utorrent on Linux
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As a Linux user you have several excellent choices when it comes to BitTorrent clients. Transmission, Deluge and Vuze (formerly Azureus) to name a few. Those of us who have used Windows before or have Windows friends know about another fantastic BitTorrent client that is not officially supported on Linux, utorrent. Why let that stop us though? Let’s install utorrent on Ubuntu Linux using WINE.using WINE.

Update Your Ubuntu Linux System

The first thing you will want to do before we attempt to install utorrent on Ubuntu Linux using WINE is make sure your system is up to date. To do this click System > Administration > Update Manager. Next, click Check and then Install Updates to start the update process entering your password as required. At this point simply allow all updates to be downloaded and installed and reboot if prompted to do so. This may take some time depending on how up to date you keep your Ubuntu Linux system.

Install WINE in Ubuntu Linux

ubuntu package manager WINE

To install WINE in Ubuntu Linux we will make use of the synaptic package manager. The Ubuntu package manager can be found under System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager and includes a Quick Search box which you can use to locate WINE. Once WINE is located click the box to the left and Mark for Installation. The package manager will then ask you if it can mark additional software for installation that is required by WINE, click Mark then Apply to start the installation process. Once WINE is installed close the synaptic package manager.

Download and Install utorrent in Ubuntu Linux

In order to run utorrent on Ubuntu Linux using WINE we will need the utorrent for Windows executable. Please visit the utorrent website and download the latest Windows version of utorrent to your home folder. Once we have utorrent.exe in our home folder we will want to

ubuntu linux wine launcher

. The command you want your launcher to run is:

wine /home/USERNAME/uTorrent.exe /NOINSTALL (replace USERNAME with your Ubuntu Linux account username)

That’s it folks. Click on your new utorrent launcher and you are now running utorrent on Ubuntu Linux via WINE.

utorrent on Ubuntu Linux using WINE

Using utorrent on Ubuntu Linux via WINE

In my testing utorrent on Ubuntu Linux via WINE worked just as well as the utorrent beta available natively for Mac OS X. I downloaded several large torrents with excellent speeds and the resulting files worked fine. All basic functions that I use worked as well, this includes port forwarding, DHT, pre-allocating files and setting upload and download limits.

Using utorrent on Ubuntu Linux via WINE is fundamentally the same as using utorrent on Windows (after all you are running the Windows version). Menus are in the same place and you have the same options available that you would if you were running utorrent natively in Windows. As with all Windows programs you run in Linux via WINE you may encounter some odd behaviour that you would not see on a native platform.