Tuesday, April 20, 2010

How to Install Dropbox In Xfce

Dropbox is a file hosting service which uses cloud computing to enable users to store and share files and folders across multiple computers and on the web.

Now that I use Dropbox, I never have to worry about carrying round USB flash drives. All my shared files are stored across my computers and on the web. Dropbox+Xfce=Crazy Delicious.


How to Install Dropbox In xfce
Stolen from the Lubuntu Mailing List

In a terminal type:
- cd
- wget -O dropbox.tar.gz http://www.dropbox.com/download\?plat=lnx.x86
- tar -zxvf dropbox.tar.gz
- wget -nd http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6995/dbmakefakelib.py
- wget -nd http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6995/dbreadconfig.py
- python dbmakefakelib.py

I did run into a bit of trouble when running:
red@vostro:~$ python dbmakefakelib.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "dbmakefakelib.py", line 39, in
compile_fakelib()
File "dbmakefakelib.py", line 36, in compile_fakelib
raise Exception, ret[1]
Exception: sh: gcc: not found
If you see this, don't worry, Dropbox installed correctly.

To start Dropbox
In a terminal
~/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd
- you can also make a launcher or shortcut for dropbox using the same command.
- In xfce you will need to replace the ~/ with /home/YOUR USER NAME/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd
- My launcher ends up being /home/red/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd

If you wuold like to try Dropbox, it's free. Use this referral link to get an extra 250MB of storage (that's 2.25GB of storage just for signing up).
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11 comments:

  1. Stephen MMay 6, 2010 at 7:40 PM

    Awesome! Thanks I just installed Xfce4 on my debian systema and was wondering this exact thing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownJune 18, 2010 at 6:26 PM

    Fabulous postings. Dropbox on Squeeze has been a plague to me. Rest of XFCE stuff is also really useful Thanks heaps. Bestombes

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownAugust 23, 2010 at 7:09 AM

    I'm using this method on Linux Mint 9 XFCE and it seems to work very well. Thank you for posting these instructions to getting DropBox up and going on a XFCE desktop OS.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AdamFebruary 3, 2011 at 8:13 AM

    Just wanted to post a thanks alot for this. Really needed dropbox on my #! machine

    ReplyDelete
  5. redDEADFebruary 4, 2011 at 10:03 AM

    Adam,
    Thanks alot. Glad I could help.

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousJune 6, 2011 at 8:39 AM

    Hi, there's now an official Debian package for Dropbox that can be used on Debian Squeeze:
    see this article.

    ReplyDelete
  7. redDEADJune 8, 2011 at 12:47 AM

    hertzog,

    Thanks for the link but those packages are for nautilus. Xfce4 uses Thunar.

    red

    ReplyDelete
  8. ErikJune 12, 2011 at 6:57 AM

    "A FAKE NAUTILUS SCRIPT

    We will now create a fake Nautilus script, which will in fact launch pcmanfm (or Thunar depending which release of crunchbang you are using or personal preference) when Dropbox requests it. We will placing the script in ~/bin. If you have deleted this directory, you will need to recreate it and ensure that ~/bin is in your $PATH and before /usr/bin. When ready, open a terminal and enter the following command:"

    src: http://crunchbanglinux.org/wiki/howto/howto_setup_dropbox

    ReplyDelete
  9. StatmonkeyJuly 27, 2011 at 2:19 PM

    Thanks. Just wanted to mention this works on Sid as well.

    ReplyDelete
  10. MacburpOctober 27, 2011 at 1:40 PM

    Hello. How do you uninstall dropbox that's been installed via this method? Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  11. PjotrJuly 2, 2012 at 5:14 AM

    Thanks, worked fine. One small correction though:
    Adding Dropbox to the autostart apps required the use of this command line: sh -c "~/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd"

    Neither ~/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd nor /home/username/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd worked for me.

    Regards, Pjotr.

    ReplyDelete

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