Bittorrent on Linux problems

[00TWINE]

Ok so I've been trying to get Bittorrent to work all frickin day long and I have had absolutely no luck whatsoever. I've read FAQ's, readme's, so much stuff I can't even discern between the different articles. I downloaded and installed Python, and wxPython, as well as the official Bittorrent client and I've tried about 3-5 others and am getting absolutely no results whatsoever. Im using Opera and Mozilla as my browser and when I try to download a torrent on Opera it doesnt do anything. It looks like its downloading something on the bottom of the screen but I don't get any popups or anything asking what to do with the file.

Mozilla it just automatically downloads it to some a temp folder I believe.

This is really frustrating me and Im not getting anywhere so what I am looking for is a little help on getting this to work.

Thanks

[F0wler]

Don't worry, I'm sure you'll find some help here.

[Monty Burnz]

I don't quite understand the problem.

It's that you can't find the .torrent file? Use save link as and pick a folder you can find or use search for the file.

If that's not it try to clarify, and I'll try to help you.

[Alberte]

First try saving the torrent file and opening it manually to make sure that your bittorrent install is correct and functioning.

To do this right click on the torrent file in your browser and save the file. Then open a console window and try the following

btdownloadgui /path to the torrent file you just downloaded (I use this running xandros)

or

btdownloadgui.py /path to the torrent file you just downloaded (Note the .py extension typical linux installation)

for example : btdownloadgui.py /home/yada yada

If it doesn't work then it appears as if there is a problem with your bt install.

If this works then the problem is you need to set up the proper file type associations in your browser.
In opera preferences check to see if there is an entry in the file types mime type section

application/x-bittorent

If there is click edit and make sure that "open in other application" lists the proper path to btdownloadgui
(this will typically be /usr/local/bin . In my case, running xandros and installing from xandros networks it is in usr/bin)

If there is no entry in opera you will need to create one with
application/x-bittorrent as the mime type
.torrent as the file extension(note the beginning period)
and the proper path to btdownloadgui in the open with other application section

[00TWINE]

well I appeared to have got it working by changing the mime type to btdownloadheadless and I managed to download a 28mb movie. However, when I tried to play the movie it said it wasnt in avi, mpeg, etc. format even though the file name ends with .avi

When I downloaded the torrent it showed in the download manager on mozilla that it was downloading but nothing opened up on screen. The only way I knew it was downloading was by using emelfm to scan my computer and by refreshing it see how much was downloaded.

I will check but I dont think the btdownloadgui was put in /usr/local/bin, so I set the path to root/BitTorrent3.4.2(or whatever it was)/btdownloadgui because that is the only place I could see it installed.

I did read that you need the version of wxPython to match your version of Python and I have python 2.3 and wxPython 2.5 so I downloaded the RPM for 2.3 However when I originally tried to install an RPM for wxPython it wouldn't work, so I downloaded a tarball of it in gzip format and installed it that way.

The mime type association DID appear in Opera..then when I was reading an FAQ it said to add something to /etc/mailcap file that wasn't contained in the readme file accompanying the download. So I made that change and it disappeared from the list on Opera...so I had to add it manually.
The current setting has .torrent files handled by other program and I listed it to the path I listed above however it doesnt appear to do anything. I can change it so that I can just download the torrent file but I dont know what to do with it. Seeing your instructions I will give that a go.

[00TWINE]

Ok I tried that and I am getting this error message:

#btdownloadgui.py /root/The*.torrent
Traceback (most recent call last)
File "./btdownloadgui.py" ,line 13, in ?
from wxPython.wx import *
ImportError: no module named wxPython.wx

I had to go into the directory of the btdownloadgui.py, which was in the BitTorrent-3.4.2 directory..perhaps it didnt get installed properly?
I tried it earlier from the root dir and it came up with a bash error.

[Alberte]

I'm no linux guru so hopefully someone else can enter in and add to the discussion

A few thoughts though

Linux doesn't usually rely on extensions for file association to the extent windows does. File name extensions don't have the importance they do for windows.

http://www.halley.cc/ed/linux/newcomer/filename.html
might be an interesting read. It could be an imcomplete download, a bogus file given a misleading name, or some flakiness in linux avi playback.

"When I downloaded the torrent it showed in the download manager on mozilla that it was downloading but nothing opened up on screen."

I would think this is because you are running the headless script. The gui will pop up a window as the windows version does.

"File "./btdownloadgui.py" ,line 13, in ?
from wxPython.wx import *
ImportError: no module named wxPython.wx"

The error could be a couple of things.

1. improperly installed wxpython
2. I believe wxpython requires gtk+ and glib libraries as well as some other things so make sure these are installed/check the dependencies

Just for information I have the following versions running on xandros and it seems to work fine
libwxgtk2.4-python (2.4.2.4)
libwxgtk2.4 (2.4.2.4)
libglib 2.2-0 (2.2.3-1)
python 2.3.2-2

"I had to go into the directory of the btdownloadgui.py, which was in the BitTorrent-3.4.2 directory..perhaps it didnt get installed properly?
I tried it earlier from the root dir and it came up with a bash error."

I'm confused by this.
Do you mean that you don't get any python errors if you run it when in the bt directory or do you mean there seems to be some path error? If the former, I have no idea why it would behave like that, it wouldn't make any sense to me.
If it is a path error how did you change the path. In the window of a particular console window, your bash script , etc.?

http://linux.about.com/library/bl/open/newbie/blnewbie3.1.4.htm
goes into some details about the effects of changing the path in different ways.

I hope this is some help. Could someone else help clarify some of this?

[00TWINE]

Ok so I tried to download the gtk and glib libraries off of the wxPython site and got the latest versions (1.2.10) and they seemed to install fine. However I determined that wxPython isn't installed. I guess I didn't check to see that it installed properly when I ran the ./configure && make && make install command, because I am now getting this error when I try to do it:
configure:23251: error:
Please check that gtk-config is in path, the directory
where GTK+ libraries are installed (returned by
'gtk-config --libs' command) is in LD_LIBRARY_PATH or
equivalent variable and GTK+ is version 1.2.3 or above.

[Alberte]

Is gtk-config in your /usr/bin directory?

do a search in /usr/lib
with ls *libgtk* and make sure you have a grouping of files there such as libgtk-1.2.so.0.9.1 or something similar

Are you sure when you are running the install scripts that you are running as root?
If you aren't the scripts can seem to run correctly but things won't be done.
The locations for these key libraries are in root owned directories.

If this doesn't help you might consider seeking help on a linux forum, especially one focused on your linux distribution to aid in working out all these installation and dependency issues, which can be a pain in the @$$.
I'll continue to help you all I can, but as I said I'm no linux wizard so it could be helpful getting further input from others.