August 23, 2008 by sharky
UPDATE — With all of these new mini TFlux seedboxes that opened up in the last 24 hours, it appears as though we’ve inadvertently DDoS’ed them. They managed to recover today, but are now keeping a keen eye on the traffic throughput. Old TFlux ’servers’ will no longer work, although you’ll be able to sign up for a new one now; except that it will only work for a few minutes (at best) before being shut down if you opt to install high-traffic torrent clients. There’s still no verdict whether or not GUI-less rTorrent will work as a BT client, but if I were a betting man, I’ve have to say ‘no’.
It’s recently been brought to our attention that there is a company that’s currently offering a free promotion / beta trial that includes a small share of a virtualized server (VPS). More importantly, it’s been discovered that TorrentFlux can be installed on it, thanks largely in part that ‘root access’ is available. Thus, anyone who signs up can run a TorrentFlux seedbox on it, completely free! Be advised that this is a Linux server (not Windows) so you’ll require some basic concept of how SSH and command lines work (although we explain it in depth, so you should be able to follow it).
I’ve tested this with TorrentFlux 2.3, and it works marvelously. After installing TFlux, your "share" of the server will only be 4.92 GB - still large enough to do some serious seeding, and there’s no transfer, bandwidth or torrent limits - and best of all, it’s free! Here’s how:
Step 1 - Sign Up:
First of all, visit Joyent OpenSocial Developers Program and sign up. Fill in your information (you need a valid email address). Where it asks for an API key put in random letters and numbers (make it around 18 characters). You’ll receive an email with your login information.
NOTE: While the rest of this tutorial is specific to the Joyent server, these are the same rudimentary instructions for setting up TorrentFlux on a linux server via command lines (without a GUI).
Step 2 - Connect To Your Server:
Download the free trial version of SSH Explorer (you’ll only need to use it once to set everything up). Install, then launch, and make a new connection. Now, go to your email from Joyent. Where it says – Accelerator Info – , look to where it says Hostname: (this is the name you need to enter in SSH Explorer for the new connection). In the next section (of the email) – Shell/SFTP access –, refer to your "username" and "password", and enter these in the new connection. (See screenshots below).
Now, click "OK", and then click "Connect". You should now be (SSH) connected to your server. This is what you’ll now see:
Step 3 - TorrentFlux Installation:
You’ll need to enter some commands (through SSH Explorer) to install & configure TorrentFlux v2.3.
3.1 — Download TorrentFlux. Type this in your command line (or copy/paste it), and hit enter:
wget http://voxel.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/torrentflux/torrentflux_2.3.tar.gz
(Below is a look at the above command in the prompt) :
3.2 — Untar TorrentFlux with this command (hit Enter after each command):
tar xfz torrentflux_2.3.tar.gz
3.3 — Move the HTML folder to web/public folder, by typing this command:
mv torrentflux_2.3/html web/public
3.4 — Edit the config.php file - you should see it listed in the left window. Right click it, and select "Edit Text File" as shown below.
The config.php file will now open, and you’ll need to make some changes. OK, go back to the email you received from Joyent, and look to the section where it says – MySQL Access –. In config.php, you’ll need to change the localhost, username and password, and match it up with what was supplied in the email. Refer to the screenshots below for a detailed look. (Be certain to save and close the file afterwards).
3.5 — Do the following commands (one after another). Note: for "MySQL commands"; when it asks for a password use your "–MySQL Access — Password" (supplied to you in the email) - i.e. "25y7tccptm" from above screenshot.
NOTE: When typing in the MySQL password, it will not appear as being typed (for security reasons). As far as I know, it cannot be copy/pasted into the command prompt - you’ll need to manually type it in - hit enter when done and hope you entered it in correctly.
mysqladmin -uroot -p create torrentflux
mysql -uroot -p torrentflux < ~/torrentflux_2.3/sql/mysql_torrentflux.sql
chmod -R 777 ~/web/public/html/downloads
3.6 — Download the patch for solaris, and patch it (by using these commands):
cd ~/web/public/html
wget http://www.ece.ubc.ca/~asodyl/solaris/torrentflux-2.3-solaris10.patch
patch -p1 -b -i torrentflux-2.3-solaris10.patch
You can now exit SHH Explorer - this portion of the setup is finished.
Step 4 - Login and Configure TorrentFlux
In a web browser, go to the URL of your server - check the email for the "Hostname" - i.e http://9b0400e0.joyent.us, and add /html to the end of it. This should now launch your login page for TorrentFlux - enter any username/password you wish (but remember it) and click Login.
4.1 — In "Admin -> Settings" change the "Python Path" to /opt/local/bin/python2.4
NOTE: — Some users have reported that their ‘python path’ is different - try this path instead if you run into any problems: /opt/local/bin/python
4.2 — In the same page, scroll down to where it says "Max Upload Rate" and change this from "10" to "5000" or higher. Also change to "Max Upload Connections" from "4" to something higher.
4.3 — Scroll down further, and you’ll see a part about "Default Torrent Completion Activity" - make sure this is set to "Keep Seeding". Also, change the "Default Percentage…" to "0" %.
4.4 — Go to "Home" in TorrentFlux, and start adding torrents. Your mini-seedbox is now configured! Check out these download speeds:
Further Support & Additional Info
The installation and general feedback is being actively discussed at this forum thread at P2PTalk.org. Thanks go out to all the guys involved in troubleshooting, especially eicada, sCREAm & zergol, and dak (for finding this free service).
We recommend using TFlux v2.3 (not 2.4) because of a Solaris/TFlux incompatibility issue - see this thread. Also, if TorrentFlux isn’t your thing, you can also experiment with rTorrent + libTorrent (for Solaris) available here.
Archived by FSFmirror
