FILES DOWNLOAD: sync

Showing posts with label sync. Show all posts

Friday, October 30, 2015

Official Google Drive Linux Client Screenshots Leaked

There are almost three years since Google Drive launched and we have yet to see an official client for Linux. While there are various unofficial clients, none of them is perfect, with Insync probably being the best option, but it costs $15 per Google account and not everybody wants to pay for something Google is offering for free on Windows, Mac and mobile.

After such a long period of time, some may think that an official Google Drive Linux client is never going to be released, however there are a couple of screenshots which indicate otherwise:

The screenshots above are bundled with the official Google Drive Mac client and they first appeared with version 1.18.7821.2489 (I checked the previous version and some random old versions and none contained these screenshots), released on October 30, 2014, which isn't long ago and it most probably means that Google is testing Drive for Linux internally. So we might actually see an official release pretty soon.

Those who want to see this for themselves can download the latest Google Drive for Mac, mount it and look under Google Drive.app/Contents/Resources/lib/python2.7/resources/images/

We'll let you know if we find out more.

Thanks to Francisco!

BitTorrent Sync 1.4 Gets Simplified Folder Sharing, Redesigned UI

BitTorrent Sync 1.4 was released recently and it features a revamped sharing workflow which makes it easier to share folders with others, along with a redesigned user interface.

In case you're not familiar with BitTorrent Sync (BTSync), this is a tool that can be used to synchronize files between computers using the BitTorrent protocol, available for Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, NAS and mobile devices.

Because it synchronizes the files directly between computers (so without using cloud servers) and the connection is encrypted with AES-128 in counter mode, using a unique session key, BTSync is advertised as a highly secure way of synchronizing your data. However, because the application is not open source, many will argue with this statement.

More about BTSync.

With BitTorrent Sync 1.4, sharing got a lot easier: you no longer have to use Keys (formerly called Secrets) to give others access to folders, though that option is still available. Now you simply send a link to the person you want to share the folder with, he/she clicks it and BTSync walks them through the remaining steps (if any).

For each folder you share, you can select if you want to give the other(s) full read / write access or read only, you can set the link to expire after a period of time, set the link to only be used a number of times and finally, you can choose to share a folder only after you approve the peers:

One note though: in my test under Ubuntu, using the share link directly doesn't work (the browser doesn't recognize the btsync protocol) but there is a simple work-around: in the BTSync web interface click the link icon on the right and paste the link there.

Besides the major change in the way sharing works in BTSync, the latest 1.4 release also comes with a completely redesigned interface, which you can see throughout the screenshots in this article.

Download BitTorrent Sync

The BitTorrent Sync (with GUI) unofficial Ubuntu PPA and Debian repository have not been updated to the latest version at the time I'm writing this article. If you don't want to wait, grab BTSync by using the download link below.

Download BitTorrent Sync (for Linux, FreeBSD, Windows, Mac OS X, Android, iOS, Windows Phone and NAS) | AUR (Arch Linux)

To use BitTorrent Sync on Linux, extract the downloaded archive and double click the "btsync" executable - nothing visible happens when double clicking it because BTSync runs in the background and on Linux, it's controlled through its web interface. Then, open a web browser and enter the following address: http://localhost:8888 - the BTSync user interface will show up, asking you to create an username and (optional) password and then you can start using it:

For an open source alternative to BitTorrent Sync, check out Syncthing.

seen @ lffl.org

Get The Ubuntu One Nautilus Integration Back In Ubuntu 13.10

In Ubuntu 13.10, there's no Nautilus integration for Ubuntu One because the package containing the Nautilus extension was removed.

Some of that functionality is integrated with the Sync Menu, but not all: currently, there is no way of knowing if a file is currently in sync with Ubuntu One. Also, some users might prefer to right click a file in Nautilus to share it / get a share link, instead of opening the main Ubuntu One interface. Read on to find out how to get this back in Ubuntu 13.10.

UbuntuOne Nautilus integration Ubuntu 13.10

Note: If you've upgraded to Ubuntu 13.10 instead of doing a clean install, the Ubuntu One Nautilus extension should be installed on your system. This change affects new Ubuntu installations only.

