Open Source

Online storage for Linux

I was looking for an online storage:

• Which can work on Linux (on my Fedora 9 laptop)
• Using which backing up files is quick – as easy as drag-n-drop or copy-n-paste (else I will be lazy to back up)
• Free
• Atleast a GB of space (if not more)

Optionally:

• To be able to access the files from anywhere
• To be able access the files using my laptop, home desktop and office desktop running Windows/Linux
• Offline access to files (for those rare occasions when I’m not connected to the Internet)

I checked out Xdrive, Adrive, Gmail Drive and Live Mesh but none of these fit my mandatory requirements. Xdrive and Live Mesh are Windows only. Adrive’s WebDav access is paid. Gmail Drive (tried using fuse-gmailfs on Fedora) was erratic.

The solution that worked for me was Dropbox – 2 GB free space, works on Linux and drag-n-drop online storage. Dropbox is also available for Windows and Mac OS, besides Linux

Dropbox installation on Linux:

1. Goto www.getdropbox.com
2. Click on “Download Dropbox” link
3. You may see a list of Dropbox installer(s) for your operating system (in case of Windows, a .exe installer is downloaded automatically).
   In my case (when I accessed from my Laptop running Fedora 9) I saw RPMs for Fedora 9, Deb for Ubuntu and the Dropbox source. I opted for Fedora Core 9 (x86).
4. This RPM installs a Nautilus plugin/extension for Dropbox.
5. After installing this RPM, logout and re-login or reboot your computer.
6. You will see a Dropbox plugin icon on the GNOME (I use GNOME in Fedora 9) panel.
7. Wait for sometime for plugin to download the Dropbox application.
8. Henceforth, a wizard will be launched. Follow the wizard to create a Dropbox account
9. Once done, the Dropbox folder will be launched, as shown below. To this folder, you can drag-n-drop files to sync – with the online storage.

A blue icon besides the folders indicate that the folders and the files in them are not yet synced. After a couple of minutes, the folder and files are synced with some sample files and images from Dropbox. Upon sync the icon changes to green as shown below:

You can drag-n-drop or copy-n-paste any file or folder to the Dropbox folder and after a while they will sync with the online storage. Since the Dropbox folder is a normal folder like any other folder/directory on Linux, you can edit files in place and the changed files will sync back to the online storage.

The Dropbox folder is created under your home directory (.e.g. /home/shekhar/Dropbox). It can also be launched by clicking on the Dropbox icon on the panel.

One nuisance though. Once installed, Dropbox is enabled for all the users (Linux user accounts). Hence when you login into the system as a different user you will again get to see the Dropbox wizard which can’t be closed. It will popup again, if closed. The way out seems to be to follow and complete the wizard even if that user account will not be using Dropbox.

My usage of Dropbox is limited to the above. I drag-n-drop important files (largely documents) into the Dropbox folder so that I have a reliable (I hope) online backup.

Following is an overview of other features of Dropbox which I’m not using, currently:

Public and Photos Folder

A file in the Public folder can be accessed by anyone who has a URL to the file. You can send a URL by right clicking on a file in the public folder and selecting Dropbox>Copy public link. Henceforth you can paste and send the link to someone who can in turn download the file.

Folders with images dropped in the Dropbox’s Photos folder can become an online album.

Versioning

All files in the Dropbox are versioned. You can right click on a file, select Dropbox>Revisions to see the earlier versions of the file. This will take you to the Getdropbox.com website, in your account. You can restore an earlier version of a file by clicking on the Restore link.

You can even see and restore deleted files by login to your Dropbox account online.

Sharing

You can share files in the non-Public folders (not files) by right clicking on them and selecting Dropbox>Share. This will open a Getdropbox.com webpage. Here you can send E-mail invitations to people with whom you want to share the folders. The invitees will be able to access the folder by downloading Dropbox or via Getdropbox.com

The Dropbox FAQ is a must read to understand its features.

Update (November 3, 2008): Updated to DropBox 0.5.0 for Fedora 9 via updating the RPM. The version that I had been using was 0.4.1. After reboot, I had to right click and start DropBox by clicking on “Start Dropbox”. This was not required in the earlier version.

Hmm, upon the second reboot, I did not have to right click to start DropBox. I’m confused. As of now, will settle down to, all is well that ends well

Update (November 19, 2009): Dropbox works on Fedora 12 (Constantine). Here is how I installed it and made it work:

• Had set SELinux in Permissive mode using the GNOME applet called SELinux Administration (System>Administration>SELinux Management). You may also opt to set it to Disabled, instead of Permissive.
• Downloaded and installed the Fedora 10 RPM from https://www.dropbox.com/download?dl=packages/nautilus-dropbox-0.6.1-1.fc10.i386.rpm. Note that this is the 32-Bit RPM
• After installation, logged out and again logged into GNOME as a non-root user. Did not find a Dropbox icon on the panel (at the top right, by default).
• Opened a terminal window (console) in GNOME and issued the following:

  dropbox start -i 

• This started downloading Dropbox and upon download, displayed the configuration wizard. Followed the on-screen instructions which prompted me for my Dropbox account credentials, location of Dropbox folder etc.
• Upon subsequent logins, found Dropbox icon on the panel.
• If Dropbox does not connect (i.e. when you do not see a green tick on the icon), right click on the icon and select “Stop Dropbox”. Next open a terminal window and type:

  dropbox start 

• It works!

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© 2008 Shekhar Govindarajan’s Blog.