Install qBittorrent Last updated: 2022.04.25
Overview
Debian 11, Debian 10, Debian 9
Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 18.04
qBittorrent is an open-source BitTorrent client. This bit will cover two available methods for installing the stable variant of qBittorrent, via PPA repository and via AppImage. To build from source or install the unstable variant, refer to the qBittorrent wiki.
Install Via PPA
Not all applications, or versions of an application, are available from the official Debian / Ubuntu repositories. A Personal Package Archive (PPA) repository can be added to your system sources, allowing you to still install and update application releases with the apt package manager.
- qBittorrent PPA: qbittorrent-team/qbittorrent-stable
Verify that you have the software-properties-common package installed on your system. This is required for the included add-apt-repository utility.
sudo apt install software-properties-common
Add the qBittorrent PPA to your system sources.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:qbittorrent-team/qbittorrent-stable
Update your system repositories, you will see the qBittorrent PPA in the list of updated sources.
sudo apt update
Finally, install the qBittorrent application.
sudo apt install qbittorrent
Install Via AppImage
qBittorrent can be installed via an AppImage package. AppImage is a portable package system that alllows applications to be easily distributed to a range of different systems; it also does not require administrative permissions.
Download AppImage
Create a new directory for qBittorrent to be installed in. We will put this directory in ~/Applications/ as is recommended in the AppImage documentation, but you may choose any location you wish.
mkdir -p ~/Applications/qbittorrent
Download the qBittorrent AppImage to the ~/Applications/qbittorrent/ directory. At the time of writing this was version 4.4.0. Check the qBittorrent release page for the most recent version.
wget https://www.fosshub.com/qBittorrent.html?dwl=qbittorrent-4.4.0_x86_64.AppImage -P ~/Applications/qbittorrent/
Rename the downloaded AppImage so it can be easily referenced later.
mv ~/Applications/qbittorrent/qBittorrent.html?dwl=qbittorrent-4.4.0_x86_64.AppImage ~/Applications/qbittorrent/qbittorrent.AppImage
Make the downloaded AppImage file executable.
chmod a+x ~/Applications/qbittorrent/qbittorrent.AppImage
The qBittorrent AppImage is now ready to go! Launch it via your file explorer or terminal.
Create Desktop Entry
For the application to be accessible in the same fashion as apt installed applications, you will have to create a desktop entry on your system.
Before creating the desktop entry, we will fetch ourselves a launcher icon to use for qBittorrent. Store this icon in the same directory as the AppImage, ~/Applications/qbittorrent/ in this case.
wget https://github.com/qbittorrent/qBittorrent/raw/v4_4_x/dist/unix/menuicons/192x192/apps/qbittorrent.png -O ~/Applications/qbittorrent/qbittorrent.png
Using your editor of choice, create a new file named qbittorrent.desktop in the ~/.local/share/applications/ directory.
nano ~/.local/share/applications/qbittorrent.desktop
Enter the following, replacing USERNAME with your system username. If you are using a different path also apply that here.
[Desktop Entry]
Name=qBittorrent
Exec=/home/USERNAME/Applications/qbittorrent/qbittorrent.AppImage
Icon=/home/USERNAME/Applications/qbittorrent/qbittorrent.png
Type=Application
StartupNotify=true
MimeType=application;
That’s all there is to it, you should now see qBittorrent listed in your system application list.
Conclusion
That’s all there is to it. When first launching qBittorrent you will receive a legal notice, this is normal. Upon getting into the application, there are a couple of settings you will likely want to change. In the menu bar select Tools - Preferences.
In the Behavior tab, locate the Log file section. Disable the log file feature unless required.
In the BitTorrent tab, locate the Privacy section. Set the Encryption mode to allow encryption or require encryption. Enable the Enable anonymous mode flag.
