Arch Linux

archnonymous

Member

Registered: 2015-11-11

Posts: 8

Different instances of one application

First off, I am using Arch with Mate.

This seems like something that is probably covered elsewhere but I wasnt sure where to search or what to search for, so hopefully someone can point me in the right direction.

So, lets say I want to download a copy of Kali linux, I select the torrent option from the browser and it automatically opens Tixati and starts downloading. At 50%, for whatever reason I need to leave or turn off my computer. When I restart, if I open Tixati from the application menu or terminal, there is nothing downloading. However, if I select another torrent from my browser and it automatically opens Tixati, Kali will be there at 50% and start downloading again.

I know Tixati opens from /usr/bin/tixati  but when I check the process while its downloading something after automatically opening from browser it says the command is " /usr/bin/tixati     tmp/some/file/stuff.torrent"

So I guess my question is both "why are there different 'versions'"? and "how do I open the correct one that is actually downloading stuff when I need to"?

Thanks and let me know if I need to provide any other info.

x33a

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2009-08-15

Posts: 4,587

Re: Different instances of one application

I don't know how tixati works, but unless it doesn't maintain information about active/paused torrents, it seems to be a serious bug. I haven't faced this problem with some of the torrent clients that I have used like rtorrent, qbittorrent, transmission, deluge, etc.

archnonymous

Member

Registered: 2015-11-11

Posts: 8

Re: Different instances of one application

The status of the torrent itself remains. The issue it seems is that a different version or instance of Tixati opens.

To sort of restate my example from above to maybe clarify:

Use browser to download Kali torrent which automatically opens Tixati (lets call this instance Tixati-1)
Close Tixati with Kali at 50% complete.
Try to open Tixati from application menu or terminal and get a blank Tixati with nothing downloadin (lets call this Tixati-2)
If I open another torrent from the browser, which automatically opens Tixati it will open Tixati-1 again and resume the Kali download.

So the status of the torrent remains and if I open 5 different torrents from the browser they will all open in Tixati-1 with active/pause status being maintained. But when I open from application menu or terminal it will open Tixati-2.

I will also add for clarity that I only have 1 install location of Tixati which is at /usr/bin/tixati

But now that you mention I may try another client to see if they have the same issue.

x33a

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2009-08-15

Posts: 4,587

Re: Different instances of one application

@archnonymous,

I had understood the issue in your first post itself. But, unless the two tixati's are running as different users, I don't know how this is happening. Another possibility might be that you are using a custom tixati wrapper for use with the browsers, but I am sure you must have looked into that. If these options don't apply, I suspect it to be a bug.

archnonymous

Member

Registered: 2015-11-11

Posts: 8

Re: Different instances of one application

I tried a couple of other clients (transmission, qbittorrent, and deluge) and they all have the same behavior, opening different instances. My thought, as you mentioned, is that maybe the browser is opening the application as another user or at least with different permissions since the command seems to include the tmp folder. But I am still not sure how to avoid that.

Thank you for your input so far.

x33a

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2009-08-15

Posts: 4,587

Re: Different instances of one application

You can try a couple of things. First make sure your system is fully updated and then try the following options.

1) Check the user with which the torrent clients are running. Both instances. You can check it using (for example):

$ ps aux | grep -i tixati

2) Try launching your torrent clients through the command line and see if they give any error related to permission errors or such.
3) Try using some other Desktop Environment or Window Manager and see if the problem is reproducible with that.

To further debug the problem, please provide the following information:

1) Is this problem only occurring with torrent clients? Are you able to download files properly with your web browsers?
2) Where do you download the torrent contents? Do you face any permission issues if you try to write to that location manually?
3) Which file system are you using and your partitioning scheme?

archnonymous

Member

Registered: 2015-11-11

Posts: 8

Re: Different instances of one application

Using ps aux, there doesnt seem to be any apparent difference. Both are being run by /usr/bin/tixati. Running from the command line does not produce any errors or such. But I did discover that it is only when downloading with tor browser bundle that the different instance shows up. If I start a torrent with regular firefox or chrome, then I can close and open tixati normailly. But if I start a torrent with TBB, that is when I have to use TBB again to start a new download to reopen the same instance. However, every method of starting tixati still uses the same path (/usr/bin/tixati).

drcouzelis

Member

From: Connecticut, USA

Registered: 2009-11-09

Posts: 4,092

Website

Re: Different instances of one application

But I did discover that it is only when downloading with tor browser bundle that the different instance shows up.

What is the "Tor browser bundle"?

It makes sense to me that a Tor browser bundle would come with it's own set of applications (like a bittorrent client) in some sort of sandbox environment, to prevent data leaks...

archnonymous

Member

Registered: 2015-11-11

Posts: 8

Re: Different instances of one application

tor browser bundle is just a "customized" version of firefox that is preset to run through the tor network. It doesnt come with any torrent software and torrenting over tor is discouraged for a number of reasons. I just use it for browsing. What happens in my case is that I download the .torrent file using the TBB, which then automatically opens the torrent client, but the torrent client that is opened when using TBB is a different "instance" than when opening with another browser, the app menu, or command line.

In the scheme of things it doesnt really matter and it's only a minor inconvenience, at this point I am just curious as to why.

drcouzelis

Member

From: Connecticut, USA

Registered: 2009-11-09

Posts: 4,092

Website

Re: Different instances of one application

Interesting. You've verified that both instances use the same bittorrent client installation but, how about usernames? Maybe the Tor Browser Bundle uses a special username to keep everything even more sandboxed.

After you've started the bittorrent client trough the Tor Browser Bundle, use "ps -elf" to see the list of running software and usernames. See anything strange?

If a different username is used, then the settings would be stored in a location different from your home directory. Maybe. I don't know, I'm running out of ideas.

archnonymous

Member

Registered: 2015-11-11

Posts: 8

Re: Different instances of one application

I tried running ps -elf and this came back (just the parts about tixati):

0 S archj    21963 21683  6  80   0 - 197733 poll_s 03:56 ?       00:00:02 /usr/bin/tixati /tmp/[kat.cr]ubuntu.mate.15.10.desktop.amd64.iso.torrent
0 S archj    21980   712  4  80   0 - 140130 poll_s 03:56 ?       00:00:01 /usr/bin/tixati

Which shows both have same user and the only real difference is that they were started by different processes (different PPID's) which we already knew.

But I want to thank you two for offering ideas, I know this isnt really an important issue. Its just one of those things that gets under my skin at least once a day.