"Address already in use" error with multiple downloads

[Adam Conrad]

In dapper, I could fire up multiple torrent downloads with gnome-btdownload without any issues. Since upgrading that machine to edgy, every download after the first will halt with the error "Couldn't listen - (98, 'Address already in use')".

Did something change in gnome-btdownload whereby it no longer increments the listening port with each new download, or some such thing? At any rate, rather irritating to not be able to download multiple things in parallel anymore.

[Adam Conrad (adconrad)]

Ahh, a quick poke in the source shows that this is because max_port and min_port are set to the same thing in the defauly gconf schema we now ship in edgy. Perhaps it would be prudent to give it an 8-port (6881-6889) window or something, to allow at least a few downloads at once, and not confuse people like me. :)

[Eric Jones (jonesy-gmail)]

I can also confirm this change in behavior and couldn't figure out why multiple torrents couldn't be running since it works fine at the CLI using the curses client.

[VF (vfiend)]

I also encountered this, the gconf entry should definitely be changed by default because any user attempting to use multiples torrents at once will get a cryptic error message (Couldn't listen - (98, 'Address already in use')) instead of things Just Working.

[Greg Gilbert (greg-treke)]

I did some poking into this tonight, and it looks like this started happening in 0.0.24 when the gconf entries for max_port and min_port were added. Previously there were just command line options that were specified as defaulting to 6881-6889 (gnome-btdownload-0.0.22/man/gnome-btdownload.1). In reality it looks like the previous gnome-btdownload just fell back to the defaults for the python BitTorrent module, which seems to be 6881-6999 ( BitTorrent-3.4.2/BitTorrent/download.py ).

I downloaded the source for gnome-btdownload 0.0.26 and they changed the schema so that max_port defaults to 6889.

[Adam McMaster (adammc)]

Confirming -- happens here too.

[lemonade (lemonade)]

I can confirm this too and it seems like changing value with gconf-editor from <apps/gnome-btdownload/settings/max_port> larger than default 6881 fixes this. Maybe it should be set default to larger value?

[Andrew Jorgensen (ajorg)]

This is fixed upstream in 0.0.26 (Released in September). The fix is also very easy and should be put into dapper-updates and edgy-updates (IMHO).

[Grant (gsupp)]

I have no idea why this has been broken for so long. I too can confirm this problem happens with gnome-btdownload 0.0.24-0ubuntu1.

For those still suffering, lemonade has an easy fix: run gconf-editor and change apps/gnome-btdownload/settings/max_port from 6881 to 6889

[Lloyd Dewolf (lloydde)]

REPRO'd bug.

ENV: Fiesty / gnome-btdownload 0.0.25-1
I confirmed that this bug is still occurs.
* Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy) still present.

gnome-btdownload is the recommended file association for torrent files. This should to be fixed for Fiesty.

[Murray Cumming (murrayc)]

This is such as easy fix. What can we do to get this fixed in Feisty for new installs?

[Andrew Jorgensen (ajorg)]

I gather it's because debian hasn't bothered to update past 0.25 and the fix is upstream in 0.26. And since gnome-btdownload has been dropped from the default install (a decision which I find inconsistent with Ubuntu offering bittorrent as a download option) there's no motive to maintain a more recent version in Feisty.

:-(

[Murray Cumming (murrayc)]

> gnome-btdownload has been dropped from the default install

But it's still the first choice in the new automatic application installation thing when you open a torrent file.

[Greg Gilbert (greg-treke)]

Even without updating to 0.0.26, it's a trivial fix. Here's a patch that does it.

[VF (vfiend)]

> gnome-btdownload has been dropped from the default install

I just installed Feisty Herd 5 a few days ago and it's installed by default, so I'm not sure what you're talking about

[Andrew Jorgensen (ajorg)]

This was changed again just before Herd 5.

[VF (vfiend)]

Ah, okay. But yes, this is still a problem in latest Feisty in addition to Edgy, too.

[robotron2084 (ubergeek-ubergeek)]

I am running the newest feisty beta and also have this issue. The bandage until this is fixed in the distro:

run gconf-editor
in apps->gnome-btdownload->settings

Set the max_port to 6889.

[chris_van_ackeren (chris-van-ackeren)]

Confirmed on Feisty, fix posted by Robotron2084 worked for me.

[Ramesh Thiruchelvam (ramesht)]

I had the same problem on Ubuntu 7.02beta and got it fixed by changing the max_port value to 6899 as in robotron2084 post.

[Messatsu (messatsu)]

I changed max_port to 6889 as described above, first restarting X and then rebooting the whole system to find that I get the same error. o_O If it makes a difference, using Feisty Fawn now.

[Evandro Pastor (evandrolinux)]

I'm get this error in Ubuntu 7.04. I receive this message:

"98, ddress already in use"

[Giorgio Vazzana (mywing)]

I can confirm this bug on Ubuntu Feisty 7.04 (amd64 architecture). In order to solve the problem just run "gconf-editor" (from the terminal or using ALT+F2) and change the value of <apps/gnome-btdownload/settings/max_port> from 6881 to 6889.

[David Warde-Farley (david-warde-farley)]

Confirmed on Feisty i386. This bug report is going on 9 months old, and the extremely simple fix has been around for as long, how long is it going to take?

[Emilio Pozuelo Monfort (pochu)]

Andrea Veri has packaged gnome-btdownload 0.0.28, which includes a fix for this.
It will be uploaded soon, since he's still polishing it a bit.

[Andrea Veri (av)]

Fix released.
package has been uploaded to the archive.
I need to state there are still some constraints in the amount of downloads an user can do. Every can be solved by modifying the gconf schema file in /usr/gconf/schemas

[Matthew Craig (matthew-t-craig)]

/usr/share/gconf/schemas/gnome-btdownload.schemas