Couchpotato is an automatic NZBD downloader. Very similar to SickBeard in that it will watch newsgroups for NZBD files, download the NZBD, and hand the file off to SABNzbd, other download utility, or save it off to a directory so that the system can download the media.
In this example, I have a Linux server running SABNzbd. If you don’t have this setup, have a look here: https://www.slsmk.com/setup-automatic-tv-downloads-using-sickbeard-and-sabnzbd/
The goal here is to have couchpotato pull watch for and pull the nzbd, hand it off to SABnzbd, and let the server download the file.
I like to keep these “all in one” apps in /opt/.
cd /opt
If you don’t already have Git installed, you will need that:
apt-get install git-core
Grab the source from git.
git clone https://github.com/RuudBurger/CouchPotatoServer.git
Once the GIT clone is complete, you should have a /opt/CouchPotatoServer directory.
Since I don’t want to run couchpotato as root, I am going to change the user it runs under. I already had a user called ‘nzbd’ from the previous SABnzbd/Sickbeard installations, so I’m going to use that since it would already have permissions to write out the nzbd files to the correct directories for SAB.
Here lets change the permissions on the new CouchPotato Directory.
chown -R nzbd:root CouchPotatoServer/
Next, copy the init script out to /etc/init.d/ and make it executable. Copy the Defaults file into /etc/default
cp /opt/CouchPotatoServer/init/ubuntu /etc/init.d/couchpotato chmod +x /etc/init.d/couchpotato cp /opt/CouchPotatoServer/init/ubuntu.default /etc/default/couchpotato
Edit the /etc/default/couchpotato file and edit the path and user as needed. If you are using my tutorials, I have a common account called nzbd for all Download applications that use SABnzbd.
nano /etc/default/couchpotato # path to app APP_PATH=/opt/CouchPotatoServer/ # user RUN_AS=nzbd
And finally, add it to start automatically.
# update-rc.d couchpotato defaults
With the Install completed, open up a browser and connect to the linux host on port 5050 to access couchpotato’s config page.
Welcome
Since this is a new install, we don’t need to import a data.db. If you have one, Enter the location of the data.db here.
General
Here we add an id/pw to the couchpotato website. I always add one to all my sites. You can also change the default port if you wanted. I left it at the default of 5050.
Downloaders
Here you can specify the nzbd download app you are using. In this example, we use SABnzbd. So I check the box next to SAB and enter the information.
1) SAB host, I’m running on localhost:8080
2) SAB api key. This is found in the SAB webpage -> config -> general. Copy and paste the API key from the API key field.
3) Add a category. I used ‘movies’.
Providers
This is where you add in the information on your news provider. Whatever service you have, check the box and fill in to info required. The API keys for these services can be found on that service’s website under your account logon. Copy and paste the API key if needed.
Renaming
Couchpotato will move and rename files for you after a complete download. Fill in the fields as needed. In my example, I am moving items:
FROM /home/nzbd/Downloads/complete/ TO /mnt/media/movies
Leave everything else as default.
Add movies to your wanted list
I love this little feature. Add the +Couchpotato link to your browser and as you browse IMDB or other sites, you can add the movie directly to your couchpotato want-list.
That’s it. Open up your browser, point it to your host on 5050, and start adding items.
If you enter a search item and nothing pops up, restart couchpotato on the server to kick it into gear.
