Post by @crow@leminal.space

2026-11-13 15:14 UTC

qBitTorrent kills my VPN, Transmission does not. How to troubleshoot? I’m noob at Linux (it just works), so I have no idea how to start troubleshooting this weird issue, any help appreciated! The setup: stock EndeavourOS, ProtonVPN, qBitTorrent (and Transmission); the issue: if qBit is running, no matter the load or the server (I have access to P2P-enabled servers), it kills my VPN connection in a matter of minutes, Transmission does not. It is reproducible, launching qBit means getting disconnected, without fail; the timeline: no issues since I installed EndeavourOS (a year and a half or so), it started happening five to seven days ago, though since a few months ago I would get the same disconnection while qBitting, but only once a day and only while I was away and the system was locked, after I came back to it and reconnect, stable until shutdown. In the months between I haven’t made any changes to my system, just got a new GPU a year ago; what I tried: I initially though it was a VPN app problem, so I tried reinstalling it, both native and flatpak, after deleting all of its data of course. Transmission works but I prefer qBit so I’d love to go back to using it. Where do I start troubleshooting? I currently can’t be at my PC, so I can’t troubleshoot “live”, but I figured posting this early means more people seeing it and getting more input. Thanks in advance!

Replies (6)

@akunohana@piefed.blahaj.zone 2026-11-13 15:48

I have never heard of this before. I’m just guessing here, but have you tried binding you qBit client to the VPN interface (tun0 or the likes)? Normally that’s not why you that, but I wonder if it could somehow force the VPN to stay alive… Meanwhile, some more info that people might be asking for, with which you may want to edit your post, are output of: ip link (when VPN is running and when qBit is running) journalctl /use/bin/qbittorrent (or the location where your qBit is installed) journalctl /use/bin/[whatever the VPN executable is called] (or the location where your VPN is installed) sudo dmesg | grep -i "torrent" sudo dmesg | grep -i "proton" -sudo dmesg -l err

Open ##5529168
@brickfrog@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2026-11-13 17:37

Just taking a guess: You could try lowering qBittorrent’s total connections and/or bandwidth to see if that helps? I wonder if Transmission is configured for a lower amount vs qBittorrent and somehow the VPN client can’t handle the traffic that qBittorrent pushes through. You could also experiment with disabling DHT & see if that helps with - DHT is very useful for public torrenting so disabling it is not ideal but it does generate extra connections. You may get better answers in lemmy.dbzer0.com/c/piracy there’s probably people with similar setups there that can offer better advice.

Open ##5529564
@scutiger@lemmy.world 2026-11-13 17:52

A quick search tells me that Proton has servers for P2P. Are you connecting to one of those? If that doesn’t help, check if encryption is enabled/forced in both apps. Your traffic may be getting flagged and they may be shutting you down because of it…

Open ##5529624
@umbrella@lemmy.ml 2026-11-13 21:21

never heard of this. super weird. can your VPN be used with a generic client (ie. wireguard instead of protonvpn app)? it looks like the app is getting overwhelmed somehow?

Open ##5531505
@morallysuperior@lemmy.ml 2026-11-13 21:45

Is this a new problem? My private tracker community is warning everyone to not upgrade to the newest version because it is broken and also has negative effects on the trackers itself.

Open ##5531687
@cristian64@reddthat.com 2026-11-13 23:04

Unrelated to the original problem but, what’s Transmission missing that makes you use to the other?

Open ##5532089