Installing qbittorrent-nox bittorrent seedbox on a Linux server (VPS) with Debian

[Fli]

Why and what means to have a seedbox:

To help seeding torrents at a high speed, one can rent a Linux server from one of many hosting providers.
It means to receive login credentials and an IP address of the server. After using it, one gets on a command line interface where one pastes couple of the following commands in order to install bittorrrent client (in this case qbittorrent -nox version). After that user can access the graphical web based interface using IP address of the server. The UI looks nearly the same as a regular graphical qBittorrent interface. The difference is that the web interface is accessible from anywhere in the world (is password protected) and the network speeds are usually higher than regular home connections.

Getting a server:

One can just search for a "storage VPS high transfer unmetered" or similar.
What do you probably need?
- 1 cpu thread(core)
- 512MB RAM
- 5GB disk space or more per your needs
- data transfer per your needs. 100mbit/s is around 10MB/s. Under such transfer you would have 10x60=600MB in one minute. 36GB in one hour, 864GB in one day, 26784 GB in 31 days. So you would need 26 TB monthly data transfer if you wish to allow your BT client to transfer 10MB/s.
- accepted payment method. For most privacy it is cryptocurrency Monero, but that is rarely accepted crypto.
- Check terms of service/Acceptable use policy/AUP if it contains "torrent" or ask sales support.
- Most if not all server providers gives an Debian or Ubuntu Linux distribution option. It does not matter much which one to choose, both has apt package manager.

Some server providers ideas are here https://internetlifeforum.com/showthread.php?1130-Cheapest-Linux-VPSs-available-for-backups-(under-3-monthly)

Connecting the server:

After order, email with server IP, port, login username and password arrives.
If you are on Linux, then the login can be done using command: ssh -l username IPhere -p porthere
If you are on Windows or other, you may use PuTTY (https://electrictoolbox.com/ssh-putty/) or alternative SSH client software (https://alternativeto.net/software/putty/?license=opensource) to login to the server.

You will be able to see the command line where you can paste the installation commands below.

Bittorrent client installation (qbittorrent-nox):

apt update && apt upgrade # update the system, if not enough permissions, maybe apt commands needs to be prefixed with "sudo "

A) older version, update-able using package manager:
1. installation: apt install qbittorrent-nox # paste this line to the terminal, it installs the qbt
2. keep qbittorrent-nox running:
echo -e "$(crontab -l 2>/dev/null)\n@reboot qbittorrent-nox &"|crontab -
echo -e "$(crontab -l 2>/dev/null)\n* * * * * ps aux|grep qbittorrent-nox|grep -v grep || qbittorrent-nox &" | crontab -

B) newer version:
1. run commands applicable to your architecture (usually x86_64): https://github.com/userdocs/qbittorrent-nox-static?tab=readme-ov-file#install-the-latest-release
2. keep qbittorrent-nox running:
echo -e "$(crontab -l 2>/dev/null)\n@reboot /root/bin/qbittorrent-nox &"|crontab - # replace root by your username if you are not logged in as root
echo -e "$(crontab -l 2>/dev/null)\n* * * * * ps aux|grep qbittorrent-nox|grep -v grep || /root/bin/qbittorrent-nox &" | crontab - # replace root by your username if you are not logged in as root


Access http://YourServerIP:8080/ with username "admin" and password "adminadmin" (yes, change the password after login in Tools/Options/WebUI/

Optional things installation:

I have installed zram, which compressing memory allowing to store more data in RAM: apt install zram-tools; echo -e "ALGO=zstd\nPERCENT=60" | tee -a /etc/default/zramswap; service zramswap reload