Run Dropbox On Ubuntu 12.04 Server

Overview

I wanted to set up Dropbox on a headless server so I can access files sync’d rom Dropbox as well as having an online backup of the files away from Dropbox itself.

Install

Download and extract the zip file:
wget -O - "https://www.dropbox.com/download?plat=lnx.x86_64" | tar xzf -
This will create a folder called .dropbox-dist once complete (not the dot meaning its a hidden directory).

At this point it’s best to SSH from a remote computer because it will require logging into Dropbox website to link the install to your account.
cd dropbox-dist
./dropboxd
The Dropbox program will start and complain tht the client is not linked to any account. Simply copy the link it displays into a browser and log in. Make sure the dropboxd software is still running whilst you link the account or it will not work.

Once successful a welcome message will appear. As soon as the account is linked it will dreate a ~/Dropbox folder in the user’s home directory and start syncing everything. It is best to stop dropboxd at this point as quickly as possible if you do not want it to download everything. Press Ctrl+c to exit the program.

Summary

A nice and simple solution to controlling the Dropbox service and also backs up files to a server.

Download Dropbox

Install Dropbox In An Entirely Text-Based Linux Environment

About Danny

I.T software professional always studying and applying the knowledge gained and one way of doing this is to blog. Danny also has participates in a part time project called Energy@Home [http://code.google.com/p/energyathome/] for monitoring energy usage on a premise. Dedicated to I.T since studying pure Information Technology since the age of 16, Danny Tsang working in the field that he has aimed for since leaving school. View all posts by Danny → This entry was posted in Linux, Software and tagged CLI, Dropbox, Linux, server, ssh, Ubuntu, Ubuntu 12.04, wget. Bookmark the permalink.

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