • Fix “Open Torrent” dialog crash in Qt 5.2

Daemon

  • On systemd systems, fix config reloading via ‘systemctl reload’
  • Use libevent’s event loop
  • Fix discrepancy in curl SSL setup between tr-daemon and tr-remote
  • Fix broken OS X build

Install / Upgrade

The update is not available in Ubuntu’s default repositories at the moment. Can’t wait? you can install it from a third-party PPA, available for Ubuntu 14.04 and Ubuntu 12.04. Press Ctrl+Alt+T to open terminal and run:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ricotz/unstable

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install transmission transmission-qt

If you don’t want to keep the PPA, remove it after the app installed:

sudo add-apt-repository -r ppa:ricotz/unstable