Couchpotato on IX4-300d

In this guide, I will walk you through the installation of CouchPotato on your IX4-400d NAS. CouchPotato is a powerful server application designed to automate the process of downloading movies and TV series episodes. It continuously monitors popular torrent sites and Usenet servers, ensuring you get the latest releases in the best possible quality without manual intervention. By handling searches and downloads automatically, it saves you time and effort, making it easy to keep your media collection up to date.

Once properly configured, CouchPotato will actively scan for new episodes and movies as soon as they become available online, grabbing the best sources from trusted platforms. This means your favorite series and films will be downloaded directly to your NAS drive shortly after airing anywhere in the world. With CouchPotato running on your IX4-400d, your media library stays fresh and organized effortlessly, providing seamless access to your entertainment whenever you want.

Requirements

Before starting, ensure you have the following prerequisites in place:

• SSH Access to your NAS
  If you haven’t enabled SSH on your IX4-400d NAS yet, follow this detailed SSH Access Guide to set it up properly.

• Custom Startup Script
  To make CouchPotato start automatically on boot, you’ll need a modified startup script. Refer to this Startup Script Modification Guide to create or edit your script.

 

Installation & Initial Configuration

Connect to Your NAS via SSH
Use your preferred SSH client (such as PuTTY on Windows or Terminal on Mac/Linux) and connect to your NAS’s IP address. Login with your administrator credentials.

Navigate to the Applications Folder
Once logged in, switch to the directory where we will install CouchPotato:

Download CouchPotato Server from GitHub
Run the following command to clone the latest CouchPotato server source code:

The download may take some seconds depending on your internet connection speed.

Start CouchPotato Server
After the download completes, start CouchPotato as a background daemon with this command:

This tells CouchPotato where to store its configuration files and runs it in the background.

Access CouchPotato Web Interface
Open a web browser on your computer and go to:

Replace [NAS_IP] with the actual IP address of your NAS.

Set Up User Credentials
When the interface loads, the first step is to create a username and password for your CouchPotato server. This helps secure your setup from unauthorized access.

Configure Download Clients
CouchPotato can communicate with download software like Transmission and SABnzbd to manage downloads automatically.

• Transmission Setup
  Enter the URL of your Transmission server. For example:

  http://192.168.1.2:9091/transmission/web/


  Fill in the Host field with the IP and port of your Transmission server. If you’ve set up authentication on Transmission, enter the username and password. Leave the download folder setting as default unless you have a custom setup.

• SABnzbd Setup
  Enter the URL of your SABnzbd server, e.g.:

  http://192.168.1.2:8080/


  To connect SABnzbd with CouchPotato, you need the API Key from SABnzbd. Find it in SABnzbd’s settings:

  http://[NAS_IP]:8080/config/general/


  Make sure the Disable API Key option is unchecked, then copy the API Key and paste it into the API Key field in CouchPotato.
  For Category, type Couchpotato—this ensures downloads started by CouchPotato are categorized properly in SABnzbd.

Choose NZB Sites
Select the NZB indexers you want CouchPotato to use for searching. Some free, no-login sites can be selected here for convenience.

File Renaming Preferences
CouchPotato can rename your downloaded files automatically to keep your library organized. Be cautious enabling this if you use other software that expects original file names, as it could cause conflicts.

Finish Setup
Click Finish to save all settings and complete the initial configuration.

Auto-Start CouchPotato on NAS Boot

To have CouchPotato start automatically every time your NAS boots up:

1. Edit your custom startup script (usually /opt/init-opt.sh) by adding the following line at the end:

   /opt/bin/python2.6 /mnt/pools/A/A0/Media/.Apps/CouchPotatoServer/CouchPotato.py --data_dir /mnt/pools/A/A0/Media/.Apps/_config/couchpotato/ --daemon


2. Save the changes to the script.

3. Restart your NAS. Within a few minutes after reboot, CouchPotato should be running and accessible via your browser at http://[NAS_IP]:5050.