The Proxmox VE (a.k.a. PVE) host does not have a BitTorrent client by default, but this is a common way to download stuff in the Linux world. Here are the steps I took to setup BitTorrent on the PVE host system.
The PVE host environment is basically a Debian installation, so the first step is to download the newest BitTorrent tarball to a convenient directory. There are deb packages, but we will need to get a little manual to get it installed properly in a 64-bit OS. I SSH’ed into the host as root, created and used a /root/downloads/ directory for the download. Make sure to verify the BitTorrent site and download the newest version of the client.
The easiest way to download is to use wget:
On an unmodified PVE host, you’ll be missing a lot of dependent packages and should install those beforehand. These packages include python-wxgtk2.6, python-crypto, python-twisted and python-zopeinterface. Install each package with:
There is one more dependency package that cannot be installed, python-psyco, as there is no 64-bit version and PVE is 64-bit. BitTorrent seems to work without it, though. The only way to deal with this is to edit the dependency out of the deb package and regenerate a deb package.
# cd BitTorrent-5.2.2
# vi debian/control
In the file, remove and locate the dependency on python-psyco by deleting the ‘psyco’ entry from the Depends line. This will drop the check when you install it. Next, I install sudo and use it to get BitTorrent rebuilt with the changed file that results in a new package.
# sudo bash install_nix.sh
Finally, install the BitTorrent client and download torrent files by calling bittorrent-console at the command line:
# dpkg -i bittorrent_5.2.2_python2.4.deb
# bittorrent-console ‘some-link-to-a-torrent-file’
By default, the file will end up in /root/BitTorrent Downloads/. Now, you can download to your heart’s content, pun intended…
Paul Tiseo's Livin' La Vida CIO 