uTorrent, how to install this server on Ubuntu 18.04

In the next article we are going to take a look at uTorrent. It is a program developed by BitTorrent Inc. free closed source. It is also one of the most used thin BitTorrent clients that is available for Gnu / Linux as uTorrent server.

The uTorrent is designed to use minimal computing resources, while offering functionality comparable to the largest clients in the world. BitTorrent, like Vuze or BitComet. In addition it also provides performance, stability and support for older hardware and operating system versions.

In the following lines we will see how install step by step the installation of this server in Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Bionic. We can also choose to install this software on a VPS server. If for the installation that we are going to see next we use the account of root, it will not be necessary to use 'sudo'in the following commands that we are going to see.

Install uTorrent on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Bionic Beaver

To start we will have to make sure all packages in our system are up to date. We are going to achieve this by writing the following script in a terminal (Ctrl + Alt + T):

sudo apt update; sudo apt upgrade

Install dependencies

The next step to follow will be install required dependencies so that everything works correctly. In the same terminal we are going to execute the following command to install the necessary libraries so that later we can proceed to the installation of the uTorrent server:

sudo apt install libssl1.0.0 libssl-dev

Once the installation of the dependencies is finished, we can continue with the following steps.

Download uTorrent

The first thing to do is go to the uTorrent download page and download the latest stable version of uTorrent. At the time of writing this article, the following command will allow us to download the latest 64-bit version, directly from the terminal.

wget http://download-new.utorrent.com/endpoint/utserver/os/linux-x64-ubuntu-13-04/track/beta/ -O utserver.tar.gz

Locate uTorrent server

Once the download is finished, we will have to execute this command to extract the downloaded server into the directory / Opt / of our system:

sudo tar -zxvf utserver.tar.gz -C /opt/

At this point we will set new permissions for the extracted directory and thus be able to run the uTorrent server without problems. We are going to do this by executing the following command in the same terminal:

sudo chmod 777 /opt/utorrent-server-alpha-v3_3/

Now let's bind uTorrent server to directory / usr / bin with the command:

sudo ln -s /opt/utorrent-server-alpha-v3_3/utserver /usr/bin/utserver

Start uTorrent

Finally we can start uTorrent server typing in the terminal the command:

utserver -settingspath /opt/utorrent-server-alpha-v3_3/ &

If you prefer start the service using a graphical mode Instead of using the command line, you can follow the steps shown below to create a launcher for uTorrent.

To create this launcher, first we must create the .desktop file inside the directory / usr / share / applications /. We can do this by typing in the terminal (Ctrl + Alt + T):

vim /usr/share/applications/utorrent.desktop

For this example I use vim, but here each user can use their favorite editor. Once the document is open, you will have to paste the following content inside the utorrent.desktop file:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=uTorrent
GenericName=BitTorrent Client for Linux
Comment=uTorrent Client
Exec=utserver -settingspath /opt/utorrent-server-alpha-v3_3/ &
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Icon=/opt/utorrent-server-alpha-v3_3/docs/ut-logo.gif
StartupNotify=false

Pasted the previous content inside the file, we only have save and close the editor to return to the terminal.

Now we can start the server service from Activities → Find 'uTorrent'.

Web access

Once the server is started, we will be able to access the program interface. This will be available on HTTP port 8080 by default. We will only have to open our favorite browser and go to http://tu-direccion-IP:8080/gui.

Before accessing the server interface, it will ask us for a username and password. The default username is admin, as password only we will have to leave the field empty.

With the instructions we have just seen, you can successfully install the uTorrent server on an Ubuntu system. For additional help or useful information, it is highly recommended to take a look at the Official website of the project.