qbittorrent Installation Guide Installation Guide

qbittorrent is a free and open-source BitTorrent client. qBittorrent provides a free alternative to µTorrent with a feature-rich interface

Hardware Requirements:

CPU: 1 core minimum

RAM: 512MB minimum

Storage: 1GB for downloads

Network: BitTorrent protocol

Operating System:

Linux: Any modern distribution (RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, Fedora, Arch, Alpine, openSUSE)

macOS: 10.14+ (Mojave or newer)

Windows: Windows Server 2016+ or Windows 10

FreeBSD: 11.0+

Network Requirements:

Port 8080 (default qbittorrent port)

Peer ports 6881

Dependencies:

See official documentation for specific requirements

System Access: root or sudo privileges required

This guide supports installation on:

RHEL 8/9 and derivatives (CentOS Stream, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux)

Debian 11/12

Ubuntu 20.04/22.04/24.04 LTS

Arch Linux (rolling release)

Alpine Linux 3.18+

openSUSE Leap 15.5+ / Tumbleweed

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 15+

macOS 12+ (Monterey and later)

FreeBSD 13+

Windows 10/11/Server 2019+ (where applicable)

bash

# Install EPEL repository if needed
sudo dnf install -y epel-release

# Install qbittorrent
sudo dnf install -y qbittorrent

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now qbittorrent

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=8080/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
qbittorrent --version

bash

# Update package index
sudo apt update

# Install qbittorrent
sudo apt install -y qbittorrent

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now qbittorrent

# Configure firewall
sudo ufw allow 8080

# Verify installation
qbittorrent --version

bash

# Install qbittorrent
sudo pacman -S qbittorrent

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now qbittorrent

# Verify installation
qbittorrent --version

bash

# Install qbittorrent
apk add --no-cache qbittorrent

# Enable and start service
rc-update add qbittorrent default
rc-service qbittorrent start

# Verify installation
qbittorrent --version

bash

# Install qbittorrent
sudo zypper install -y qbittorrent

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now qbittorrent

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=8080/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
qbittorrent --version

bash

# Using Homebrew
brew install qbittorrent

# Start service
brew services start qbittorrent

# Verify installation
qbittorrent --version

bash

# Using pkg
pkg install qbittorrent

# Enable in rc.conf
echo 'qbittorrent_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service qbittorrent start

# Verify installation
qbittorrent --version

bash

# Using Chocolatey
choco install qbittorrent

# Or using Scoop
scoop install qbittorrent

# Verify installation
qbittorrent --version

bash

# Create configuration directory
sudo mkdir -p /etc/qbittorrent

# Set up basic configuration
# See official documentation for detailed configuration options

# Test configuration
qbittorrent --version

bash

# Enable service
sudo systemctl enable qbittorrent

# Start service
sudo systemctl start qbittorrent

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop qbittorrent

# Restart service
sudo systemctl restart qbittorrent

# Check status
sudo systemctl status qbittorrent

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u qbittorrent -f

bash

# Enable service
rc-update add qbittorrent default

# Start service
rc-service qbittorrent start

# Stop service
rc-service qbittorrent stop

# Restart service
rc-service qbittorrent restart

# Check status
rc-service qbittorrent status

bash

# Enable in /etc/rc.conf
echo 'qbittorrent_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service qbittorrent start

# Stop service
service qbittorrent stop

# Restart service
service qbittorrent restart

# Check status
service qbittorrent status

bash

# Using Homebrew services
brew services start qbittorrent
brew services stop qbittorrent
brew services restart qbittorrent

# Check status
brew services list | grep qbittorrent

powershell

# Start service
net start qbittorrent

# Stop service
net stop qbittorrent

# Using PowerShell
Start-Service qbittorrent
Stop-Service qbittorrent
Restart-Service qbittorrent

# Check status
Get-Service qbittorrent

See the official documentation for advanced configuration options.

nginx

upstream qbittorrent_backend {
    server 127.0.0.1:8080;
}

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name qbittorrent.example.com;
    return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name qbittorrent.example.com;

    ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/certs/qbittorrent.example.com.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/qbittorrent.example.com.key;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://qbittorrent_backend;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }
}

apache

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName qbittorrent.example.com
    Redirect permanent / https://qbittorrent.example.com/
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerName qbittorrent.example.com
    
    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/qbittorrent.example.com.crt
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/qbittorrent.example.com.key
    