If you want to get the Ubuntu One Nautilus integration back in Ubuntu 13.10, you must install two deb packages from Ubuntu 13.04:

32bit:

mkdir /tmp/ubuntuone
wget https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntuone-client-gnome/4.2.0-0ubuntu1/+build/4405130/+files/ubuntuone-client-gnome_4.2.0-0ubuntu1_i386.deb -O /tmp/ubuntuone/ubuntuone-client-gnome_4.2.0-0ubuntu1_i386.deb
wget https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntuone-client/4.2.0-0ubuntu1/+build/4405193/+files/libsyncdaemon-1.0-1_4.2.0-0ubuntu1_i386.deb -O /tmp/ubuntuone/libsyncdaemon-1.0-1_4.2.0-0ubuntu1_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i /tmp/ubuntuone/*.deb

64bit:

mkdir /tmp/ubuntuone
wget https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntuone-client-gnome/4.2.0-0ubuntu1/+build/4405128/+files/ubuntuone-client-gnome_4.2.0-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb -O /tmp/ubuntuone/ubuntuone-client-gnome_4.2.0-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb
wget https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntuone-client/4.2.0-0ubuntu1/+build/4405191/+files/libsyncdaemon-1.0-1_4.2.0-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb -O /tmp/ubuntuone/libsyncdaemon-1.0-1_4.2.0-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i /tmp/ubuntuone/*.deb

Then, restart Nautilus:

nautilus -q

And you should be able to see the sync status in Nautilus for all the files in your Ubuntu One folder. You can also share a file via the Nautilus context menu, etc.

Thanks to Shaun P @ LP: #1232053

gdrive: A Simple Google Drive CLI Client (Cross-Platform)

gdrive (not to be confused with Grive!) is a simple command line Google Drive client written in Go, available for Linux, Windows, FreeBSD and Mac OS X.

The tool was created for uploading and downloading files from/to Google Drive and it doesn't support any kind of synchronization. In fact, gdrive can't even download multiple files at once.

However, gdrive is still useful for one-off uploads / downloads (for automated uploads of a backup archive for example), especially since Grive, another command line Google Drive client (which does support sync) that's quite popular among Linux users, wasn't updated since May, 2013 and looks pretty much dead.

gdrive features:

upload/download single files (and optionally, it can convert uploaded files to Google Docs format);
upload folders;
create folder;
share file or folder from your Google Drive;
generate preview and download url;
show shared status;
search your Google Drive;
cross-platform.

Update: the latest gdrive now supports recursive directory uploads and resumable uploads.

Using gdrive

To use gdrive, you must firstly authenticate it with Google. Do this, simply run "drive" in a terminal (this assumes that you've installed the gdrive binary as "drive", by following our installation instructions - see below):

drive

A link should be displayed in the terminal, which you need to copy and paste in your web browser. In your web browser, click "Accept" and copy the resulting code and paste it in the terminal where you ran "drive".

To be able to download files from Google Drive to your computer, you must use the file id. To find out this id, run the following command to get a list of recent files (and their ids) available in your Google Drive:

gdrive list

Example:

$ drive list
Id                             Title                 Size     Created               
0B0tRrdcY7CwJZHh5ZmVpZHRMYW8   drive-linux-amd64     10 MB    2014-09-25 17:47:08   
0B0tRrdcY7CwJY2lNS2x3NC1lQUU   drive-linux-386       8 MB     2014-09-25 17:47:01   
0B0tRrdcY7CwJR3lmZnlRaFZwOHc   drive-linux-arm       9 MB     2014-09-25 17:46:57   
0B0tRrdcY7CwJQlRfQUVxY2hkWUE   drive-linux-rpi       9 MB     2014-09-25 17:46:52

Note that "drive list" lists all your recent Google Drive files, even those shared with you, etc.

Now you can download a file from Google Drive, by using the following command:

drive download --id FILE_ID

where "FILE_ID" is the file id which you can see when using the "drive list" command.
File download example:

$ drive download --id 0B0tRrdcY7CwJZHh5ZmVpZHRMYW8
Downloaded 'drive-linux-amd64' at 10 MB/s, total 10 MB

To upload a single file or a folder to Google Drive, use the following command:

drive upload --file /PATH/TO/FILE_OR_FOLDER_NAME

File/folder upload example:

$ drive upload --file drive-linux-amd64
Id: 0B0tRrdcY7CwJZHh5ZmVpZHRMYW8
Title: drive-linux-amd64
Size: 10 MB
Created: 2014-09-25 17:47:08
Modified: 2014-09-25 17:47:06
Owner: Alin Andrei
Md5sum: 82333d9c678af60a727779349a310a4e
Shared: False
Parents: 0B0tRrdcY7CwJWjFOTzd0YkpOTms
MIME Type: 
Uploaded 'drive-linux-amd64' at 1 MB/s, total 10 MB

Important: gdrive can't upload multiple files unless you place them in a folder and pass the folder path to gdrive - for instance, you can use wildcards to upload multiple files in the current directory at once (so for example, "drive upload --file *.txt" won't work).

To see all the supported commands, use the following command:

drive --help

For more information and examples, see the gdrive GitHub page.

Download gdrive

Download gdrive (binaries available for Linux - 32bit, 64bit, Arm and Raspberry Pi -, Windows, Mac and FreeBSD as well as the source code)

To report bugs, help with its development, etc. see the gdrive GitHub page.

