Dropbox on Debian server, command line mode

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Debian, Dropbox

How to use Dropbox cloud based file sharing on Debian squeeze in command line mode.

Dropbox (www.dropbox.com) is available for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, iOS, BlackBerry OS e Android and have a free account with 2GB of free space, plus more free space for user invitation.

Dropbox have a daemon, to download and install, that syncronize a special folder called "Dropbox" with the cloud space and with the other computer linked to the account. It supports revision history limited to 30 days. A paid option for unlimited version history is available.

Client software are primarily written in Python, you need them on your server

Download the source file

$ cd /home/<your-user> or cd /root

on 32bit server
$ wget -O - "https://www.dropbox.com/download?plat=lnx.x86" | tar xzf -

on 64bit server 
$ wget -O - "https://www.dropbox.com/download?plat=lnx.x86_64" | tar xzf -

the files are in the .dropbox-dist directory

$ .dropbox-dist/dropboxd

you have a message on the screen, this is the url to activate the computer, copy and past to the browser and run it.

Now the computer is linked to your account and it's syncronized to your Dropbox cloud space. 

Open another shell and kill the dropboxd daemon, a message to the first shell confirm the computer activation.

Download the start script

$ wget -O /etc/init.d/dropbox http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2169702/dropbox

In the /etc/init.d/dropbox file, change DROPBOX_USERS="user1 user2" to DROPBOX_USERS="<your-user>"  and
"DAEMON=.dropbox-dist/dropbox" to DAEMON=/home/<your-user>/.dropbox-dist/dropbox.
"I don't have test the service for more the one user"

$ chmod +x /etc/init.d/dropbox

Start the daemon

$ /etc/init.d/dropbox start

Add Dropbox daemon to system startup

Debian releases prior to 6.0
$ update-rc.d dropbox default

Starting with Debian 6.0, the insserv command is used instead
$ insserv dropbox

In the <your-user> home (or /root) directoty there is a folder named Dropbox with your cloud files, copy, paste and delete file and directories,  the Dropbox daemon syncronize all change with the your cloud account and with the other computer linked to the account.

Donate me and yourself plus free space !!

Use my Dropbox link to register http://db.tt/6wuKgziF your account 500MB of more space for both.

For more about Dropbox, security, privacy... go to https://www.dropbox.com/help

Dropbox wikipedia story and detail http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dropbox_%28service%29

 

Cheers
Osvaldo

Comments

My first post in english, I hope it's understandable :)

A friend report that exist a debian package in the non-free repository.
I'm sorry, but I've lost the comment post

FWIW, I have prepared Debian paaecgks that are going to be included in Debian. You can get them . There are paaecgks for Debian 6.0 (Squeeze) and for Wheezy/Unstable.Hope this helps.

Thank's for the info

That's the thinking of a craetive mind

Thanks for the guide. You did miss one step though: the script assumes that it is in the same directory as the dropbox-dist folder. Once you move it into /etc/init.d, you need to also change

DAEMON=.dropbox-dist/dropbox

to point to wherever you installed it (eg DAEMON=/home/<user>/dropbox-dist/dropbox)

Tnx for the fix Ben, updated

Very well done. I had an issue in choosing 64 instead of 32 bit. My fault but i chose 32 and it worked on my Debian Squeeze VM. The only issue I am having now is it doesn't seem to be doing a complete sync. I have local files that have not synced and remote ones that have not come down. Any ideas on why? Other than that this worked very well. Good write up!

Seem to be a daemon problem, the dropbox daemon is running ?
Thanks

It looked like it was. Turns out I was starting the wrong process. All good now. dumb me:)
Grazie

I'm glad that everything is ok, see you soon :)

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on Tulini Osvaldo.

Regards

Thanks for post. +1 and share on facebook.

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