Tell me more ×
Ask Ubuntu is a question and answer site for Ubuntu users and developers. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 3 down vote favorite
1

I usually download my torrents at night, while I'm sleeping. But when doing so, Ubuntu loads the entire desktop interface, while I only need the torrent client. I would like to use an energy saving way of downloading torrents to make my power usage go down.

I know that transmission-cli can download torrents in a command line. Such a thing might be the solution, but with tranmission-cli, I have to include the torrent's URL to get it running, e.g. transmission-cli http://releases.ubuntu.com/11.10/ubuntu-11.10-desktop-i386.iso.torrent.

That's not what I want. If a command line interface (CLI) torrent client would be the best way to save power, I want it to import the active torrents from the GUI, including the parts that are already downloaded.

Is there any way to get this done?

I've got Transmission and Deluge already installed, so if it could be done with one of these torrent clients, it would be nice.

Thanks.

share|improve this question
Does shutting down the X session actually save any measurable power? – Caesium Jan 27 '12 at 12:21
I don't know, any other suggestions are welcome. – Exeleration-G Jan 27 '12 at 13:00
Invest in a plug-in power monitor and check :) My point is, it's a fair bit of effort to go to when it might not have any effect. If you're really concerned about power then pick up a less-beefy box like a NAS and run your torrents on that 24/7 might be the way to go, then you can turn off your (possibly much more powerful) desktop at night. – Caesium Jan 27 '12 at 13:06
2  
I have done extensive measurements of power efficiency for PCs from the Pentium IV era to some of the older dual cores, and whether there's a graphical interface running makes virtually no difference. However, there are graphical applications that tend to create a constant load, like open web browsers displaying pages with Flash ads. Flash, especially under Linux, can really keep a CPU busy, thus "costing" 5 to 15 watts more. Other things (basically everything that powertop shows) make far more difference in the energy consumption, and by far the most can be saved with an efficient PSU. – jstarek Jan 27 '12 at 15:47
@Caesium: You should, if possible, not use cheap plug-in power meters to measure computers. For one thing, a PC consumes so little energy that systematic errors in how the simple devices do their measurements make up a comparatively large percentage of the displayed value, and more importantly, they generally are not capable of so-called true RMS measurements (which is basically a term for "capable of accurately integrating over the strange power consumption patterns of a computer's PSU"). Borrow a true RMS multimeter with a power measurement adapter instead, perhaps from a hackerspace nearby. – jstarek Jan 27 '12 at 15:52

1 Answer

up vote 4 down vote accepted

This is possible with Deluge:

Firstly go to tty1 by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F1and run sudo killall Xorg

Run this: sudo apt get install deluge-console deluged

Use this command to connect with deluge

deluged&&deluge-console use resume * to resume all downloads and halt to pause them

Use the following commands to control the other parts of Deluge

  • add Add a torrent
  • config Show and set configuration values
  • connect Connect to a new deluge server.
  • debug Enable and disable debugging
  • del Remove a torrent
  • exit Exit from the client.
  • halt Shutdown the deluge server.
  • help displays help on other commands
  • info Show information about the torrents
  • pause Pause a torrent
  • quit Exit from the client.
  • resume Resume a torrent
  • rm Remove a torrent

source: http://forum.deluge-torrent.org/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=19115

share|improve this answer

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.