Raspberry Pi based always on torrent box

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Marcus Fenix

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Hi Guys,
Just came to figure out the beauty of RSS feeds(too damn late.......I know :() and automating torrent downloads.

Now I have a dedicated headless mini-ITX box in a CM Elite 130 chassis running full Windows 10 Pro on a config of fanless Intel J2405 quad core 1.5 GHz /8 GB DDR3 RAM with 2x8 TB WD Red in RAID 1, 2 TB Samsung PM863 and 250 GB Samsung 860 Evo as boot drive. This PC serves as a file server which I access from other devices on the wifi via SMB protocol (shared drives)

What I am planning to do is to run a system during working hours when I am in office to download torrents and I am not too keen on running the above machine too much after I lost a 4 TB WD Red and the storage is the most expensive part of that PC.

So I was reading up on the Raspberry Pi as my plan is to use that with a 64 GB MicroSD/Pen drive to serve as a scratch always on downloader. I will move the files to the main file server once every day.

Is this a feasible approach ? Are any of you guys using a similar configuration?
Post automatically merged:

Any suggestions guys?
 
Last edited:
Marcus Fenix said:
Hi Guys,
Just came to figure out the beauty of RSS feeds(too damn late.......I know :() and automating torrent downloads.

Now I have a dedicated headless mini-ITX box in a CM Elite 130 chassis running full Windows 10 Pro on a config of fanless Intel J2405 quad core 1.5 GHz /8 GB DDR3 RAM with 2x8 TB WD Red in RAID 1, 2 TB Samsung PM863 and 250 GB Samsung 860 Evo as boot drive. This PC serves as a file server which I access from other devices on the wifi via SMB protocol (shared drives)

What I am planning to do is to run a system during working hours when I am in office to download torrents and I am not too keen on running the above machine too much after I lost a 4 TB WD Red and the storage is the most expensive part of that PC.

So I was reading up on the Raspberry Pi as my plan is to use that with a 64 GB MicroSD/Pen drive to serve as a scratch always on downloader. I will move the files to the main file server once every day.

Is this a feasible approach ? Are any of you guys using a similar configuration?
Post automatically merged:

Any suggestions guys?
Click to expand...

yes, doable. i too went the same path sometime back. setting it up all can be a headache, and later the torrent-client (deluge in my case) proved troublesome. i was reading up on installing transmission later (another torrent-client) but then got engrossed in work & forgot it all. have to revisit it all one of these days.
 
I tried experimenting with deluge on Windows Linux subsystem but getting YaRSS2 plugin to work turned out to be a pain in the arse.
I am planning to get this kit with a 32/64 GB USB pen drive as the scratch storage for downloading the files.

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Post automatically merged:

The RSS feeds from ettv and glodls.to are not working in my PC anymore.
Tried checking the temp files and saw the dreaded message instead of the RSS data-
“ Your requested URL has been blocked as per the directions received from Department of Telecommunications, Government of India ”

But funnily enough the Jackett generated RSS feed for ettv is working.
So my best option seems to be a Intel Compute Stick with a thumb drive.
 
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I've got a Pi that I use as a media player with Kodi, and as a torrent box and file server too. I wouldn't advise running it with an SD card as the card will die really fast. I think newer pi's allow you to boot from a USB HDD, and you should do that. I've got an older pi that doesn't boot from USB, so I'm using the SD card for only the boot partition, the rest are on an external HDD. Its been running for a couple of years without any problems.
 
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ch@ts said:
I've got a Pi that I use as a media player with Kodi, and as a torrent box and file server too. I wouldn't advise running it with an SD card as the card will die really fast. I think newer pi's allow you to boot from a USB HDD, and you should do that. I've got an older pi that doesn't boot from USB, so I'm using the SD card for only the boot partition, the rest are on an external HDD. Its been running for a couple of years without any problems.
Click to expand...
What torrent client are you using? Also do you have RSS feeds setup?
I am now thinking a cheapo NUC kit would be better if ease of use is paramount as the compute stick has overheating issues on long usage.
 
