Torrent magnet links open new window but not transmission

Question

I've installed Ubuntu and Lubuntu a few times now and some of those times I've had the following problem, which I currently have. When I click a torrent magnet link in Chrome (usually from Pirate bay), instead of opening transmission, the only thing that happens is a new Chrome window opens.

Upon other installations, I've not had this problem; transmission opened just as I'd like.

I've tried using Chrome's extension .torrent to Transmission, but I get the error

unable to contact http ://localhost:9091/transmission/rpc

no response

This should help
How to tell chrome what to do with a magnet link — BiggJJ, Jun 22 '13 at 21:07
@BiggJJ I tried following Chan-Ho Suh's solution there, but to no avail. — Quinn Culver, Jul 14 '13 at 02:44
What version of Google chrome are you running? I use Google Chrome 28.0.1500.71 and it correctly handles magnet links withot to do nothing. — Radu Rădeanu, Jul 14 '13 at 08:59
You are trying to open a magnet:// link, or downloading a proper .torrent file? — Braiam, Jul 19 '13 at 20:20
just press right click in magnet link and copy it after that go to transsmion program and but it on it — Nihilist Freedom, Jul 21 '13 at 14:59
@Mahmoud20070 That works, thanks. But it's still sub-optimal since I'd prefer to just be able to click in Chrome and have Transmission opened automatically with the torrent. — Quinn Culver, Jul 21 '13 at 16:09
Can you post cat /usr/share/app-install/desktop/chrome.desktop | grep MimeType and cat /usr/share/application/chrome.desktop | grep MimeType? — Braiam, Jul 21 '13 at 17:46
cat: /usr/share/app-install/desktop/chrome.desktop: No such file or directory and cat: /usr/share/application/chrome.desktop: No such file or directory — Quinn Culver, Jul 22 '13 at 06:09
Ok, lets try to start clean, uninstall all transmission packages apt-get purge transmission* and install just transmission-gtk. I've tested again and I just don't see where things went wire. — Braiam, Jul 22 '13 at 12:55
@Braiam I re-installed transmission (per your suggestion) but am still having the same problem. — Quinn Culver, Jul 22 '13 at 17:50
This happened to me (on Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS) when Chromium was set as my default browser. If Firefox was set as my default browser, then Chromium instead started up a new empty tab in Firefox. — zrajm, May 31 '15 at 13:50

mniess · Answer 1 · 2013-07-23T10:37:50.667

13

You can change the default handler for magnet links by editing the file .local/share/applications/mimeapps.list. Add the association to the two sections in the file like this (leaving other entries in those sections intact):

[Default Applications]
x-scheme-handler/magnet=transmission-gtk.desktop

[Added Associations]
x-scheme-handler/magnet=transmission-gtk.desktop

Log out and log back in for the change to take effect.

edited Jul 23 '13 at 10:37

answered Jul 17 '13 at 02:24

mniess

10,924

I tried this but I hasn't seemed to work. Still chrome just opens a new browser (or a new tab separate from the others; however you wanna put it). – Quinn Culver Jul 21 '13 at 14:50
There's no transmission.desktop in transmission's source file. Check if you meant transmission-gtk.desktop. – Braiam Jul 21 '13 at 15:26
@Braiam Yes, I tried with and without the -gtk. – Quinn Culver Jul 21 '13 at 16:12

tpv · Accepted Answer · 2015-12-06T05:22:55.483

8

If you want to use torrent to transmission, you have to allow remote access in transmission under preferences/remote.