    ProxyRequests Off
    ProxyPreserveHost On
    
    ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:8080/
    ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:8080/
</VirtualHost>

haproxy

frontend qbittorrent_frontend
    bind *:80
    bind *:443 ssl crt /etc/ssl/certs/qbittorrent.pem
    redirect scheme https if !{ ssl_fc }
    default_backend qbittorrent_backend

backend qbittorrent_backend
    balance roundrobin
    server qbittorrent1 127.0.0.1:8080 check

bash

# Set appropriate permissions
sudo chown -R qbittorrent:qbittorrent /etc/qbittorrent
sudo chmod 750 /etc/qbittorrent

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=8080/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Enable SELinux policies (if applicable)
sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect on

See official documentation for database configuration requirements.

bash

# Basic system tuning
echo 'net.core.somaxconn = 65535' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
echo 'net.ipv4.tcp_max_syn_backlog = 65535' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
sudo sysctl -p

bash

# Check service status
sudo systemctl status qbittorrent

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u qbittorrent -f

# Monitor resource usage
top -p $(pgrep qbittorrent)

bash

#!/bin/bash
# Basic backup script
BACKUP_DIR="/backup/qbittorrent"
DATE=$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S)

mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR"
tar -czf "$BACKUP_DIR/qbittorrent-backup-$DATE.tar.gz" /etc/qbittorrent /var/lib/qbittorrent

echo "Backup completed: $BACKUP_DIR/qbittorrent-backup-$DATE.tar.gz"

bash

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop qbittorrent

# Restore from backup
tar -xzf /backup/qbittorrent/qbittorrent-backup-*.tar.gz -C /

# Start service
sudo systemctl start qbittorrent

1. Service won't start:

bash

# Check logs
sudo journalctl -u qbittorrent -n 100
sudo tail -f /var/log/qbittorrent/qbittorrent.log

# Check configuration
qbittorrent --version

# Check permissions
ls -la /etc/qbittorrent

2. Connection issues:

bash

# Check if service is listening
sudo ss -tlnp | grep 8080

# Test connectivity
telnet localhost 8080

# Check firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --list-all

3. Performance issues:

bash

# Check resource usage
top -p $(pgrep qbittorrent)

# Check disk I/O
iotop -p $(pgrep qbittorrent)

# Check connections
ss -an | grep 8080

yaml

version: '3.8'
services:
  qbittorrent:
    image: qbittorrent:latest
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
    volumes:
      - ./config:/etc/qbittorrent
      - ./data:/var/lib/qbittorrent
    restart: unless-stopped

Maintenance

bash

# RHEL/CentOS/Rocky/AlmaLinux
sudo dnf update qbittorrent

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade qbittorrent

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -Syu qbittorrent

# Alpine Linux
apk update && apk upgrade qbittorrent

# openSUSE
sudo zypper update qbittorrent

# FreeBSD
pkg update && pkg upgrade qbittorrent

# Always backup before updates
tar -czf /backup/qbittorrent-pre-update-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz /etc/qbittorrent

# Restart after updates
sudo systemctl restart qbittorrent

Regular Maintenance

bash

# Log rotation
sudo logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.d/qbittorrent

# Clean old logs
find /var/log/qbittorrent -name "*.log" -mtime +30 -delete

# Check disk usage
du -sh /var/lib/qbittorrent

Official Documentation: https://docs.qbittorrent.org/

GitHub Repository: https://github.com/qbittorrent/qbittorrent

Community Forum: https://forum.qbittorrent.org/

Best Practices Guide: https://docs.qbittorrent.org/best-practices

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Note: This guide is part of the HowToMgr collection. Always refer to official documentation for the most up-to-date information.

1. Prerequisites

2. Supported Operating Systems

3. Installation

RHEL/CentOS/Rocky Linux/AlmaLinux

Debian/Ubuntu

Arch Linux

Alpine Linux

openSUSE/SLES

macOS

FreeBSD

Windows

Initial Configuration

Basic Configuration

5. Service Management

systemd (RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, Arch, openSUSE)

OpenRC (Alpine Linux)

rc.d (FreeBSD)

launchd (macOS)

Windows Service Manager

Advanced Configuration

Reverse Proxy Setup

nginx Configuration

Apache Configuration

HAProxy Configuration

Security Configuration

Basic Security Setup

Database Setup

Performance Optimization

System Tuning

Monitoring

Basic Monitoring

9. Backup and Restore

Backup Script

Restore Procedure

6. Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Integration Examples

Docker Compose Example

Maintenance

Update Procedures

Regular Maintenance

Additional Resources

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