I'm using transmission, and I don't have any RSS feeds setup.
The OS is based on Debian, so Jackett should run.
 
I could get transmission to work on my WSL as an experiment but failed to get flexget to run with RSS feed rules to filter out specific uploads. So thats why I am thinking og going the NUC route. Should be a bit more expensive but 15k should cover all of it including a Windows 10 Pro license off ebay.
 
tommy_vercetti said:
You can try to check DietPi, it has automated setups for lot of clients like Sonar and Radar, it also has kind of one click Deluge installation DietPi-Software | Details for ALL installation options
Click to expand...
Thanks a lot mate. I just took the plunge and ordered a RPi 3B+ kit

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Now waiting for the weekend to experiment with it.
 
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Busy weekend.
Set up diet pi with barebones samba, NFS, transmission,jackett and flexget.
Getting flexget config right was a pain in the a**.
Writing a ton of scripts and tweaking flexget config.yml now to further enhance the system.

Set up a spare 1 TB USB hard drive I had to act as the download directory.
Another problem with transmission is that I need to add a custom list of trackers to any added torrent.
Since transmission doesn't support that I had to install Shift from git but it is still janky in adding the trackers.
github.com

GitHub - killemov/Shift: A minimalistic approach to maximum control of your Transmission. (Web UI)

A minimalistic approach to maximum control of your Transmission. (Web UI) - killemov/Shift
github.com github.com

Speed for torrents is still very slow. Some torrents are downloading in windows but stalling at the same time in transmission.

Now the only major problem left is autologin for my ISP.
In Windows I got it to work via adding a batch script as a Windows service which pings google.com and runs the login app exe in case the connection is not working but trying the same in UNIX with wget is still not working.

@tommy_vercetti if I was in the same city as you I would definitely owe you a beer. :p

The basic idea for anyone in the same boat as me is as follows-
jackett- Parses RSS feed from torrent sites mainly to use https and circumvent the stupid http ban enforced by Indian government
flexget- Runs on 10 min schedule to pars the RSS feed from jackett and filter based on regex patterns for the specific torrents I need and then passes it on to transmisison for downloading.
 
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Marcus Fenix said:
Busy weekend.
Set up diet pi with barebones samba, NFS, transmission,jackett and flexget.
Getting flexget config right was a pain in the a**.
Writing a ton of scripts and tweaking flexget config.yml now to further enhance the system.

Set up a spare 1 TB USB hard drive I had to act as the download directory.
Another problem with transmission is that I need to add a custom list of trackers to any added torrent.
Since transmission doesn't support that I had to install Shift from git but it is still janky in adding the trackers.
github.com

GitHub - killemov/Shift: A minimalistic approach to maximum control of your Transmission. (Web UI)

A minimalistic approach to maximum control of your Transmission. (Web UI) - killemov/Shift
github.com github.com

Speed for torrents is still very slow. Some torrents are downloading in windows but stalling at the same time in transmission.

Now the only major problem left is autologin for my ISP.
In Windows I got it to work via adding a batch script as a Windows service which pings google.com and runs the login app exe in case the connection is not working but trying the same in UNIX with wget is still not working.

@tommy_vercetti if I was in the same city as you I would definitely owe you a beer. [emoji14]

The basic idea for anyone in the same boat as me is as follows-
jackett- Parses RSS feed from torrent sites mainly to use https and circumvent the stupid http ban enforced by Indian government
flexget- Runs on 10 min schedule to pars the RSS feed from jackett and filter based on regex patterns for the specific torrents I need and then passes it on to transmisison for downloading.
Click to expand...
Powered USB or portable ?
 
chetansha said:
Powered USB or portable ?
Click to expand...
portable 2.5" on rpi 3b+. As per google seems okay for a single HDD on a 2.5A charger. I might move to a USB SSD after this setup works okay over a month or so.

