Linux/Ubuntu - Sharing/Downloading same Torrent on dual boot

After thinking for many years recently I boarded the Linux Bandwagon. (Ya previously I either didn’t have time or courage to try it ?)
But now with so many user friendly options from Ubuntu like ‘Live CD’, ‘WUBI’ the transition is with less panic.
I know many people will use Ubuntu with dual boot with Windows.  Here in a series of blog I will be discussing few problems or settings that I did.
By the way dual boot install is really simple and there are many blogs already out there to help out, though some time finding the right one is an issue. So in case you are finding it difficult then leave a comment.
Anyways, getting on to the point for this blog, like many people I wanted to share the uTorrent between both the OS – in other words  - to continue downloading the torrents in one OS which was added / started in another OS.
This on high level requires the following: uTorrent download location should be same for both installation (drive letter should not change)
I had this setting on Win7/WinXP dual boot, which simply required following:

1.    Don’t auto-install uTorrent; it will put itself to your user directory which will be different in both OS. Simply unzip it to a drive whose drive letter remains the same on both OS.
2.    Make sure the download location is also the same (including the drive letter)
3.    Best way to achieve this, manually change the drive letter for one of the drive to a higher alphabet like L, or T in both OS.
4.    Put uTorrent directory and download location on this drive.
5.    You are done.
But for Ubuntu this is bit of issue, reason -  if you are uTorrent fan like me, you will try to get uTorrent for Ubuntu/Linux, which is there, but with no Desktop UI like windows. (Though there is a web UI)  and also the installation requires starting the utorrent server from command prompt, which can be bit geeky for some users.
So I tried different options which are given below and their Pros and Cons

uTorrent for Linux
Pros:
•    We love uTorrent for Windows
Cons:
•    Few issues given above
•    In Web GUI, you cannot yet provide the download location per torrent, everything goes to default directory. May be in coming version they will do that.
•    To auto start on OS start, again some geeky stuff is required.

uTorrent using Wine: U can install wine and install uTorrent for windows. But like the way many other people think, what’s the use of having non-widows OS if you are using everything using windows emulation layer

Transmission - Default Torrent Client for Ubuntu: The interface is very different for uTorrent so you may not like it. As far as I remember doesn’t provide a custom download folder name. But as UI was very different I didn’t check too much.

Deluge:
Pros:
•    Interface is very similar to uTorrent in widows
•    Come with its own UI, and no web UI issue.
•    Shows an indicator applet (system tray icon) and also minimizes/close to it. (for people alien to Ubuntu, this obvious feature is not possible for most of the software or requires some more geeky stuff)
Cons:
•    Though you can have download location per folder, you cannot change the final folder name. For example if you are downloading a torrent and provide a download location as \\home\media\download. IT will create a folder inside it with a default name in the torrent file.

qtTorrent
•    Very similar to deluge but again no custom folder name per torrent
•    No system tray applet.
So I went ahead with Deluge because there is just one folder name issue and it provides many feature out of the box which are either not available in other clients or require some workaround / hacks to get them.

Steps for Deluge
1.    Simply install and access from the Applications > Internet menu.
2.    Before you add any existing torrent: There is one irritating behavior of Deluge, if you add any existing torrent, it will move the torrent file to its ‘.config’ folder and will also rename it to its hash code. Wow… But there is a small setting to fix this, in the Deluge preferences, enable the “Copy torrent file to folder” option. And provide the location of folder which is used by your windows uTorrent client
3.    Once you have done this setting add any new / existing torrent and give the base folder location path.
4.    While adding a torrent from Windows client, make sure you just provide the base folder and don’t change the default folder name else deluge will download to the default folder and hence different location.
5.    In case you have existing torrents with custom folder name,
   •    add torrent to deluge
   •    it will create the default folder name
   •    Stop deluge
   •    Move the partially downloaded files to the default folder created by deluge
   •    ‘Force recheck’ in deluge. If it shows correct download percentage, start it
   •    In widows client move the download location to the default folder created by deluge. Force recheck.

I know it can be lot of work if you have lots of existing torrents with custom folder name, but once you follow the process for new torrents its seem less. Till the time deluge adds the functionality for custom folder or uTorrent comes up with default UI for Linux, you will have to live with this.

Disclaimer: I did it my way, may or may not work for you. Try at your discretion :)