Ubuntu Tutorials

I recently installed Kubuntu 9.10 to have a look at the latest that KDE has to offer in the Ubuntu arena. I have to say, I find it very polished and far less buggy than previous releases that I’ve used! If you haven’t tried KDE recently, I invite you to give it a try. In this article I’ll outline how to install Dropbox on KDE (Kubuntu) without using the packages, or requiring the GNOME dependencies that are required for Nautilus integration.

Installation

Because we’ll be installing Dropbox manually, outside of the package management system, the first thing you’ll need to do is download the binary for your running architecture. I’ve included direct download links to the 32bit and 64bit releases below:

• 32bit Dropbox Linux Client
• 64bit Dropbox Linux Client

After you’ve downloaded the .tar.gz file, unpack it and move its contents to your home folder. Assuming your default Download location is your ~/Downloads folder, do the following to unpack and move the dropbox files:

tar xf dropbox-lnx*.tar.gz

mv .dropbox-dist/ ~/

Lastly, assuming you want Dropbox to autostart when you login, you’ll want to create a symlink to your Autostart folder. You can do this using the command:

ln -s ~/.dropbox-dist/dropdoxd ~/.kde/Autostart/

Launch Dropbox

At this point you can either logout and log back in to have Dropbox launch, or manually launch by issuing the command:

~/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd

You should be prompted to enter your account information, and you’re set!

Getting Dropbox

If you don’t have a Dropbox account, I’d invite you to check it out. It’s a very, very useful tool for sharing files and doing off-site backups. If the program is still in place, you’ll get a 250M storage bonus for using this link.

UPDATE: This article has been updated for clarity and to include user feedback. Install Dropbox on Kubuntu KDE (Without Nautilus).

I have been using Dropbox for quite some time now and I really like it. It is cross platform, meaning it works on my Linux machines (at home and at work) and also my OS X machines. It is a very, very simple way to synchronize files between machines.

Recently I switched to KDE 4.2.2 and have since missed Dropbox, as it is primarily designed for use with GNOME’s Nautilus file browser. I found a quick tutorial outlining how to use Dropbox on KDE, and wanted to pass it along.

• Download the 32bit Dropbox Linux client or 64bit Dropbox Linux client.
• Extract the contents (.dropbox-dist directory) to your home folder.
• Run ~/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd.

The first time you run Dropbox you’ll go through a short configuration wizard. Simply enter your existing Dropbox account information and you’re set.

If you don’t have an existing Dropbox account, but would like to check it out, do so here.

If you’d like Dropbox to launch automagically at login simply create a symlink from your home folder to your .kde4/Autostart directory:

ln -s ~/.dropbox-dist/dropdoxd ~/.kde4/Autostart/


Rinse and repeat on any of your machines and you’ll be synching files in no time!

Some time ago I posted on how to simplify your dropbox URLs by using .htaccess files within Apache web server. Now that I’ve switched to Lighttpd I needed to find the equivalent. Here is what I came up with:


## dropbox redirection
server.modules += ( "mod_redirect" )


$HTTP["url"] =~ "^/dropbox/(.*)" {
url.redirect = (
"^/dropbox/(.*)" => "http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/123456/$1"
)
}


note: if you already have mod_redirect loaded elsewhere you won’t need to worry about that first line. Also note that you’ll need to update the dl.getdropbox.com URL with your unique string. Replace 123456 with your unique value. You can find this value within your Dropbox account.

I just recently started using DropBox on Ubuntu 8.10 “Intrepid Ibex” and leftyfb in IRC pointed out to me a nifty little trick with .htaccess files.  If you’ve been using DropBox I’m sure you’ve seen or made use of the Public folder and sharing files.  You may have also noticed that the DropBox Public links are long and likely hard to remember when needed.

One thing that you can do, if you have your own web server, is dynamically generate these public links.  For example:

Original DropBox Public URL:

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/312414/Christer_Edwards.asc

DropBox Public URL with .htaccess trick:

http://zelut.org/dropbox/Christer_Edwards.asc

In order to accomplish this you’ll need access to a webserver and the ability to create and use a .htaccess file.  On my webserver I created a folder called “dropbox” and then pasted the following into a new file, .htaccess:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/012345/$1 [L,QSA]

You will need to replace the “012345″ with your unique ID.  As you notice from the original link above, my unique ID is “312414″.  You can find yours by copying the public link within Nautilus.

Once this is done you can share files by placing them into your DropBox Public folder and then appending the filename to your webserver URL + created folder.  Again, since I created the folder “dropbox” on http://zelut.org/, my url is http://zelut.org/dropbox/.  I simply append the filename I want to share and its done!

If anyone can suggest a way to present this URL with an index.html that may be a cool trick.