Hi there. Believe you me I've read every howto/tutorial and FM on the entire internet but not one telling me how to install Bittorrent in Linux (mandrake 10) and how to install a client and how to get the two to work hand in hand so to speak. I think I did manage to get Bitorrent installed, have no clue as to how to get it working. i guess I need a so-called client to get things working, see loads and loads of descriptions of stuff that makes me shiver reading that alone (I like user-friendly) and absolutely nothing that explains how2install. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
BTW: I'm a noob.

A very easy way would be to install Azureus. It's a nice bittorrent client written in java (so you do need to install java to run it). You'll find it here: http://azureus.sourceforge.net/

Go to the package manager and search for "bittorrent". Look for "bittorrent-version" (mine is 3.2.1b-6mdk if you care). Now look for "bittorrent-gui-version" (mine is same as above).

If you already have them installed, then you'll find them under te "remove programs" option. Instal them both.

To get a file, you need the "torrent" file, which is essentially the roadmap. The usual way of getting this file is to download it off a website (i.e. to get Mandrake 10). You'll be looking for a file called "thingToDownload.torrent". Save that file somewhere you can remember (usually in your home directory).

If you are using a browser that integrates with bittorrent (konqueror) it may start downloading immediately. I use Mozilla, so what I get is a simple saved file.

Now close your browser and open file explorer and browse to the torrent file in your home dir. Click it. The bittorrent gui should load up and handle it from there.

Good luck!

Here's my 1-2-3's of BitTorrent

1) Go to the official BitTorrent website and grab the linux download

2) extract it to wherever you want (ex: /home/username/BitTorrent)

3) go download and 'save as...' the torrent you want on your desktop (ex: Mandrake10.torrent)

4) go to konsole

5) cd /home/username/BitTorrent

6) ./btdownloadheadless.py /home/username/Desktop/Mandrake10.torrent

7) BAM! that's it. it saves and downloads the file in /home/username/BitTorrent

Thanx guys, much appreciated. Now, believe me my head is spinning as it is so maybe we could start off from the same starting point. I have bittorrent installed as suggested with the automatic installer. That's as far as I got. Gui is nowhere to be found in the automatic installer. Azureus needs java it seems and I guess I have enough problems as it is to get this up and running.
Now, how do I check that bittorrent is indeed properly installed and if so where? Find doesn't seem to work, it hacks away at the diskette for some half an hour and then caves in.
So, the last 1,2,3 I couldn't really follow as I have no clue where to find it.
All in all Windows is still a dream and Linux is still a nightmare. Still, please keep your suggestions coming and hopefully that'll change

Do you have the torrent file? The easiest way to know if it's working is to click on the something.torrent and see what happens. Otherwise, you'll need to help me (us?) out by being more specific then "keep the suggestions coming"... We have no idea where to proceed until you give some feedback.

Are you familiar with the directory structure of Linux? If not, spend a few minutes with Google. Obviously, if you don't know where your /usr/home directory is then we'll need to start there first.

Thanks Bigvoice. What happens is that I go to a bittorrent file i click on it and "save as" and I manage to download a say 728MB file in something like three or four seconds. Now, either my ISP has rewarded me unknowingly with a Star trek kind of connection (which I find kind of hard to believe), or something's fishy. I think it's the latter.
So, I read in some readme or howto or whatever that this indeed may happen, because Konqueror isn't aware of this that and the other and so all I have to do is to restart Konqueror and all of my problems will be solved. Not so.
What I think/fear is that something has gone wrong with the installation of Bittorrent because i did it with the automatic installer and most probably it was complaining about something that it didn't have or didn't find when it was in the process of installing, but anyway whatever it was it couldn't find, I wouldn't be able to help it find it so I probably ignored it. Now, in Windows I know that a program is installed to the Program folder. Call thet logical or not, whatever it is I find it easy to remember. Where Linux dumps the stuff I haven't the foggiest and find doesn't seem to be much of a help either.
As to the specifics, well m8 the most specific I can be is that I have Mandrake 10 RC1 on this box and I can sort of guarantee that you probably know a lot more of the inner workings of it than I do.
As to the machine, it has a celeron 1.3, some 700MB's of ram and some 120GB of hd-space (40+80). It's dual booting with Win XP using Lilo.

Ok, don't worry about the perceived file size just yet.

Quick file system lesson: each user on your system has a "home" directory, similar to my documents in windows. This would be a useful place to save the something.torrent file if you haven't already, simply because its easy to find again

So after you "save as" and put the something.torrent file onto your computer, close your browser and load your file explorer (probably labelled "home" on your desktop). You'll see the file you just saved. Click on it.

If you've installed the bittorrent rpms I recommended above, what should happen is a program called "bittorrent gui" will automagically launch, and take care of your download from there. Generally, the files will be downloaded into their own folder. You'll see a progress indicator as it goes.

Hope this helps.

Ok. I installed bittorrent whatever as you advised. But, as I stated before: Gui is nowhere to be found in the automatic installer. Also, I am not sure how good Bittorrent is installed as it probably was missing some files. Whatever, I downloaded the file, clicked on it and nothing happens.
Yet, this is quite normal. Linux seems to work for everybody else, it just doesn't work for me.

P.s. Uninstalled re-installed and got error: conflicts with package kdelibs-common-3.2-13mdk.

I am having a problem with executing azureus. Application 'Systray for Java' crashing...
here is the error msg:

[steve@localhost java]$ cd /home/steve/azureus
[steve@localhost azureus]$ ./azureus
Attempting to start Azureus...
SysTray for Java on Linux (KDE3)
------- SnoozeSoft 2004 --------
JAR version: 2.4
Shared Object version: 1.0
KCrash: Application 'SysTray for Java' crashing...
QDir::readDirEntries: Cannot close the directory: /usr/lib/qt3/plugins/styles
SysTray for Java: Fatal IO error: client killed

Is the ap corrupted if so I already have gotten another copy form sourceforge but wouldn't know where to put it.

Java is installed at /usr/local/java. Im such a newb that I really don't know what info is pertinant. I never used linux bfore today. I set up a dual boot MDK 10 and WinXP and now I can't get WinXp to boot. I read on the board here that it is a serious problem that several peole have had, and there doesn't seem to be an immediate solution. So I will be using Linux at least until I can get Win back up and by that time I may just say for get it.

Any help would be appreciated thanks.

MSN Messenger: stevorino03@hotmail.com

Please, I have the same problem. I used a previous version of Azureus on Mandrake 9.2 with JRE 1.4.2 and it worked fine. Now with the newest version of Azureus (2.0.8.0) and JRE 1.4.2 on Mandrake 10.0 it gives me this error "Application 'SysTray for Java' crashing..." and a lot of "select: Bad file descriptor".

It seems that there were some people having trouble with azureus 2.0.8 allthough I didn't
There was a new version released 2 days ago, perhaps you want to try it out:
http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.p...orum_id=291997

If you delete systray4.jar from the Azureus dir it wil work. I think the file is supposed to make a proper system tray in KDE....

edit. That new version gives me the same error.