ANSWERED qBittorrent, Port Forwarding and Firewalls on Linux

[sunjan 0]

I’ve been running Eddie and qBittorrent (and previously uTorrent) on Windows (7) for years without too many issues. I would to now like to migrate some things over to Linux as I ponder whether to upgrade to Windows 10 or not.
I am having some trouble getting qbittorent running properly with port forwarding on the Linux machine (Running Bodhi Linux) but there are also questions on Linux firewalls too. Please bear with me I’m very much a novice in the Linux world.
I have installed all software and Eddie (latest) runs fine and seems to be stable. I have also forwarded an extra port in my account so there is no conflict with the windows machine.
qBittorrent has the new port set correctly in it’s configuration settings but I cannot get the client to accept direct connections.
Here’s where it gets weird (for me anyhow). I tried testing connectivity using “canyouseeme.org “ and of course it gives me an error. I then try the Transmission client that came with Linux and hey presto it works. The port tests OK from within the client and “canyouseeme.org “ says the port is open.
What is Transmission doing or has in it’s setup that qBittorent doesn’t? Interestingly when I close Transmission “canyouseeme.org “ gives an error again and says the port is closed.
As far as firewalls are concerned I have disabled ufw (I read on some post somewhere it can cause problems) and there are practically no iptable rules apart from three being –P INPUT ACCEPT and ditto for FORWARD and OUTPUT. I mention this for two reasons, first obviously I haven’t got any “funny” rules that may be hampering qBittorrent but also I don’t know quite what to implement for a firewall/iptable rules and especially ones that don’t cause problems for any of the above. I mean to say I need some sort of firewall don’t I??
Thanks for any suggestions

[OpenSourcerer 1435]

qB v4.2.5 by any chance? Somehow this version causes a great variety of connection problems to many people. Some clients don't connect at all, some do but are sluggish, others work okay. Can you see if you can downgrade? Just to rule this out.

[monstrocity 31]

Is Bodhi Linux installed on your computer or in a VM?  Its AppCenter shows two possible torrent clients: Transmission and KTorrent.  Although there are various ways to install qBittorrent, is it compatible with your system?  Also, I would avoid flatpak or snap versions of qBittorrent (if they're offered).  If you installed it via Ubuntu ppa, then you're on the latest version, 4.2.5, which, as already pointed out, has many known issues.  You may want to consider a more mainstream and beginner-friendly Ubuntu-based distro (e.g, Linux Mint, Peppermint OS, Linux Lite, Lubuntu 18.0.4.4, etc.) before moving to Bodhi full-time - not trying to be a dick here.

[sunjan 0]

Thanks for the suggestions, I’ll see if I can find any older versions of qBittorent to install and try. I’d like to try and stay with qBittorent as I am quite used to it but In lieu of that maybe I’ll learn to Like Transmission for the moment.
monstrocity: The Bodhi Linux is installed on the computer. I chose it because I am using an old Dell D610 that I had lying around as my Linux learning machine. As it’s a 32-bit machine and a little light on hardware resources so I looked for something appropriate. Bodhi legacy release seemed to fit the bill. Perhaps not the best choice?  I might look at some of the others you suggested. Thank you.
Does anybody have any suggestions for a guide or simple set of firewall instructions that plays nicely with AIRVPN/Eddie. I initially had ufw/Gufw running but disabled it when I had the qBittorrent problems as I’d read it can cause some problems in itself.

[monstrocity 31]

Sadly, some distros are dropping 32-bit, like anything based on Ubuntu 20.04.  I ran Peppermint OS 10 (32-bit) on an old Dell Vostro 1500 until it died several months ago.  You'll need at least 1 Gb of ram if you want to run Eddie with qBittorrent; you could also try Hummingbird instead of Eddie - uses fewer resources.  Try this version of qBittorrent: http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/universe/q/qbittorrent/qbittorrent_4.0.3-1_i386.deb

[SumRndmDude 22]

I have qBittorrent 4.2.5 running with no issues currently. When you check the port forward on AirVPN, what does it say? Do you get the green light that it's working correctly? Also, are you behind a router with a firewall and if so, does it have the port forward setup?

[sunjan 0]

SumRndmDude: I do get the green light on AirVPN port page. Router doesn’t have any ports forwarded as I understand it’s not needed, (VPN does the port forwarding). Thanks for the suggestions.

Monstrocity: Appreciate the link to version 4.0.3 of qBittorent, I had a bit of trouble finding where they stashed the older deb packages. I removed the new version and installed this one and it worked straight away, running without any connection problems. Version 4.2.5 is obviously a problem for my setup at least. I have downloaded and might give peppermint OS a spin at some stage soon just to compare.

[monstrocity 31]

Glad it worked.  AFAIK qB 4.2.x builds are all 64-bit packages.  The latest Ubuntu archive build for 32-bit is version 4.1.7. 

If Bodhi works for you, stick with it.  There isn't a whole lot of difference between the Ubuntu based distros other than aesthetics / personal preferences.  Booting into a live session on a USB stick and poking around will let you know if another distro is worth installing or not.  Any distribution based off of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (and still actively maintained) should be supported until 2023 - plenty of time to experiment.

[OpenSourcerer 1435]

5 hours ago, monstrocity said:

Glad it worked.  AFAIK qB 4.2.x builds are all 64-bit packages.  The latest Ubuntu archive build for 32-bit is version 4.1.7. 

That is an interesting detail for Ubuntu. Debian still builds it for i386, though. Is Ubuntu preparing to cut support for i386?

[monstrocity 31]

@giganerdAs of Ubuntu 20.04, 32-bit OSes are no more, and anything based on it, like Linux Mint 20.  Apparently, Ubuntu Studio and Wine will still receive 32-bit support within a 64-bit environment.  AFAIK Debian, Arch, Fedora, openSUSE, Mageia, Gentoo will still support 32-bit - none of those are really beginner friendly distros though, particularly for those switching over from Windoze.