transmission-qt 2.82 debian install package broken

[VegasVampire]

I am using Ubuntu Lucid (10.04 LTS for amd64), and have set my software sources to this:

http://ppa.launchpad.net/transmissionbt/nogtk/ubuntu/ lucid main

When I did an update (from 2.77) to 2.82, transmission-qt stopped working and I get an error pop-up window:

""" Could not launch 'Transmission Qt Bittorrent Client' """

The binary file for transmission-qt is nowhere to be found after the upgrade (or install).

If you go here:

http://ppa.launchpad.net/transmissionbt ... nsmission/

you will notice that the file sizes for:
"transmission-qt_2.82-0ubuntu0.10.04.1_amd64.deb"
and:
"transmission-qt_2.82-0ubuntu0.10.04.1_i386.deb"
are far too small (about 850+ bytes!).

The prior version I had was 2.77, and it was working OK. I will manually force the re-install of the older version so I can continue for now, but the 2.82 install package needs to be fixed. I have no idea who to contact to make that happen.

[rb07]

I have no idea who to contact to make that happen.

Ubuntu's bug tracker, or Debian's bug tracker.

[VegasVampire]

I have no idea who to contact to make that happen.

Ubuntu's bug tracker, or Debian's bug tracker.

Well, I went there and their forum rules state that issues with PPA's (and builds in those PPA's) are not to be posted as an Ubuntu bug. This is not a bug with Ubuntu-- it is a problem with a specific build of transmission-qt (v2.82) that is targeted at a specific release of Ubuntu ("Lucid" 10.04.1 LTS). Neither the Ubuntu team (nor the Debian team) is responsible for this build of transmission. I know it is a problem with the build because the file sizes of the 2 broken "deb" files are *way* too low. I know that the Transmission team would like to make Transmission more popular, and to do that various builds for the more popular distributions of Linux need to be done-- and these need to "just work" if the perception of code quality (for the unsophisticated end-user) is "good". Grinding out builds for the various distributions of Linux may not be as glamorous as writing code for new features, but it is a necessary evil that *must* be done correctly. I figured the best way to find out who is responsible for the various builds of transmission (and to inform them of the problem) is to post here-- if I need to go somewhere else [i.e., "go pound sand"], then let me know...

[blacke4dawn]

The Transmission devs them self do not do any pre-compiled packages outside of OS X, they just link to the appropriate webpage for easy access for all other pre-built ones. The best course of action would to contact the maintainer/"owner" of that PPA.

[rb07]

if I need to go somewhere else

You need to go somewhere else.

The Transmission project doesn't do install packages, except for Mac OSX, all the others come from 3rd parties.

A side note: its very strange that with a release that has been out for 4 months (version 2.82) you are the only one complaining... there must be very few users of that PPA repository.

[VegasVampire]

if I need to go somewhere else

You need to go somewhere else.

The Transmission project doesn't do install packages, except for Mac OSX, all the others come from 3rd parties.

A side note: its very strange that with a release that has been out for 4 months (version 2.82) you are the only one complaining... there must be very few users of that PPA repository.

Thank you! At last, someone with the "intestinal fortitude" to tell it like it is.

The 10.04 LTS release of Ubuntu is very popular for many reasons-- first, because it uses an older 2.x kernel, it still supports older CPU's-- and because it is an LTS [Long Term Support] release, the Ubuntu team will continue to support it (for another year I *think*). Also, after 10.04, the Ubuntu team decided that they would go with a completely new desktop environment (not gnome)-- and many people have rebelled against that. A lot of business users load up Ubuntu 10.04-LTS, because it "just works", and people familiar with Windows can get used to it rather quickly-- that is why it is installed on my workstation. My guess is that many people that choose to upload/download files using bittorrent, are the type that always like to stay on the "bleeding edge"-- and they are probably running the latest version of Ubuntu on high-end machines. So, yes-- it is an unlikely combination, because it is rare that people use bittorrent, then of the bittorrent clients that run on Linux they choose transmission, and then they have to be in a group that uses an older version of Ubuntu-- all of these probabilities add up to an unlikely scenario (and I seem to be the "outcast" in many things).

I will try to contact the PPA maintainer (if I can locate him/her). If that can't be done (or the PPA maintainer doesn't care), this problem may become moot upon the next stable release of transmission-qt where (I am hoping) that the "deb" files for my distribution will be correctly built-- and if this is the case, the problem will solve itself.

[rb07]

Or... maybe the "trick" is that nobody has been able to report the bug (i.e. there's no way to report it).

[blacke4dawn]

The impression I have gotten from the few I have heard about this who don't like Unity (the new DE in Ubuntu) have moved on to other *buntu flavors, Mint or even Debian.

[BalleClorin]

The problem seems to be the fact that I disabled building the QT GUI, but forgot not to include the transmission-qt package. I didn't spend much time trying to make the gui work, because so far everyone who has been contacting me about the lucid package have been running the daemon only. Besides, Canonical stopped supporting the desktop version in May this year so you really should upgrade.

[VegasVampire]

The problem seems to be the fact that I disabled building the QT GUI, but forgot not to include the transmission-qt package. I didn't spend much time trying to make the gui work, because so far everyone who has been contacting me about the lucid package have been running the daemon only. Besides, Canonical stopped supporting the desktop version in May this year so you really should upgrade.

Many people (including me) are not going to upgrade for the reasons I already stated above. I use my workstation for *work* as well as play, and I'm not going to take any risks with it. If a person owns an older machine with an older CPU (that the 3.x kernels have dropped support for), then the only solution is to stay with the 10.04-LTS release (or change distributions to something other than Ubuntu). Canonical, which drives the development of Ubuntu is aware of this problem, and THEY DON'T CARE. So, except for some really bad security problems which the Ubuntu team *does* release, the remaining support for 10.04-LTS is now coming in the form of back-ports from the community.

