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[HowTo] Install and Run BitTornado on Hackintosh


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(How I managed to)

Install and Run BitTornado (a bittorrent client) on Hackintosh

 

Before µTorrent and Azureus became popular bittorent clients in the Windows world, there was BitTornado. It was created by TheSHAD0W as a speedier alternative to the existing BitTorrent client. In fact, TheShad0w allegedly created the super-seeding and webseeding modes.

website with FAQ and Forum

for BitTornado

A
for BitTornado

BitTornado is written in Python like many bittorent clients (Azureus is Java). Python is an interpreted language which is included in MacOSX. So, with some work, BitTornado can run on MacOSX. This installation will update Python to to the latest stable binaries and add wxPython so we get a GUI.

 

An Applescript is used to start a torrent. The torrent file is drag-n-dropped onto the Applescript and the bittorent session is started.

 

Install Python

the MacPython 2.5 Universal binary (17.9 MB).

 

Double-click on the "python-2.5-macosx.dmg" file and it will mount the virtual disk "Univeral MacPython 2.5" to your desktop.

Inside that virtual disk, double-click on the "MacPython.mpkg" to install it.

 

Once installed, drag the virtual disk (Univeral MacPython 2.5) to the Trash to unmount it.

 

Install wxPython

the wxPython 2.5 Universal binary (32.7 MB)

 

Double-click on the "wxPython2.8-osx-unicode-2.8.1.1-universal10.4-py2.5.dmg" file and it will mount the virtual disk named "wxPython2.8-osx-unicode-2.8.1.1-universal10.4-py2.5" to your desktop.

Inside, double-click on the "wxPython2.8-osx-unicode-universal10.4-py2.5.pkg" to install it.

 

Once installed, drag the virtual disk (wxPython2.8-osx-unicode-2.8.1.1-universal10.4-py2.5) to the Trash to unmount it.

 

Install BitTornado

the BitTornado 0.3.18 file (268 KB).

 

Double-click the "BitTornado-0.3.18.zip" file to create the "BitTornado-CVS" folder.

 

Move the BitTornado-CVS to your Applications folder (this is
important
so that the following commands and the applescript work correctly)

 

Go to your Applications -> Utilities folder and open Terminal. Type the following commands:

 

cd /Applications/BitTornado-CVS   (press Enter)
sudo python setup.py install   (press Enter)
(give your password and then press Enter)

When complete, close Terminal

 

Create Applescript

 

Go to your Applications -> AppleScript folder and double-click on "Script Editor"

 

Copy and paste the following script into Script Editor

 

property extension_list : {"torrent"}

-- This droplet processes files dropped onto the applet 
on open these_items
repeat with i from 1 to the count of these_items
	set this_item to item i of these_items
	set the item_info to info for this_item
	if (folder of the item_info is false) and ¬
		(alias of the item_info is false) and ¬
		(the name extension of the item_info is in the extension_list) then
		process_item(POSIX path of this_item)
	end if
end repeat
quit
end open

-- this sub-routine processes files 
on process_item(this_item)
do shell script "/usr/bin/pythonw /Applications/BitTornado-CVS/btdownloadgui.py '" & this_item & "' > /dev/null 2>&1 &"
end process_item

 

Press "Compile" to verify the code.

 

Save the script as an application as follows:

 

1) Go to File menu and select "Save As..."

2) Give your application a name (like BitTornado)

3) Select a place to put it (I recommend the Desktop)

4) Select File format: application bundle *

5) Check the "Run Only" button

6) UN-Check the "Startup Screen" button

7) Press "Save"

8) Quit Script Editor

 

(* Seems that saving it as an application gives it a PPC wrapper that requires Rosetta. Saving it as a bundle gives it an Intel wrapper, so start-up time should be faster as a bundle, even though it doesn't actually have to be a bundle.)

 

Use BitTornado

Drag-n-drop a .torrent file onto your BitTornado application. Shortly, a GUI window will show up.

 

For multiple torrents, just drop them onto the application.

 

Click on "Prefs" and adjust them as necessary. You might want to increase the font size slightly to improve the GUI spacing.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Great HowTo, thanks very much, I missed BitTornado.

I have a little problem, however: in the "Prefs" I can't change anything in the "Port Range" area.

That is pretty bad because the default is "Randomize from 10000 to 60000"

Do you suggest that I change the firewall settings in order to fit that?

Thanks.

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The preference file is hidden in your Home directory.

 

Edit ~/.BitTornado/config.gui.ini

 

Change the ports in these variables:

maxport = 6999

minport = 6881

 

To turn off random:

change: random_port = 1 to random_port = 0

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Is this faster then the official client and Transmission?

 

Till now I have only uploaded. Now I am downloading a Linux distro. It is rather slow, but I believe it needs some time before it gets "kickstarted"

It has some nice features though.

 

Edit: indeed, after about 20 minutes it is now a lot faster.

