Configuring WebInterface for rtorrent

 

Install rtorrent:

$> aptitude install rtorrent

$> apt-get install libapache2-mod-scgi

let’s configure apache to setup a scgi socket to a local process.
# nano /etc/apache2/httpd.conf

add a line:

SCGIMount /RPC2 127.0.0.1:5000

Then do the following:

$> a2enmod scgi

$> /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

install php support:

$>  aptitude install libapache2-mod-php5

$> a2enmod php5

$> wget http://rutorrent.googlecode.com/files/rutorrent-3.2.tar.gz
(or from http://sites.google.com/site/bkosarzyckiaboutme/rutorrent-3.2.tar.gz)
Unpack these files and place in apache’s www directory.

$> aptitude install screen
$> aptitude install gcc libncurses-dev libncurses5 libsigc++-2.0-dev libsigc++-2.0-0c2a libssl-dev libssl-dev
$> aptitude install php5-xmlrpc coreutils

 

remember that you need to give rights to your rutorrent files. You can do this with chmod 666 for example.

mine rutorrent files were placed in:
/var/www/rutorrent

To use WebGUI you need to configure rtorrent and run it in background (e.g. in screen)
$> screen rtorrent

Rtorrent configuration has to be placed in home directory:
~/.rtorrent.rc

configure port settings in .rtorrent.rc:
port_range = 10000-10000
port_random = no

Running step-by-step:
a) you need Apache running (configured in SCGI mode)
b) you need rtorrent running (with SCGI enabled)
c) access RuTorrent (GUI) via browser

look for errors in:
/var/log/apache2/error.log

Wrong version of xmlrpc-c.
Ubuntu has old version (only stable) of xmlrpc. Until they update their packages you'll experience an error in rutorrent:

“rtorrent is compiled with incorrect version of xmlrpc - without i8 support.”

I use this old library and everything works more or less ok. Torrent size is invalid (it shows –2343444) and rtorrent settings do not work. But the main functionality remains intact.

You can download unstable xmlrpc-c release from:
http://xmlrpc-c.sourceforge.net/downloading.php
to remove this error.