Introduction

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Welcome! This guide is written with a heavy heart. Despite all hope Newzbin has been (at least temporarily) nerfed. This guide is dedicated to Newzbin’s memory, innovation, and awesome service.

This guide is also written with hope that by some stroke of rational, technologically understanding, jurisprudence the site’s appeal will actually succeed. Or, failing that, the site will be migrated to a more accepting state, or the site will open source its code so that others might succeed where it may have failed.

With that aside, Sick Beard (the actual focus of this guide) is a very neat application. After hearing about Newzbin’s court loss I loaded it up (right after completing the Episode Butler guide) and found that I really like it.

In many ways it already surpasses Episode Butler. For example, it supports multiple index sites, it automatically scans and marks which episodes are currently on the system, it’s free and open source, supports the special season, has more documentation, provides more information, displays completion information, and it has a more flexible search scheduling system.

Be that as it may, this software is still in Alpha status so be warned, it may cause any number of problems and in all likelihood there will be bugs.

This guide is a companion guide to the SABnzbd+ guide. It assumes that you have an already installed and configured SABnzbd+ installation. It may be expanded in the future to work with a Bit Torrent client as well, but for now it will be strictly Usenet focused.

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Tutorial

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

Pre-Installation

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To get started we’re going to need to download an archive containing the program from its development site. Download the zip or the tar file, find it on your system and extract it. Once we have it extracted cut and paste it to your Home folder.

Installation

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We should now have a folder named something like midgetspy-Sick-Beard-HASH in our Home folder. If so, select it and hit F2 (or right click and select rename) to rename it. Change the name to

.sickbeard

Putting the period at the front of the name makes it a hidden folder, so don’t be worried if it dissapears after you rename it. If you ever need to access the folder you can either go to View and mark Show Hidden Files or just type the folder name in the location bar.

And that’s it, just as in the Episode Butler guide that’s all it takes to install this application.

If you wanted you could stop and manually run it from the terminal with something like

python /home/USER/.sickbeard/SickBeard.py

Replacing USER with your Ubuntu or Linux Mint username. This is also a good way to test it and make sure what we have currently is working so far as it should launch a browser window with the Sick Beard web interface. Be sure to shut it down afterwards if you test it this way.

Autorun

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Yeah, we can stop at the above section and manually start and stop Sick Beard each time we reboot our system but who wants to do that? Rhetorical question, but if you answered “not me!” you’re in the right place.

To get Sick Beard to start and stop automatically we’re going to need to launch the terminal, but don’t worry if you’re new to this GNU/Linux stuff it’s all very straight forward (and often much easier than using the graphical user interface!).

So, launch the Terminal, under Ubuntu it should be under the Applications menu and Accessories. Under Linux Mint it’s either straight under the LM Menu or under Applications and Accessories (or both). Once it’s up type in the following (copy and paste if you want)

sudo gedit /etc/init.d/sickbeard.sh

You will be prompted for your password, enter it in now. Once done a text editor will open up with nothing in it. This is exactly what we want so don’t fret.

In this window copy the following script and paste it into the blank text editor.

#! /bin/sh
### BEGIN SCRIPT INFO
# Provides: Sick Beard Start/Stop/Update
# Copied by Ainer.org from http://forums.sabnzbd.org/index.php?topic=2013.0
# Written by Tret on April 17, 2009
# Fixed by Tophicles on July 7, 2010
# Modified by Ainer on various dates in 2010
### END SCRIPT INFO

#Required & Must Be Changed
USER="USER" #Set Ubuntu (or other GNU/Linux) username here.

#Required but Defaults Provided (only change if you know you need to).
HOST="127.0.0.1" #Set Sick Beard address here.
PORT="8081" #Set Sick Beard port here.
BRANCH="master"

#Optional (Unneeded unless you have added a Username and Password to Sick Beard).
SBUSR="" #Set Sick Beard Username (if you use one) here.
SBPWD="" #Set Sick Beard Password (if you use one) here.

#Script -- No changes needed below.
case "$1" in
start)
#Start Sick Beard.
cd /home/$USER/.sickbeard
echo "Starting Sick Beard"
sudo -u $USER -H nohup python /home/$USER/.sickbeard/SickBeard.py --quiet &
;;
stop)
#Shutdown Sick Beard.
echo "Stopping Sick Beard"
wget -q --user=$SBUSR --password=$SBPWD "http://$HOST:$PORT/home/shutdown/"
sleep 6s
;;
update)
#Start update process.
# Shutdown Sick Beard.
echo "Stopping Sick Beard"
wget -q --user=$SBUSR --password=$SBPWD "http://$HOST:$PORT/home/shutdown/"
sleep 6s

# Get source and untar it.
echo "Downloading Sick Beard"
cd /home/$USER
wget -q http://github.com/midgetspy/Sick-Beard/tarball/$BRANCH
tar zxf midgetspy-Sick-Beard*
rm midgetspy-Sick-Beard*.tar.gz

