How to Install rTorrent/ruTorrent on Debian/Ubuntu VPS

This tutorial will guide you through the setup of a fully-featured seedbox running on a Debian or Ubuntu system, including:

• libtorrent 0.13.0
• rTorrent 0.9
• ruTorrent Web UI (3.0)

This guide has been tested with Debian 6 (x86_64) and Ubuntu 11.04 (x86_64).

To start, access your VPS via SSH (as the root user) and do the following to update your platform and install some required dependencies:

# apt-get update
# apt-get install subversion build-essential automake libtool libcppunit-dev libcurl3-dev libsigc++-2.0-dev unzip unrar-free curl libncurses-dev
# apt-get install apache2 php5 php5-cli php5-curl

Enable scgi for Apache:

# apt-get install libapache2-mod-scgi
# ln -s /etc/apache2/mods-available/scgi.load /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/scgi.load

Install XMLRPC:

# mkdir /install;cd /install
# svn checkout http://xmlrpc-c.svn.sourceforge.net/...mlrpc-c/stable xmlrpc-c
# cd xmlrpc-c
# ./configure --disable-cplusplus
# make
# make install

Intall libtorrent:

# cd /install
# wget http://vps6.net/src/libtorrent-0.13.0.tar.gz
# tar xvf libtorrent-0.13.0.tar.gz
# cd libtorrent-0.13.0
# ./autogen.sh
# ./configure
# make
# make install

Install rTorrent:

# cd /install
# wget http://vps6.net/src/rtorrent-0.9.0.tar.gz
# cd rtorrent-0.9.0
# ./autogen.sh
# ./configure --with-xmlrpc-c
# make
# make install
# ldconfig

Create required directories:

# mkdir /home/seeder1/rtorrent
# mkdir /home/seeder1/rtorrent/.session
# mkdir /home/seeder1/rtorrent/watch
# mkdir /home/seeder1/rtorrent/download

Setup .rtorrent.rc file (rTorrent config):

# cd ~/
# wget http://vps6.net/src/.rtorrent.rc
# cp .rtorrent.rc /home/seeder1/

(Edit the settings in .rtorrent.rc, like max upload/download speed, max connected peers, etc, as needed.)

Install rTorrent:

# cd /install
# wget http://vps6.net/src/rutorrent-3.0.tar.gz
# tar xvf rutorrent-3.0.tar.gz
# mv rutorrent /var/www
# wget http://vps6.net/src/plugins-3.0.tar.gz
# tar xvf plugins-3.0.tar.gz
# mv plugins /var/www/rutorrent
# rm -rf /var/www/rutorrent/plugins/darkpal
# chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/rutorrent

Secure /rutorrent:

# a2enmod ssl
# a2enmod auth_digest
# a2enmod scgi
# openssl req $@ -new -x509 -days 365 -nodes -out /etc/apache2/apache.pem -keyout /etc/apache2/apache.pem
# chmod 600 /etc/apache2/apache.pem
# htdigest -c /etc/apache2/passwords seedbox seeder1

(Enter a password of your choice when prompted, you will use this to log in to the ruTorrent web UI.)

# cd /etc/apache2/sites-available/
# rm -rf default
# wget http://vps6.net/src/default
# a2ensite default-ssl
# /etc/init.d/apache2 reload

Install screen:

# apt-get install screen

Start rTorrent in a detached shell using screen:

# screen -fa -d -m rtorrent

(To start rtorrent automatically when the VPS is booted, add the above command to /etc/rc.local)

You can now access ruTorrent at http://xx.xx.xx.xx/rutorrent/(replace xx.xx with your server's IP address). You should be greeted with a login prompt, where the username is "seeder1" and the password is the one you set above in the "secure /rutorrent" section.