cmc/cleberg.net

  1#+date:        [2024-09-23 Mon 19:52:20]
  2#+title:       Self-Hosting Guide: Transmission
  3#+description: Setting up Transmission on a Linux server with Nginx for remote access.
  4#+slug:        self-hosting-transmission
  5#+filetags:    :linux:self-hosting:
  6
  7#+begin_quote
  8If you're torrenting anything sensitive, I *highly* recommend you use a VPN.
  9Something like mullvad-cli is incredibly simple to use and can be configured to
 10have a "killswitch" or "lockdown mode" to ensure that if the VPN disconnects,
 11your traffic won't be leaked to your ISP.
 12#+end_quote
 13
 14* Transmission
 15
 16[[https://transmissionbt.com/][Transmission]] is a cross-platform bittorrent client that supports running a
 17[[https://linux.die.net/man/1/transmission-remote][remote control utility]], a [[https://linux.die.net/man/1/transmission-daemon][daemon service]] for running as a background service,
 18and a [[https://linux.die.net/man/1/transmission-cli][command-line client]].
 19
 20Since I love torrenting Linux ISOs and providing them back to the community,
 21let's walk through a tutorial of setting up Transmission on a headless server
 22and connecting it to a domain name (=transmission.example.com=) so that we can
 23manage our torrents remotely.
 24
 25This tutorial assumes you have a Linux machine, have Nginx installed, and have a
 26domain name pointing at your Linux machine.
 27
 28** Installation
 29
 30First, let's install a couple Transmission packages on the system. We don't need
 31the GUI components, so we'll only install the daemon and command line interface
 32utilities.
 33
 34#+begin_src sh
 35sudo apt install transmission-cli transmission-common transmission-daemon
 36#+end_src
 37
 38You will need to run the program to initialize the files before you can edit the
 39configurations, so let's run it and end the process.
 40
 41#+begin_src sh
 42# Run the program
 43transmission-daemon -e ~/.local/log/transmission.log
 44
 45# End the program after it finishes running
 46transmission-remote --exit
 47#+end_src
 48
 49** Configuration
 50
 51Now that we've run the program for the first time and initialized the relevant
 52files, let's edit those files.
 53
 54#+begin_quote
 55If you edit the files while Transmission is running, your changes won't be
 56saved! Make sure to end the service, update the configuration files, and restart
 57the service.
 58#+end_quote
 59
 60To start, let's edit the main configuration file.
 61
 62#+begin_src sh
 63nano ~/.config/transmission-daemon/settings.json
 64#+end_src
 65
 66Within this file, I suggesting skimming *every* option and determining if you
 67want to change any of those options.
 68
 69For remote access, we will focus on the following =rpc= options. This
 70configuration will not require authentication, will allow any device with access
 71(I suggest that you have a firewall restricting access) to access the service
 72(="rpc-bind-access": "0.0.0.0"=), will open the service on port =9091=, and will
 73whitelist a few LAN IPs (="rpc-whitelist":
 74"127.0.0.1,::1,192.168.0.98,192.168.0.97"=).
 75
 76#+begin_src json
 77{
 78    ...
 79    "rpc-authentication-required": false,
 80    "rpc-bind-address": "0.0.0.0",
 81    "rpc-enabled": true,
 82    "rpc-host-whitelist": "",
 83    "rpc-host-whitelist-enabled": true,
 84    "rpc-password": "{7fc02520b97e054f7a15274c7cfafe3cd7330169.OQUAUS4",
 85    "rpc-port": 9091,
 86    "rpc-socket-mode": "0750",
 87    "rpc-url": "/transmission/",
 88    "rpc-username": "",
 89    "rpc-whitelist": "127.0.0.1,::1,192.168.0.98,192.168.0.97",
 90    "rpc-whitelist-enabled": true,
 91    ...
 92}
 93#+end_src
 94
 95Once you've finished configuring the service, start the service up again.
 96
 97#+begin_src sh
 98transmission-daemon -e ~/.local/log/transmission.log
 99#+end_src
100
101At this point, you should be able to access the website at =localhost:9091= (if
102you're browsing on the machine where Transmission is running) or
103=$server_ip:9091= (if you're browsing from a different LAN device).
104
105If you want to make further changes to Transmission's configuration, I suggest
106doing so now. Once you start working on remote access via a reverse proxy,
107you'll be adding an additional layer of complexity that bring in more confusion
108when errors occur.
109
110#+begin_quote
111NOTE: If you are trying to initialize =transmission-daemon= via =systemd=
112instead of using the manually-executed command above, you may notice that the
113service will timeout and fail to start.
114#+end_quote
115
116To fix this timeout issue, you need to edit the service file and change
117=Type=notify= to =Type=simple=.
118
119#+begin_src shell
120# Command to edit the service file:
121sudo systemctl edit --full transmission-daemon.service
122
123# Make the edit noted above and then reload the service file with this command:
124sudo systemctl daemon-reload
125sudo systemctl enable transmission-daemon.service
126sudo systemctl start transmission-daemon.service
127#+end_src
128
129* Reverse Proxy
130
131Now that the service is running and configured properly, let's work on remote
132access.
133
134This tutorial will use Nginx, but you can use any reverse proxy or something
135like Cloudflare Tunnels if that's your thing.
136
137** Configuration
138
139If you have Nginx installed, you should have either the =/etc/nginx/conf.d= or
140=/etc/nginx/sites-available= directories available to create website
141configuration files. This tutorial assumes the =conf.d= structure, but it's
142essentially the same except using the =sites-available= structure requires you
143to symlink your files into the =sites-enabled= directory.
144
145Let's start by creating the website configuration file.
146
147#+begin_src sh
148sudo nano /etc/nginx/conf.d/transmission.conf
149#+end_src
150
151Within the file, you will need a configuration similar to the code below. Note
152that this uses SSL and requires a valid TLS/SSL certificate. You can use [[https://letsencrypt.org/][Let's
153Encrypt]] if you don't have a certificate yet.
154
155#+begin_src conf
156server {
157	listen                  443 ssl;
158	listen                  [::]:443 ssl;
159	http2			on;
160	server_name             transmission.example.com;
161
162	# SSL
163	ssl_certificate         /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem;
164	ssl_certificate_key     /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/privkey.pem;
165	ssl_trusted_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/chain.pem;
166
167    # reverse proxy
168	location / {
169		set $upstream_transmission http://localhost:9091;
170		proxy_pass $upstream_transmission;
171		proxy_pass_header X-Transmission-Session-Id;
172	}
173}
174
175# HTTP redirect
176server {
177	listen      80;
178	listen      [::]:80;
179	server_name transmission.example.com;
180
181	if ($host ~ ^[^.]+\.example\.com) {
182		return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
183	}
184}
185#+end_src
186
187Once you've saved the configuration file, restart the Nginx web server to enable
188the remote access connection.
189
190#+begin_src sh
191sudo systemctl restart nginx.service
192#+end_src
193
194At this point, Transmission should now be available at
195=transmission.example.com=, same as it's available on the LAN.
196
197#+begin_quote
198Pro Tip: If you dislike something about the website UI, you can edit the
199website's files in the =/usr/share/transmission/public_html/= directory. You can
200modify the HTML, CSS, and JS files in this directory.
201#+end_quote