# Make Backups, copy essential files, and install new version.
echo "Backing-up Sick Beard"
cp -ru .sickbeard_backup .sickbeard_backup_old
cp -ru .sickbeard .sickbeard_backup
mv .sickbeard/sickbeard.db midgetspy-Sick-Beard-*/
mv .sickbeard/config.ini midgetspy-Sick-Beard-*/
mv .sickbeard/autoProcessTV/autoProcessTV.cfg midgetspy-Sick-Beard-*/autoProcessTV/
rm -rf .sickbeard
echo "Updating Sick Beard"
mv midgetspy-Sick-Beard-* .sickbeard

# Restart Sick Beard quietly and send output To nohup.out.
echo "Restarting Sick Beard"
cd /home/$USER/.sickbeard
sudo -u $USER -H nohup python /home/$USER/.sickbeard/SickBeard.py --quiet &
;;
*)
echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop|update}"
exit 1
esac

exit 0

This script was originally written by a gent. by the name of tret over at the SABnzbd+ forums. It has been modified to work with Sick Beard instead of SABnzbd+ and Episode Butler.

Once we have the script pasted into our text editor we’ll need to change the two USERNAME fields to match your Ubuntu or Linux Mint username (it’s the short name that is used to login to your system). So, for example (using ainer as the username):

USER="ainer"
HOME="/home/ainer"

Once that’s done save and close out of the text editor.

Now, we’ll need to add this script to the system’s start/stop list and we’ll need to do this from the terminal. I strongly recommend coping and pasting these lines (one at a time) as they need to be entered in exactly as they are for them to work properly.

sudo chmod +x /etc/init.d/sickbeard.sh
sudo update-rc.d sickbeard.sh start 30 2 3 4 5 . stop 14 0 1 6 .

Once we have the above entered in correctly (it should confirm that it’s been added and if you run the second line twice it’ll say that “System start/stop links for /etc/init.d/sickbeard.sh already exist.” Feel free to ignore warnings about LSB keywords and the like).

Now, Sick Beard should start and stop cleanly with the system. To test the script run the following from the terminal.

/etc/init.d/sickbeard.sh start

And from a different terminal window or tab (Control-Shift-T for a new tab):

/etc/init.d/sickbeard.sh stop

The first one should launch Sick Beard and it’s web interface, the second should cleanly shut it down. If so, you’re good to go and are ready to move on.

Configuration

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A few notes before we jump in to the specific configuration pages. First off, I recommend going through the configuration options before you load any episodic content to be monitored.

At bare minimum you should probably set the Initial Quality to the lowest quality you want to get, set Sick Beard to Use Season Folders (unless you do not use season folders), and disable Create metadata.

General

General is where you set all the options that were mentioned above. So again, you probably want to set the Initial Quality option. (SD for SD only, HD for HD (720P/1080P x264/h264) only, Any for anything, and Best for SD if available to be replaced by HD if available). And check Use Season folders and uncheck Create metadata.

You may also want to uncheck Launch browser on startup so that every time you reboot your system it doesn’t launch your web browser as well (due to the Autorun script).

All the other defaults on this page work well work for me. If you need to change anything else, do so, when done, hit the Save button and move on to the next section.

Episode Downloads

On this page, one of the main option to be aware of is the API Key under the SABnzbd section. Load up SABnzbd+ and go to the General Config page. Copy the API Key from here to Sick Beard. If you use a Username or Password for SABnzbd+ be sure to add them to Sick Beard now.

Also, under the NZB/Torrent Options section, I suggest changing the NZB Action from Blackhole to SABnzbd (this will pass the nzb information straight to SABnzbd+ instead of dumping the files in a folder). Once that’s set make sure Usenet Retention is set to the same as your Usenet Server (400 for Supernews).

Under the Episode Search section consider expanding the Search Frequency from 60 to 120 minutes and the Backlog Search Frequency from 21 to 7 days. This will reduce the load on your system and the sites that are searched while also providing faster returns on any older episodic content that might be monitored.

Under the Post Processing section be sure to set the TV Download Dir to the Completed Download Folder: for SABnzbd+. You will also need to add /TV to the end of this.

Everything else should be good as is. If you need to change anything to better match with your system do so now, then hit Save Changes and move on.

Search Providers

Under Provider Priorities rearrange the provided providers into the order you want them to be searched. I still recommend Newzbin as the first search despite their current situation as older episodic content will still be there (and in much better form) than elsewhere. From there NZBs or NZBMatrix are probably the way to go, and after that I leave it to you.

Elsewhere on this page, fill in any information for any search provider you have, the more the merrier probably (unless Newzbin comes back! :)).

That’s all here, save and move on.

Notifications

I don’t use any of these, if you do configure and save.

