Introduction

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Notice, this guide has been retired. Please see the current guide here.
This is my long time coming, (updated) Install, Setup, and Configuration guide for SABnzbd+ on Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx). This guide should also be easily adaptable for Ubuntu derived distributions (distros) like Linux Mint 9 (Isadora), Linux Mint 10 (Julia) and somewhat close for Debian and Debian based distros like Debian Squeeze, aptosid, and Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE).

This guide will be actively maintained and updated throughout the life of the Ubuntu 10.04 Long Term Support (Lucid Lynx) release (about two years). This is my supported and recommended operating system so I will not be doing specific guides for Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat), 11.04 (Natty Narwhal), or for any subsequent releases until Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (though this guide will likely be easily adaptable for the interim releases).

Since my last guide it’s become a lot easier to get SABnzbd+ up and running on an Ubuntu based system. To reflect that I’ve expanded this guide to include installing a multi-threaded par2 file checker, added a supplemental software list, and I have worked to polish up the guide even further (like adding select screen shots!).

For those that are not familiar, SABnzbd+ which, I read as “SAB-newzbin” (though “SAB-nzb-daemon plus” is probably much closer to correct!), is a Usenet client. It is highly automated, robust, and once set up can run and run with minimal user intervention.

SABnzbd+ is a mature, stable, and feature complete free and open source project which is quickly approaching its sixth major release

Like my last SABnzbd+ guide, as well as my Sick Beard, and RAID 5 & 6 guides, this guide avoids the command line and is written in casual English in an effort to be accessible by as many as possible. I do not think Ubuntu is a nerds only operating system, and I write guides that even novices should be able to understand (see my About page for more information).

So, with that said, and without further ado lets move on to the…

Retired

Notice, this guide has been retired. Please see the current guide here.

Tutorial

Before continuing on please be aware of this sites CC BY-SA license and disclaimer both of which can be found at the bottom of this (or any other) page.

Pre-Installation

SABnzbd+

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Notice, this guide has been retired. Please see the current guide here.
While it is now possible to get SABnzbd+ 0.5.0 in Ubuntu I still highly recommend installing the JCFP PPA. This will provide you with the latest and greatest SABnzbd+ releases and keep your system up-to-date for the duration of your install. This Personal Package Archive is maintained by the same gentleman who has gotten SABnzbd+ included in Ubuntu’s, Debian Squeeze’s, and Sidux’s repositories. So, it is a trustworthy source.

To install, go to the System menu, then Administration, and select Software Sources. Type in your password when prompted then click on the Other Software tab. Click on Add and then type in (or copy) the following:

ppa:jcfp/ppa

Hit Add Source and then Close and then hit Reload when prompted. That’s it. The JCFP PPA is now installed and the next time you update your system any updates within it will be added to your system.

PAR2

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Notice, this guide has been retired. Please see the current guide here.
By default SABnzbd+ on Ubuntu comes with a par2 utility that only supports one thread. This means that if your computer has more than a single core processor, when it comes to checking and repairing, the other cores are not being utilized. To fix this, and to hopefully speed up the checking and repair process, we’ll install a par2 utility that supports multiple threads.

Note: If you only have a single core processor this step will do nothing for you! You should probably skip it (and the PAR2 Installation step below)!

First we need to download the new par2 utility. This can be found at this site. At the par2 site there are two GNU/Linux par2 downloads. One is for 64 bit operating systems and one is for 32 bit operating systems (highlighted in the image).

Choose the one that’s right for your Ubuntu install.

Once downloaded you should have an archive file with the name of something like par2cmdline-XXX. Right click on this file and select Extract Here. You should now have a folder with a similar name. In this par2cmdline-XXX folder there should be five items one file named par2 and two starting with libtbb (and two others that we don’t care about).

Make note of these files as we’ll come back to them in a bit.