qBittorrent-nox Service Setup

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qBittorrent-nox Service Setup

This note records a qbittorrent-nox setup for a VPS.

Example values:

  • service user: qbittorrent
  • config home: /var/lib/qbittorrent
  • download directory: /data/downloads
  • Web UI port: 18080
  • BT listen port: 45000

Caddy reverse proxy is covered in the separate Caddy note. This article only covers qBittorrent itself.

Install

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sudo apt install qbittorrent-nox

On Arch Linux:

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sudo pacman -S qbittorrent-nox

Do Not Run It As Root

Running a network-facing P2P daemon as root is asking for pain. If qBittorrent ever has an RCE or a bad plugin/script interaction, root turns that bug into full machine compromise.

Create a dedicated user:

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sudo useradd -r -m -d /var/lib/qbittorrent -s /usr/sbin/nologin qbittorrent
sudo mkdir -p /data/downloads
sudo chown -R qbittorrent:qbittorrent /data/downloads

systemd Unit

Create /etc/systemd/system/qbittorrent-nox.service:

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[Unit]
Description=qBittorrent-nox service
Documentation=man:qbittorrent-nox(1)
Wants=network-online.target
After=network-online.target nss-lookup.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=qbittorrent
Group=qbittorrent
ExecStart=/usr/bin/qbittorrent-nox --profile=/var/lib/qbittorrent --webui-port=18080
TimeoutStopSec=1800
Restart=on-failure

ProtectSystem=full
ProtectHome=true
NoNewPrivileges=true

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Enable it:

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sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now qbittorrent-nox
sudo systemctl status qbittorrent-nox

Web UI Binding

Stop the service before editing the config, otherwise qBittorrent may overwrite your changes:

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sudo systemctl stop qbittorrent-nox
sudo find /var/lib/qbittorrent -name "qBittorrent.conf"

Edit the config file, usually under:

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/var/lib/qbittorrent/qBittorrent/config/qBittorrent.conf

Force the Web UI to localhost:

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[Preferences]
WebUI\Address=127.0.0.1
WebUI\Port=18080
WebUI\HostHeaderValidation=false

Start it again:

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sudo systemctl start qbittorrent-nox

On recent qBittorrent versions, the initial random password may appear in logs:

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journalctl -u qbittorrent-nox -e | grep -i password

Change it immediately after logging in.