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:
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.