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Post automatically merged:

Gave up on transmission and went with qbittorrent which I am well accustomed to in Windows.
Adding default trackers along with flexget RSS feed parse works like a charm.
Moreover the speeds are consistent and comparable with my Windows machine running the same torrent simultaneously. But that might be due to the default trackers rather than any issue with transmission.

One question I have for you guys.
In dietpi the safe temp limit is set at 65C
80778


Even with a low usage my pi CPU is always running at 60C+. I changed the CPU governor to conservative as well but no dice.

I am using the tiny heatsinks that came along with the amazon package.

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Ordered a 32 GB Sandisk 32gb Extreme Pro MicroSD for the time being after reading up on the internet for the best microsd cards for Pi. I am not too hot on the Sandisk Ultra 16 GB that came with the package

 
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Marcus Fenix said:
portable 2.5" on rpi 3b+. As per google seems okay for a single HDD on a 2.5A charger. I might move to a USB SSD after this setup works okay over a month or so.

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www.amazon.in
Post automatically merged:

Gave up on transmission and went with qbittorrent which I am well accustomed to in Windows.
Adding default trackers along with flexget RSS feed parse works like a charm.
Moreover the speeds are consistent and comparable with my Windows machine running the same torrent simultaneously. But that might be due to the default trackers rather than any issue with transmission.

One question I have for you guys.
In dietpi the safe temp limit is set at 65C
View attachment 80778

Even with a low usage my pi CPU is always running at 60C+. I changed the CPU governor to conservative as well but no dice.

I am using the tiny heatsinks that came along with the amazon package.

Amazon.in: Buy Raspberry Pi 3B+/3B Plus Motherboard Combo - PiBOX India Variation (PiBOX - Essential Combo Black 3215BK) Online at Low Prices in India | Raspberry Pi Reviews & Ratings

Buy Raspberry Pi 3B+/3B Plus Motherboard Combo - PiBOX India Variation (PiBOX - Essential Combo Black 3215BK) online at low price in India on Amazon.in. Check out Raspberry Pi 3B+/3B Plus Motherboard Combo - PiBOX India Variation (PiBOX - Essential Combo Black 3215BK) reviews, ratings, features...
www.amazon.in

Ordered a 32 GB Sandisk 32gb Extreme Pro MicroSD for the time being after reading up on the internet for the best microsd cards for Pi. I am not too hot on the Sandisk Ultra 16 GB that came with the package

Click to expand...

Yes, the Pi3 runs hot, nothing much that you can do apart from putting some heatsinks, I had good success with this https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B0773JGKSG, the fan really helped cool it down, however the cable broke after 6 months, running just with the heatsinks for the last 6 months
 
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tommy_vercetti said:
Yes, the Pi3 runs hot, nothing much that you can do apart from putting some heatsinks, I had good success with this https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B0773JGKSG, the fan really helped cool it down, however the cable broke after 6 months, running just with the heatsinks for the last 6 months
Click to expand...
I didn't directly go for active cooling. Got this one for now.

The temp was my fault though. I had placed the Pi above the HDD and it was warming up the chipset.
Now its at around 52C with the top cover of the official Pi case removed.
 
Hi guys. I have been facing an issue which I cannot solve after a load of google-fu.
I have mounted the Windows share on my pi using the drive manager with SMB protocol.
Whenever I try to rysnc or cp to this directory from the pi the connection times out without any proper error code.
This share is my go to which I use across all devices on my home networrk and works both for rw in all windows clients.
Whatever I cp to this drive shows up as a 0 byte file in Windows and the transfer times out.
Any ideas?
I have already tried editing fstab to use SMB v1 and configured the same on the Windows machine but no luck.
All folders have been set on the shared drive to 777 so no permission issues as well. Even copy using root user doesn't work.
 
SMB gives random issues. SFTP (or just ftp) is much better. Most sync apps have the option for it and there are plenty of server apps available too. Also find it more reliable as you can see the log and find issues.
 
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