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I couldn't get the intial terminal part to work, everytime I try I get an error stating this:

Welcome to Darwin!

sudo python /Applications/BitTornado-CVS/setup.py install

Password:

running install

running build

running build_py

error: package directory 'BitTornado' does not exist

 

I don't understand why the directory does not exist because I put the extracted BitTornado-CVS file into my applications as stated in the tutorial. I tried to walk through mutliple time and thus gave up, any help on this would be greatly appriciated--I miss my bittornado :worried_anim:

 

Thanks a bunch!

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error: package directory 'BitTornado' does not exist

 

I don't understand why the directory does not exist because I put the extracted BitTornado-CVS file into my applications as stated in the tutorial.

 

There is a folder (directory) called BitTornado inside the BitTornado-CVS. I believe that is the package directory to which the error is referring.

 

The only thing I can suggest is to maybe download the BitTornado archive again and replace the BitTornado-CVS folder.

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oh well, I think the problem is with my terminal (maybe because I have an intel mac?)

I tried to install Btornado through the folder I left on the desktop (yea directions say dont) but I couldn't find a way to get into applications folder (other than placing it on the desktop and but then python says it cannot open the file) sadly I couldn't get it to work for me, Im running on a Macbook pro

:)

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I couldn't get the intial terminal part to work, everytime I try I get an error stating this:

Welcome to Darwin!

sudo python /Applications/BitTornado-CVS/setup.py install

Password:

running install

running build

running build_py

error: package directory 'BitTornado' does not exist

 

I don't understand why the directory does not exist because I put the extracted BitTornado-CVS file into my applications as stated in the tutorial. I tried to walk through mutliple time and thus gave up, any help on this would be greatly appriciated--I miss my bittornado :)

 

Thanks a bunch!

 

I'm having the same issue, any ideas?

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oh well, I think the problem is with my terminal (maybe because I have an intel mac?)

I tried to install Btornado through the folder I left on the desktop (yea directions say dont) but I couldn't find a way to get into applications folder (other than placing it on the desktop and but then python says it cannot open the file) sadly I couldn't get it to work for me, Im running on a Macbook pro

 

Ways to find your Applications folder:

1) Double click on your OSX drive on your desktop and see the Applications folder.

 

2) From the Desktop, go to the Go menu and select Applications

 

3) Click on the Finder icon in the Dock. When the window opens, see the Applications folder on the left.

Placing it in the Applications folder is important unless you adjust all of your Terminal commands and the Applescript to use a different location.

 

 

 

error: package directory 'BitTornado' does not exist

 

I don't understand why the directory does not exist because I put the extracted BitTornado-CVS file into my applications as stated in the tutorial. I tried to walk through mutliple time and thus gave up, any help on this would be greatly appriciated--I miss my bittornado

I'm having the same issue, any ideas?

 

Sorry, I really don't. It runs 3 commands before the error, so things are working until that point. For some reason it isn't finding the BitTornado folder inside the BitTornado-CVS folder.

 

Other people are having success. I can only recommend to download the BitTornado installation again and place it in your Applications folder.

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  • 1 month later...

In the end I came to the conclusion that it is better to use a native client. I was having some annoying bugs, like bittornado renaming downloads.

I am abandoning bittornado in other operating systems as well: having various problems there too.

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  • 4 months later...

Bittornado is probably the best torrent client for osx as you can see here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of...orrent_software

 

it's the only osx client with gui besides azureus wich supports encryption, and azureus is a resoure hog.

 

encryption is needed because alot of ISP's are killing all BitTorrent traffic . ISP’s are using bit-shaping applications to throttle the traffic that is generated by BitTorrent. You can notice a different in speed when you use torrent clients wich don't support encryption.

 

when you have installed MacPython 2.5 Universal binary, there is an aplication called: Build Applet in the folder: Applications/Mac Python 2.5, it can convert python scripts into OSX apps. open the file btdownloadgui.py with it and convert it into a app

 

when you convert btdownloadgui.py to an app with it, then when you download a torrent, you can asign BitTornado to the torrent file extension, so that you don't need the apple script to start downloading torrents anymore. so then whenever you open a torrent BitTornado starts downloading the torrent.

 

in order to enable the encryption in BitTornado open Terminal and type: "sudo nano ~/.BitTornado/config.gui.ini" to edit the config file of BitTornado. change the parameter: "crypto_allowed = 0" to "crypto_allowed = 1"

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  • 1 month later...

hi,

 

i have followed the guide above but when i drag the .torrent file over the bit tornado script it opens then terminates immediately.

 

any ideas of what is wrong here?

 

any help would be much appreciated!

 

cheers,

 

 

 

kenny

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  • 1 year later...
The preference file is hidden in your Home directory.

 

Edit ~/.BitTornado/config.gui.ini

 

Change the ports in these variables:

maxport = 6999

minport = 6881

 

To turn off random:

change: random_port = 1 to random_port = 0

 

I was wondering where is the home directory on a mac? i dont understand exactly how to change from 1 to 0 on random port,

i cant click on it.

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