Dropbox changes

[dkg]

Hi,

Included in drobbins' recent Dropbox announcement was, "No longer has an initscript."  I use the initscript on one system so that Dropbox contents would always sync immediately, even if I was not logged in.  This is a server that runs 24x7 and is the primary backup source (as in pushed to backup locations, which means I need the source to be current) for my Dropbox contents.  What is an alternate way to achieve this?

[john123]

I got this error:

ERROR: net-misc/dropbox-39.4.49::net-kit failed (prepare phase):
 *   eapply_user (or default) must be called in src_prepare()!
 * 
 * Call stack:
 *            ebuild.sh, line  776:  Called __ebuild_main 'prepare'
 *   phase-functions.sh, line 1053:  Called __dyn_prepare
 *   phase-functions.sh, line  383:  Called die
 * The specific snippet of code:
 *              die "eapply_user (or default) must be called in src_prepare()!"

It is xfce4 desktop.

[niltsiar]

19 hours ago, dkg said:

Hi,

Included in drobbins' recent Dropbox announcement was, "No longer has an initscript."  I use the initscript on one system so that Dropbox contents would always sync immediately, even if I was not logged in.  This is a server that runs 24x7 and is the primary backup source (as in pushed to backup locations, which means I need the source to be current) for my Dropbox contents.  What is an alternate way to achieve this?

I'm in the same situation. What should be do in order to get Dropbox sync without login in into the server?

[drobbins]

Yes, sorry for the inconvenience of this change -- dropbox is supposed to be set up under each user's home directory rather than installed centrally. While this fixes quite a few other complications it does make things more complicated for you. Fortunately there is a pretty good way to get dropbox working the way you want -- using /etc/local.d. See if this works for your needs. Try creating an /etc/local.d/dropbox.start script that will start dropbox as the user of your choice when the system boots:

#!/bin/bash
su username -c "/usr/bin/dropbox start"

Then...

# chmod +x /etc/local.d/dropbox.start

This will run dropbox as user "username" when the system starts.

[drobbins]

I've also just updated the reworked dropbox ebuild with a bunch of fixes, so when the -r1 ebuild shows up in meta-repo, that should merge cleanly for everyone (gnome or non-gnome users.)

[dkg]

13 hours ago, drobbins said:

Try creating an /etc/local.d/dropbox.start script that will start dropbox as the user of your choice when the system boots:

#!/bin/bash
su username -c "/usr/bin/dropbox start"

Then...

# chmod +x /etc/local.d/dropbox.start

 

Seems to work just fine, thanks!

[niltsiar]

It worked like a charm. I've also added the dropbox.stop so it stops the service while shutting down.

Thx a lot @drobbins

[palica]

I would like to bring up some alternatives to dropbox as dropbox is proprietary and also doesn't have very good security history.

Security issues:

• http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2011/05/internet_security
• http://dereknewton.com/2011/04/dropbox-authentication-static-host-ids/

Alternatives:

• Nextcloud
  • If you don't mind setting up your own server, NextCloud is a great Dropbox alternative because:
    • it's open source,
    • you control your data,
    • the limit of your storage is determined only by the limit of your hard drive.
• Syncthing
• Cozy
• IPFS

From those I would recommend syncthing it is really set and forget with auto-updates etc.