TorrServer for webOS

Run TorrServer on your LG TV. A webOS homebrew app (.ipk) with a small launcher UI plus a background service that runs and supervises the official TorrServer build, which is bundled inside the .ipk (nothing is downloaded at runtime). Manage it from any device at http://<tv-ip>:8090 (HTTP Basic Auth — the credentials are shown in the app).

Works on both rooted and unrooted TVs. Install in Developer Mode (unrooted) or via the Homebrew Channel (rooted). Boot autostart additionally requires root (the Homebrew Channel); everything else works either way.

Build

npm run build

Deploy

npm run deploy                                                          # build + install
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File scripts/deploy.ps1 -Autostart  # also enable boot autostart

Usage

1. Launch TorrServer on the TV and press Start. The bundled TorrServer binary is installed locally and started.
2. Press Torrents to use the on-TV client: add a magnet link / hash / .torrent URL, browse what is on the server, and play a file directly on the TV — all with the remote.
3. Or manage it from any device at http://<tv-ip>:8090, signing in with the Web UI login credentials shown in the app.

Each control sits inline with the value it changes:

• Start/Stop is one toggle button (green Start when stopped, Stop when running), next to Restart in the actions bar.
• Web UI login row → the Basic Auth username/password for the web interface and API, plus Change to set your own (and Default in that dialog to restore the built-in ones). The default login is username torrserver with a password derived from the TV's MAC address (the first 8 hex characters), so it is unique per TV and always recoverable from the app.
• Server Version row → Select version (download a different release, e.g. to downgrade) and an Update available badge when a newer TorrServer release exists.
• Autostart row → an Enabled/Disabled toggle (off by default; enabling it writes a boot hook, which requires a rooted TV with the Homebrew Channel). Hidden, with an explanation, on non-rooted TVs.
• Cache storage row → Change (move the torrent cache to a USB drive).
• The actions bar also has Torrents, Update server, Open Web UI, MediaPlayer and Logs (plus Lampa when the Lampa app is installed).

On-TV client (Torrents): a D-pad-driven torrent client built into the app. + Add opens an on-screen keyboard to paste a magnet link, info hash or .torrent URL; the list shows each torrent with its size and live download speed; opening one lists its playable files, and pressing a file starts playback in the app's built-in video player (Back stops). Remove deletes a torrent from the server. Because webOS has no API to hand a stream URL to the native player, playback uses an embedded HTML5 <video> element (MP4/H.264 plays most reliably; MKV support depends on the TV's Chromium).

The header shows the TV's Firmware version and webOS version. The Status row is a coloured chip (green when running, grey when stopped), and the footer shows a context tip for the current state. Logs open in a modal overlay (D-pad up/down scrolls). MediaPlayer opens the TV's built-in media player (Photo/Video on webOS < 6, MediaPlayer on webOS 6+). Open Web UI launches the TV browser at the TorrServer address.

Notes

• Autostart is off by default. Enabling it (the Enabled/Disabled button on the Autostart row) writes a boot hook so TorrServer launches at boot; disabling removes it. Writing the hook requires root, which the app gets from the Homebrew Channel on rooted TVs (verified on webOS 4.x and 9.x); on non-rooted TVs the toggle is hidden.
• Updating the app is seamless: reinstalling the .ipk over an existing install (webOS Dev Manager or Homebrew Channel) does not require a reboot. The background service runs on-demand and cleanly de-registers from the Luna bus when idle, so the new version starts responding right away. The bundled TorrServer binary is updated along with the app.
• TorrServer binds port 8090 and requires HTTP Basic Auth (the credentials shown in the app) on every request, so it is not open to the whole network.
• The official 32-bit ARM (arm7) TorrServer build is bundled in the .ipk and is the default — webOS userspace is 32-bit ARM on every TV, so a single binary covers all sets and works offline with no download on first launch. The exact binary is pinned and SHA256-verified at build time (see scripts/build.ps1).
• Optional downloads: the Update server button and Select version picker download a newer/different TorrServer release from GitHub only when you ask — the bundled build never requires the network. Before any download the app checks that the data partition has enough free space (about twice the download size) and stops with an out-of-space message rather than writing a truncated binary. A downloaded version is kept across restarts until you pick another; the bundled build is restored on the next app update.
• Data is stored in the first writable + exec-capable path among /media/developer/torrserver, /home/root/torrserver, /media/internal/.torrserver, /tmp/torrserver.
• Cache storage: by default the torrent cache lives in a small in-RAM buffer. Plug in a USB drive and use the Change button on the Cache storage row to move the torrent cache/downloads onto it (handy for large files and to spare internal storage). The TorrServer program and its database always stay on internal storage — the USB drive only holds the cache, in a dedicated torrserver-cache sub-folder. If the drive is removed, TorrServer automatically falls back to the in-RAM cache.
• Your TorrServer settings are preserved across restarts: the app only patches the network/cache keys it manages and never rewrites the rest of settings.json, so anything you configure in the web UI is kept.

Layout

appinfo/   TV web app (tile + UI)
service/   node service + torrserver-run.sh supervisor
scripts/   build / deploy (PowerShell)

Architecture

┌─────────────┐   Luna bus    ┌──────────────────────┐   exec    ┌────────────────────┐
│  Web UI     │ ───────────►  │  JS service          │ ───────►  │  torrserver-run.sh │
│ (appinfo/)  │  status/start │ (com.torrserver.     │  detached │  supervisor        │
│ d-pad nav,  │ ◄───────────  │  app.service)        │ ◄───────  │  install bundled,  │
│ status poll │   JSON state  │  thin Luna wrapper   │   JSON    │  pidfile, settings │
└─────────────┘               └──────────────────────┘           └─────────┬──────────┘
                                                                            │ runs (bundled in .ipk)
                                                                            ▼
                                                                  TorrServer-linux-arm7
                                                                  (port 8090, HTTP Basic Auth)

• Web UI never blocks: it fires actions and follows progress by polling status every 2 s.
• Service is a thin, stateless Luna wrapper; all lifecycle logic lives in the supervisor script. It runs on-demand — alive while the app is polling, then it idle-exits a few seconds after the app closes and de-registers from the Luna bus, so app updates never leave a stale registration behind.
• Supervisor installs the bundled binary into the data dir, owns the state machine (state file), process supervision (pid file), HTTP-auth credentials (accs.db) and the settings merge. Long-running work is detached (setsid), so TorrServer keeps running after the service idle-exits.

Development

The app targets the oldest runtimes webOS ships, so both sides are written to run everywhere:

• Service (service/) runs on Node.js 0.12 (ES5) on older TVs — no let/const, arrow functions, or ES2017 trailing commas in calls.
• Web UI (appinfo/) runs in the TV WebView, which is Chromium 53 on webOS 4.x — the same trailing-comma restriction applies.

A committed .prettierrc.json pins trailingComma: "es5" so formatting can't reintroduce a call/param trailing comma (which would break parsing on those old runtimes).

Credits

TorrServer (GPL-3.0, fetched at runtime). Wrapper: MIT. Coded by Tishko Rasoul — github.com/6ebeng/torrserver-webos