Install qBittorrent on Raspberry Pi

I moved from rTorrent/ruTorrent to qBittorrent because of the unsolvable issue with the first one. I feel I did the right thing (Update from 2023: Yes, it is the right way!). Comparing the two, ruTorrent is complicated, especially because of the many plugins. 

qBittorrent has a lot of features built in, so there is no need to install any additional plugins. It has great features like

- Email notification when the torrent is finished
- Seeding limits (pause/delete torrent when limit is reached)
- No Apache/Nginx installation and configuration required
- Built-in brute force protection (no fail2ban installation required)

The installation procedure is much shorter and easier than for rTorrent/ruTorrent.

Let's get started!

1. Update package list
   sudo apt update
   
   
2. Install qbittorrent-nox, this is the command line version of qBittorrent with a built-in WebUI feature
   sudo apt install qbittorrent-nox -y
   
   
3. Add qbittorrent user to the system, because we will not run this service as a root
   sudo useradd -r -m qbittorrent
   sudo usermod -a -G qbittorrent pi
   
   
4. Create a service file
   sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/qbittorrent.service
   
   
5. Put these lines into this file
   
   [Unit]
Description=BitTorrent Client
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=forking
User=qbittorrent
Group=qbittorrent
UMask=002
ExecStart=/usr/bin/qbittorrent-nox -d --webui-port=8080
Restart=on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
   
   
6. Start the service and enable it for auto-start
   sudo systemctl start qbittorrent ; sudo systemctl enable qbittorrent
   
   
7. The WebUI works from this point. Open it in your browser
   <IPADDRESS>:8080
   
   The Web UI access is secured and the default account user name is “admin” with “adminadmin” as a password.
   
   
8. Change the username and password in the settings
   

   

9. That's all.

Optional settings

Increase download speed

1. Tools --> Options --> Connection: Enabled Protocol - set to TCP (only TCP)
   I tested it with 3 different settings, and the download speed result was:
   Only UDP: 3-4 MB/s
   Only TCP: 60-65 MB/s
   UDP&TCP: 40-42 MB/s

2. Uncheck all boxes under 'Listening Port' and 'Connections Limits', like this:
   

Dark theme

1. Copy files from GitHub
   git clone https://github.com/repslet/nightwalker.git /home/qbittorrent/
   
   
2. Remove unused files
   rm -rf /home/qbittorrent/nightwalker/.git
   
   
3. Set correct permission to this folder
   chown -R qbittorrent:qbittorrent /home/qbittorrent/nightwalker
   
   
4. Edit the configuration file, and set the path of the theme
   nano /home/qbittorrent/.config/qBittorrent/qBittorrent.conf
   WebUI\RootFolder=/home/qbittorrent/nightwalker
   
   
5. Restart the service
   systemctl restart qbittorrent
   
   

Increase timeout value

1. By default the timeout value is set to 1 hour. Increase it to 9999999 to avoid unexpected logout.

   

2. Scroll down and press "Save" button.
   
   

Secure qBittorrent WebUI

1. Change the port number in the service file to anything between 1000 and 65535
   
   
2. Change the username
   
   
3. Use a long password instead of a complicated one, like
   ThisIsMyStrongPasswordForQbittorrent
   instead of
   myPassword1
   
   You saved the password in the browser anyway, why not use a long one? :)
   
   
4. Set less number for "Ban client after consecutive failures" and higher one for "ban for x seconds"
   

   

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