Install Sonarr (Nzbdrone) on Debian Linux

Nzbdrone is a PVR that downloads periodic media files automatically from usenet. It is a strong competitor to SickBeard. Nzbdrone has a modern UI and an active developer who is currently adding torrent support and recently added anime indexing. In the future it will include movie support so I have high hopes for this software. This guide is for Debian Wheezy but should work on Ubuntu and other distros based on Debian.

Install Sonarr (NzbDrone) on Debian Linux

Add the mono repository from Xamarin to make sure you get the latest version

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv-keys 3FA7E0328081BFF6A14DA29AA6A19B38D3D831EF
echo "deb http://download.mono-project.com/repo/debian wheezy main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mono-xamarin.list

Enable apt-get to install from https sources for the Sonarr repository

sudo apt-get install apt-transport-https -y

Add source repositories for Nzbdrone

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys FDA5DFFC
echo "deb https://apt.sonarr.tv/ master main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list

Now update and install nzbdrone

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install nzbdrone -y

Take ownership of the Nzbdrone folder with your user

sudo chown -R username:username /opt/NzbDrone

Make sure it runs

mono /opt/NzbDrone/NzbDrone.exe

See if you can connect at http://ip.address:8989

If it loads then you can make it run on boot

Fire up WinSCP, browse to and create the file /etc/init.d/nzbdrone

Note: this avoids the errors from the original script on the nzbdrone page

‘46: /etc/init.d/nzbdrone: cannot create /var/run/nzbdrone/nzbdrone.pid: Directory nonexistent’

Paste the fixed working nzbdrone script I edited, change username to your username

#! /bin/sh
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides: NzbDrone
# Required-Start: $local_fs $network $remote_fs
# Required-Stop: $local_fs $network $remote_fs
# Should-Start: $NetworkManager
# Should-Stop: $NetworkManager
# Default-Start: 2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop: 0 1 6
# Short-Description: starts instance of NzbDrone
# Description: starts instance of NzbDrone using start-stop-daemon
### END INIT INFO

############### EDIT ME ##################
# path to app
APP_PATH=/opt/NzbDrone

# user
RUN_AS=username

# path to mono bin
DAEMON=/usr/bin/mono

# Path to store PID file
PID_FILE=/var/run/nzbdrone/nzbdrone.pid
PID_PATH=$(dirname $PID_FILE)

# script name
NAME=nzbdrone

# app name
DESC=NzbDrone

# startup args
EXENAME="NzbDrone.exe"
DAEMON_OPTS=" "$EXENAME

############### END EDIT ME ##################

NZBDRONE_PID=`ps auxf | grep NzbDrone.exe | grep -v grep | awk '{print $2}'`

test -x $DAEMON || exit 0

set -e

#Look for PID and create if doesn't exist
if [ ! -d $PID_PATH ]; then
mkdir -p $PID_PATH
chown $RUN_AS $PID_PATH
fi

if [ ! -d $DATA_DIR ]; then
mkdir -p $DATA_DIR
chown $RUN_AS $DATA_DIR
fi

if [ -e $PID_FILE ]; then
PID=`cat $PID_FILE`
if ! kill -0 $PID > /dev/null 2>&1; then
echo "Removing stale $PID_FILE"
rm $PID_FILE
fi
fi

echo $NZBDRONE_PID > $PID_FILE

case "$1" in
start)
if [ -z "${NZBDRONE_PID}" ]; then
echo "Starting $DESC"
rm -rf $PID_PATH || return 1
install -d --mode=0755 -o $RUN_AS $PID_PATH || return 1
start-stop-daemon -d $APP_PATH -c $RUN_AS --start --background --pidfile $PID_FILE --exec $DAEMON -- $DAEMON_OPTS
else
echo "NzbDrone already running."
fi
;;
stop)
echo "Stopping $DESC"
echo $NZBDRONE_PID > $PID_FILE
start-stop-daemon --stop --pidfile $PID_FILE --retry 15
;;

restart|force-reload)
echo "Restarting $DESC"
start-stop-daemon --stop --pidfile $PID_FILE --retry 15
start-stop-daemon -d $APP_PATH -c $RUN_AS --start --background --pidfile $PID_FILE --exec $DAEMON -- $DAEMON_OPTS
;;
status)
# Use LSB function library if it exists
if [ -f /lib/lsb/init-functions ]; then
. /lib/lsb/init-functions
if [ -e $PID_FILE ]; then
status_of_proc -p $PID_FILE "$DAEMON" "$NAME" && exit 0 || exit $?
else
log_daemon_msg "$NAME is not running"
exit 3
fi

else
# Use basic functions
if [ -e $PID_FILE ]; then
PID=`cat $PID_FILE`
if kill -0 $PID > /dev/null 2>&1; then
echo " * $NAME is running"
exit 0
fi
else
echo " * $NAME is not running"
exit 3
fi
fi
;;
*)
N=/etc/init.d/$NAME
echo "Usage: $N {start|stop|restart|force-reload|status}" >&2
exit 1
;;
esac

exit 0

Make the script executable

sudo chmod +x /etc/init.d/nzbdrone

Add it to defaults

sudo update-rc.d nzbdrone defaults

Try to start the service

sudo service nzbdrone start

Reboot to test

sudo reboot

Open your browser and go to http://ip.address:8989/

Now you can configure Nzbdrone using my guide