If you want to open magnet links in transmission by clicking on them, you need to patch the /usr/bin/xdg-open script, here's mine for reference. The added lines are 311 and 490-493.

edited Dec 06 '15 at 05:22

answered Dec 05 '13 at 21:09

tpv

366

That was not exactly the solution I was looking for (I don't like having to patch my OS stuff, even if it's just a silly wrapper script). But it worked perfectly. (I'm on Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS with Chromium set as my default browser.) – zrajm May 31 '15 at 13:46
can i copy and repaste the whole thing again on lubuntu 14.04 lts. – Umar Jun 03 '15 at 14:18
@john : I'm on 14.04 too, using the same script, it should work :) (but please make a backup just in case) – tpv Jun 04 '15 at 14:25
the gist link is a 404 – m0sa Dec 05 '15 at 12:42
@m0sa : should be fixed now – tpv Dec 06 '15 at 05:23

Braiam · Answer 3 · 2013-07-21T18:02:15.923

4

If you have installed transmission-gtk then the solution is easy.

gconftool-2 -s /desktop/gnome/url-handlers/magnet/command '/usr/bin/transmission-gtk %s' --type String
gconftool-2 -s /desktop/gnome/url-handlers/magnet/enabled --type Boolean true

The first one adds transmission-gtk as handler for magnet:// links the second enable it.

Since chrome/ium uses xdg-open this is the best method for setting the handlers. You can replace /usr/bin/transmission-gtk for any client you like. This works for almost all flavors of Ubuntu.

You can test this issuing in the terminal xdg-open "magnet:?xt=urn:btih:f41989f9797a88505f9e258d5e5d1354c3731a99" (downloads Ubuntu 13.04 64-bit)

Other solution is using xdg-mime:

xdg-mime default transmission-gtk.desktop application/x-bittorrent
xdg-mime default transmission-gtk.desktop x-scheme-handler/magnet

In case you don't have the mime-types installed use xdg-mime install x-scheme-handler/magnet.

edited Jul 21 '13 at 18:02

answered Jul 21 '13 at 15:00

Braiam

69,302

This doesn't seem to have worked. Still, even when I try your test from the terminal (to download Ubuntu), it opens a new Chrome window. – Quinn Culver Jul 21 '13 at 16:06
@QuinnCulver What's the output of gconftool-2 -g /desktop/gnome/url-handlers/magnet/command? – Braiam Jul 21 '13 at 16:50
The output is: /usr/bin/transmission-gtk %s – Quinn Culver Jul 21 '13 at 17:00
@QuinnCulver and gconftool-2 -g /desktop/gnome/url-handlers/magnet/enabled? Try logging out to force the values to be updated. – Braiam Jul 21 '13 at 17:10
The output is: true. I'd rebooted last time I tried your suggested commands. I'll try again; this time I'll only log out. – Quinn Culver Jul 21 '13 at 17:23
@QuinnCulver I updated my responce with yet another solution. – Braiam Jul 25 '13 at 13:18

score 0 · Answer 4 · edited Jun 12 '20 at 14:37

0

unable to contact http ://localhost:9091/transmission/rpc

no response

To fix this

Install transmission-remote
sudo apt-get install transmission-remote
Start transmission (transmission-gtk) before adding .torrent files
Enable web client, set port to 9091 (From edit -> preference -> web ) if necessary

edited Jun 12 '20 at 14:37

Community

1

answered Jul 14 '13 at 15:26

totti

6,918

http://www.omgchrome.com/install-google-chrome-in-ubuntu-13-10/ This claims there is a dependency issues. – j0h Jul 14 '13 at 18:58
http://askubuntu.com/questions/108925/how-to-tell-chrome-what-to-do-with-a-magnet-link – j0h Jul 14 '13 at 19:25
I tried this. It didn't seem to work. – Quinn Culver Jul 21 '13 at 16:11

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Dec 12 '13 at 05:40

0

if ur using bittorrent go to preferences-general-click on the tab that says associate with torrents..now it will work when you try magnet link..

answered Dec 12 '13 at 05:40

cyberwader

1

You actually have to add the bittorrent entry to the xdg-open list to make this work with chrome as far as I know. Also bittorrent is a name for the system so almost all bittorrent clients have the word bittorrent in it's name. – Akisame Dec 12 '13 at 07:07

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Feb 15 '14 at 07:03

0

If you want to Open Piratebay magnet link with Transmission Client then on Magnet Link 1 Right Click 2 Copy Link Location Open Transmission File> Open URL

It's Done

answered Feb 15 '14 at 07:03

Manish

9

Torrent magnet links open new window but not transmission

6 Answers6

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