Objective
The following article will provide a list of torrent clients for Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver Linux as well as installation and basic usage instructions. The list will include both the graphical user interface torrent clients and the command line torrent clients.
Operating System and Software Versions
- Operating System: – Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver Linux
Requirements
Privileged access to your Ubuntu System as root or via sudo command is required.
Difficulty
EASY
Conventions
- # – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of
sudocommand - $ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user
Introduction
Torrents are used to download large files like, ISO images, movies, games etc. Any file to be downloaded is split into smaller chunks and downloaded separately from multiple sources a.k.a peers. Once the torrent client has all necessary parts it will reconstruct the entire file locally.
Graphical User Interface Torrent Clients
Transmission
Transmission is the default torrent client available on Ubuntu 18.04 with the default Gnome GUI. Chances are that it is already installed on your system.
In case you need to install the Transmission torrent client, open up terminal and enter the bellow command:
$ sudo apt install transmission
To start the Transmission torrent client execute:
$ transmission-gtk
Alternatively, you can launch Transmission from the start menu:
Deluge
Deluge is another torrent client available on Ubuntu 18.04. It has substantial amount of features with nice, clean interface. The Deluge torrent client can be installed by using the below command:
$ sudo apt install deluge
Use your start menu to launch the Deluge torrent client or execute:
$ deluge
Ktorrent
Ktorrent is a native torrent client for the KDE plasma desktop. However, it does not mean it cannot be used with any other GUI available on Ubuntu 18.04. It has clean intuitive interface with numerous features. To install Ktorrent on Ubuntu execute:
$ sudo apt install ktorrent
Use your start menu to launch the Ktorrent client or run the following linux command:
$ ktorrent
qBittorrent
Lastly, qBittorent is another GUI torrent client available from the Ubuntu 18.04 repository. To install qBittorrent execute the following linux command:
$ sudo apt install qbittorrent
Use your start menu to launch the qBittorrent client or run the command:
$ qbittorrent
Command Line Torrent Clients
There are also multiple command line torrent clients available for Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver Linux from which three of them are listed below.
Aria2
Aria2 is a command line torrent client. It is easy to use and has clean terminal output in order to monitor the torrent download progress. To install Aria2 run the bellow command:
$ sudo apt install aria2
Once installed, you should have the aria2c command available. To start the download, simply execute the aria2c followed by the torrent file, URI, magnet, etc.:
$ aria2c file.torrent
Unworkable
Unworkable is yet another example of a lightweight and easy to use torrent client available for Ubuntu 18.04. To install Unworkable execute:
$ sudo apt install unworkable
Start the download by executing the unworkable command followed by the torrent file. Example:
$ unworkable ubuntu-16.04.4-desktop-amd64.iso.torrent
rTorrent
rTorrent is another example of a command line torrent client. It also can be configured to be managed via a web based front end interface contained in the package rtpg-www. To install rTorrent execute:
$ sudo apt install rtorrent
Start the download by executing the rtorrent command followed by the torrent file. Example:
$ rtorrent ubuntu-16.04.4-desktop-amd64.iso.torrent
To quit from rTorrent press the CTRL + q key combination.
