Install Imule On Debian Lenny

1. Introduction

iMule (invisible Mule) is a free open source anonymous P2P (peer to peer) file sharing software which connects through the anonymous I2P (Invisible Internet Project) network and the Kad network. (ref wikipedia).

I2P builds an anonymous network.

By combining Imule and I2P you can download anonymously on the ed2k network.

When I write these lines, the latest version of Imule is 1.4.6 here.

But ... It relies on packages version (libgcj10, libstdc++6) that are released with the unstable (sid) version of Debian. So either you upgrade Debian to unstable version or you choose a lower version of Imule. I chose the latter: to install an old version of Imule. I tested few of them and 1.3.5 seems to work quite well with Debian Lenny (stable).

2. Download

If you are patient or lucky you can try to download the Imule version 1.3.5 from the official site or ... on emule.

Debian Package |Http| - |MD5: bcce53b3a9b0a3f2b917055916b589b9|

3. Install

Imule needs a window manager so you need to install gnome, KDE or anything else ...

Imule needs java and wxwidget to run.

Warning:

The installation might not be straightforward so occasionally (when prompted) you might have to run an apt-get -f install to fix problems and then to rerun apt-get install <package>. This is applicable to curl and any of the following packages.

As user root:

With curl:

# apt-get install curl

# curl http://apt.wxwidgets.org/key.asc | apt-key add -

Or with wget:

# apt-get install wget

# wget http://apt.wxwidgets.org/key.asc

# apt-key add key.asc

Add the following lines to the sources.list file:

# vi /etc/apt/sources.list

# for wxwidget
deb http://apt.wxwidgets.org/ lenny-wx main
deb-src http://apt.wxwidgets.org/ lenny-wx main
# Depot Debian contrib non-free for sun java
deb http://ftp.fr.debian.org/debian/ lenny contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.fr.debian.org/debian/ lenny contrib non-free

Then:

# apt-get update

Install wxwidget:

# apt-get install wx2.8-i18n

Install sun-java:

# apt-get -t testing install sun-java6-jre sun-java6-bin sun-java6-plugin

Then install Imule:

# dpkg -i imule_1.3.5_all.deb

And finally as your download user run Imule:

# imule

imule: error while loading shared libraries: libbfd-2.18.93.20081009.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Imule is expecting libbfd.xxx.so in /lib.

My workaround is a bit "quick and dirty" but it does the job. As user root run the following command:

# ln -s /usr/lib/libbfd-2.18.0.20080103.so /lib/libbfd-2.18.93.20081009.so

Retry:

$ imule

download nodes on http://echelon.i2p/imule/nodes.dat.

And you are done with the install.

The rest is a matter of configuration. There is plenty of information on the subject so it will no be covered in this howto. However I strongly advise you to deactivate the i2p server of Imule and to install your own i2p server. Depending on your configuration, privoxy could also be useful.