I like the new release of Transmission the Bittorrent client because it’s web interface requires no additional installation of a web server or the entire LAMP stack to do something very simple. My headless server runs Ubuntu 8.04 LTS which till now only had the job of being a file server, not long ago I decided to expand it’s functions and make it grab torrents for me. Remember I have a headless server and only manage it via SSH. The main requirement was for a BT client that was light and also manageable via HTTP. In my case I decided for Transmission 1.34 because it bring everything I need under one name, except it’s not officially supported or included in the Ubuntu 8.04 repositories. The solution is to simply add an extra repository to the /etc/apt/sources.list and then execute a simple apt-get install.
To install Transmission 1.34 or newer versions in Ubuntu 8.04 LTS we first need to add an entry to the sources.list.
sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list
And add the following.
## Transmission repository not officially supported by the Ubuntu team
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/bortis/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/bortis/ubuntu hardy main
Now that we have the new repository in the sources list let’s install the new package.
sudo apt-get install transmission-cli
Check to see if Transmission starts.
transmission-daemon
Now we have Transmission running, let’s log in to the web interface.
This is by far the easiest way of installing a Bittorrent client that by default includes a web interface and has no need for a web server to be installed in order to work. Information compiled from: http://forum.transmissionbt.com/ Verify the installed version.
transmissioncli -v
bittorrent, p2p, transmission, ubuntu — Nov 5, 2008