And that’s all for configuration. All that’s left is to setup post-processing and to add any episodic content that is to be monitored. Keep it up!

Post-Processing

Setting up post processing will enable a seamless, automatic integration of Sick Beard and SABnzbd+. To begin, load up SABnzbd+ and go to the Folder Config page. Find the Post-Processing Scripts Folder: and put in the following (replacing USER with your Ubuntu/Linux Mint user/login name).

/home/USER/.sickbeard/autoProcessTV

Hit the Save Changes button and then go to the Sorting page. We’ll need to disable TV Sorting under SABnzbd+ so that Sick Beard can take over that role. Also make sure you don’t have any other sort options enabled and applied to the tv category. Don’t forget to hit the small save button at the right of the tv category.

Now, go to the Categories Config page and change the Script for the tv category from Default to sabToSickBeard.py. Also make sure your Folder/Path is set to TV as Sick Beard will be handling all sorting and renaming from here on out (so don’t use a custom path here).

Now, we need to browse to the .sickbeard installation folder in our Home directory. Open up the File Browser by going to Places and clicking on Home. Toward the top of the window there should be an address for your current location or a box with your Ubuntu or Linux Mint user name.

If it’s the box click on the pencil button that’s to the left. This will change the box into an address field. In the address field type the folder name .sickbeard at the end and hit enter. The address field should look like this (using ainer for the username):

/home/ainer/.sickbeard

Now open up the autoProcessTV folder and find the autoProcessTV.cfg.sample file. Rename this to autoProcessTV.cfg (no .sample). Double click on the renamed file to open it in a text editor.

You should have a file that looks like this:

[SickBeard]
host=localhost
port=8081
username=
password=

If you’ve followed the Configuration section above without changing anything you wont need to adjust anything here. If not, adjust as necessary, save and close.

And that’s it, easy peasy.

Add Episodic Content

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This is pretty straight forward (and way less time intensive than Episode Butler!), go to the Home tab and click on Add Shows. The fastest way is to put in a directory path that already contains the content you wish to monitor.

However, if you’re just starting out you’ll need to add the episodic content one at a time and set the path’s manually as you do (the default path will be the .sickbeard folder in your home folder so be sure to specify something more fitting).

After adding the content you wish to monitor, Sick Butler will automatically scan the folders you’ve added and mark off any content you already have. Everything that is missing will be marked as Skipped. Once this is done you may want to go through and set any older content to the Backlog or Disc Backlog (searches only for content that originated on a DVD, HD-DVD, or Blueray) and any new content to Missed (this adds it to the 60 or 120 minute search queue).

Once all your content is properly marked you may want to manually trigger a Backlog search by going to Backlog and hitting Force Backlog.

And that’s it, you should be good to go!

Updating

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Since we installed Sick Beard from an archive file which was pulled from a developmental snapshot we’re going to want to keep the program up-to-date and, unfortunately, we’re going to have to update it manually (for now).

However, fortunately this process is painless and straight forward. MigetSpy, the primary author of Sick Beard, has the simple steps listed here.

Basically, you shut down Sick Beard, then download and extract a new version to your Home folder. Navigate to the old version of Sick beard, which you have installed. This can be found by typing in

/home/USER/.sickbeard

into the location bar of your file browser (replacing USER with your Ubuntu or Linux Mint login name).

Once you have this open copy the sickbeard.db file from .sickbeard to the new Sick Beard folder. Next copy the config.ini file and, in the AutoProcess TV folder, the AutoProcessTV.cfg file.

Now, double check to make sure you have all the required files copied over and then delete (or backup to another directory) all the files and folders in the .sickbeard directory. Once done, drag and drop (or copy and paste) all the files and folders from the new Sick Beard directory to the .sickbeard directory.

You should be all updated. To test run the start script from the terminal with:

/etc/init.d/sickbeard.sh start

With any luck you should be all set, if not you may need to restore the old files from the trash or from your backup folder. Just make sure not to delete your config.ini, sickbeard.db, or AutoProcessTV.cfg files (or you’ll need to go through the Configuration process again).

Closing

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That’s it, another guide done. With the probable death of Newzbin this is now my recommended application for the relevant content. To further hedge our bets I’ll likely do a guide on Transmission or a different Bit Torrent Client and then expand this guide to cover Bit Torrent as well (which wont require much additional work).

If you dig the guide hit the Related Reading links below and buy a book or something (once you hit the link you’ll be using my referral code until you leave) or hit up Supernews and sign up for an account. Or, if nothing else, leave me some feedback!

Cheers!

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Trouble-shooting

• Remember this is ALPHA software, there are undoubtably bugs in the code.
• Leave comments here if you have problems with the install or setup.
• If you have problems or comments on the program itself see the developer’s site or the Sick Beard thread on the SABnzbd+ Forums.

Revision History

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• 4/10/2010 — Guide Finished