There are many open-source groups that are more interested in being on the "bleeding edge" than they are in promoting the use of their software. By forcing the use of the newest graphics package (for example GTK-3 and Qt-5), or some other "way-cool" feature of some new distribution, you are cutting off access to many older installations that [for various reasons] cannot upgrade the graphics packages (or other new features). In the past, the vast majority of Linux users were also Linux hackers, and none of them would have too much trouble in using whatever code you grind out. But, these days, the vast majority of Linux users are now more of the "end user" type [think: "Millie the secretary", and Grandma], and they are not going to have even a clue as to what is wrong-- they might install and/or upgrade to your latest version, and BLAM!-- it quits working-- so, they are going to think: "this transmission software is CRAP!", and they are going to find something else to use-- then your software popularity goes down. The sad thing is that this has nothing to do with transmission-- it's not the transmission team's fault that some packager got it wrong-- but you are going to get the blame anyway (except from savvy users like me). So your flippant response to "just upgrade to a newer O/S" [which is fraught with danger, and should only be done by an expert, and that is assuming that it *can* be done] is (IMHO) way out of line.

FYI, here is the response I received from the PPA maintainer:
==================================================================
Hello. I believe this has something to do with the inclusion of support for qt-5 in the latest release. Don't actually remember how I solved it for lucid. I'll try to have a look at it tomorrow, but I'm really short on time nowadays. I'm lagging behind on several packaging projects, and will continue to do so until my exams are done on the 16th this month.

Regards
Andreas Noteng
==================================================================

As far as I'm concerned this matter will soon be resolved, one way or another. The PPA maintainer has the info he needs, and can do whatever he wants after that-- and there's nothing I can do about it. If the transmission team wants to build software that cannot be used on older systems, then there's nothing I can do about that-- and I can choose to use an older version or find another bittorrent client that does not have these restrictions.

[VegasVampire]

I consider this problem solved, and the thread is closed.

[BalleClorin]

FYI I am the PPA maintainer. I am in no way part of the Transmission project, I only help out the only way I can beacause I think Transmission is a great piece of software. I totally agree on you with Unity being a pain in the but, but why not use any of the many other desktop environments available in Ubuntu, or do as I did; switch back to Debian? Ubuntu and Kubuntu used to be great for both the technologically ignorant and the power user. IMHO Kubuntu stopped beeing usefull once they jumped to KDE 4.x, and Unity was just a horrible mistake. You do however have the option to switch to any other DE, including Gnome shell which after some tweaking and some getting used to is quite good.

I have the policy of backporting newer Transmission releases to every supported version of Ubuntu. Continuing to support older releases will be an impossible task. When it comes to Lucid I dropped GTK support long ago because the list of stuff needing backports for it to work grew to long. With the last release I ran into problems with the QT client too (because of Transmission moving on to QT-5), and decided not to bother fixing it since Lucid desktop had reached EOL. The mistake I did was to forget to remove the actual package, I only disabled the QT build system. Thus the package was upgraded without it containing any binaries. I will fix that mistake, and if I can find the time I will also have another look at backporting the QT client. Every now and then people get in touch with me about the PPA, either because I miss a release or because I forgot about Lucid or something. Every single one of the Lucid users contacting me was running Transmission daemon only, and the fact that I did this mistake quite a few weeks ago and nobody got in touch until now tells me that there is likely very few users of the QT client.

I get that some users want to run old software, but as the software grows older backporting becomes more and more work. You can't expect project maintainers to ignore new stuff just because some users choose to use older hardware or software. If you like old stuff I can reccommend running debian stable. It's usually rock solid, safe, and outdated. Personally I prefer running testing. Another solution if you want to continue running Lucid AND have the newest release of Transmission I can reccommend running the deamon and using transmission-remote-gui (package name transgui) or the web client. If you want to chip in and help me with the backports, feel free and I'll be happy to upload any fixes. I don't exactly have too much time on my hand at the moment. The packaging sources can be found here: https://code.launchpad.net/~transmissio ... /ppa-lucid

[snowglow]

Hi. Please forgive my lack of knowledge when it comes to this. I've been trying for several days to figure out why Transmission is no longer working. After reading your post I'm wondering if there's been a change. I'll explain what I'm experiencing and hope this is both the place to ask for help and that it is in fact related to what you've posted. When I download a torrent I used to be given an option to open with Transmission now it's only letting me choose Transmission-qtr. Transmission by it'self is gone. Except that it's not because that's what's on my desktop and the only one I've used. So if I choose Transmission-qtr nothing happens. I use Linuxmint14 but I'm not a programmer. This is what came with the laptop. I use torrents to download cartoons and Revolution because my son goes to bed too late for us to catch it on tv. So I tried uninstaling Transmission and reinstalling. No difference. Then I uninstalled and tried another program qtorrent. When I select it, again no torrent downloads. I'm at a loss and don't know enough to fix this issue. Can you please help? Thanks in advance.

[snowglow]

By the way I checked to see if my port could be viewed (on open port check tool) and it says it cannot see it on port 80. Could this be the issue?

[blacke4dawn]

Do they even show up in the program, if so then check that they are set to automatically start. If they don't show up then it's most likely some entry in your X environment (Gnome, KDE, XFCE or similar) that isn't quite right, can't say more since I don't know what X environment you use.

Transmission doesn't listen to port 80 by default, it listens to 9091 for the RPC interface and 51413 for new peer connections. Only 51413 needs to be accessible from the outside to be able to seed properly and not trigger any tit-for-tat mechanisms.