Install gdrive in Linux

The gdrive GitHub page offers binaries for Linux (well as Windows, etc.) for 32bit, 64bit, Arm and a binary especially for Raspberry Pi. To install it, download the binary, place it in your home folder and run the following command to install it to /usr/local/bin/ as "drive":

cd && sudo install drive-linux* /usr/local/bin/drive

That's it.

Also see:

Grive2: Grive Fork With Google Drive REST API And Partial Sync Support [PPA]

Grive was an unofficial, open source command line Linux client for Google Drive. I say "was" because the tool no longer works due to Google changing it's API recently and Grive not being maintained any more (there are no commits on its GitHub page since May, 2013).

To get Grive up and running again, Vitaliy Filippov forked it and named his fork "Grive2". The fork supports the new Google Drive REST API and it also includes a new feature: partial (directory) sync, along with bug fixes.

Compared to the original "Grive", Grive2 comes with the following changes:

supports the new Drive REST API
added partial sync
major code refractoring: a lot of dead code removed, JSON-C is not used any more, API-specific code is split from non-API-specific
some stability fixes
slightly reduce number of syscalls when reading local files
bug fixes

Also, just like the old app, Grive2 does NOT support:

continuously waiting for changes in file system or in Google Drive to occur and upload. A sync is only performed when you run Grive, and it calculates checksums for all files every time;
symbolic links;
Google documents.

Install Grive2 in Ubuntu or Linux Mint via PPA

Since there are quite a tools that rely on Grive, the Grive2 binary and package continue to be called "grive", so installing Grive2 from the main failsdownloads PPA will overwrite any old Grive versions it may find on the system (just as if it was a newer Grive1 version).

To install Grive2 in Ubuntu, Linux Mint and derivatives by using the main failsdownloads PPA, use the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/failsdownloads
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install grive

If you don't want to add the PPA, you can download the deb from HERE (for Ubuntu 12.04, you'll also need yajl2 - get it from HERE) but installing the debs manually means you won't receive automatic updates.

Arch Linux users can install Grive2 via AUR (it's actually the old "grive" package, updated with the new Grive2 fork).

For other Linux distributions, see the Grive2 GitHub page.

Using Grive2

1. Grive2 will download / upload new or changed files from the directory you run it. So firstly, let's create a new folder - we'll call it "grive" -, in your home directory:

mkdir -p ~/grive

2. Next, navigate using the terminal into the newly created "grive" folder:

cd ~/grive

3. The first time you run Grive2, you must use the "-a" argument to grant it permission to access your Google Drive:

grive -a

After running the command above, an URL should be displayed in the terminal - copy this URL and paste it in a web browser. In the newly loaded page, you'll be asked to give Grive permission to access your Google Drive and after clicking "Allow access", an authentication code will be displayed - copy this code and paste it in the terminal where you ran Grive2.

That's it. Now each time you want to sync Google Drive with your local "grive" folder, navigate to the "grive" folder (step 2) and run "grive" (this time without "-a" since you've already authenticated Grive with Google Drive).

Grive2 comes with some advanced features as well. For instance, compared to the original Grive, the new Grive2 fork supports partial sync. To only synchronize one subfolder (a folder from your ~/grive directory) with Google Drive, use:

grive -s SUBFOLDER

(replacing "SUBFOLDER" with the name of the subfolder you want to sync)

To see all the available options, type:

grive --help

Syncthing 0.11.0 Released With Performance Improvements, Proper Conflict Detection

Syncthing is a cross-platform peer-to-peer file synchronization client/server application written in Go. The tool is similar to BitTorrent Sync (but it's open source as opposed to BT Sync), and it's used to synchronize files between computers. More about Syncthing, HERE.

Syncthing 0.11.0 was released today and it includes significant performance improvements as well as various other changes such as:

versioning now uses version vectors instead of plain integers which means Syncthing has proper conflict detection now (in case of a conflict, the file is renamed from file.ext to file.sync-conflict-YYYMMDD-HHMMSS.ext);
the GUI has been changed from polling for updates to listening for periodic status updates from the server side, which should reduce the CPU usage;
the garbage collection threshold has been changed from 25% to 100% (the Go default) which reduces CPU usage and increases sync speed for large files (but uses more RAM - to decrease RAM usage, but with a performance hit, you can run Syncthing like this: "GOGC=25 syncthing");
The database commit process has changed slightly to better accommodate handling lots of small files and the result of this is a faster sync with lower CPU usage;
scanning of many large files is now more efficient;
user interface improvements, language can be selected from the Web UI, process uptime is now visible in the Web UI, etc.;

The complete Syncthing 0.11.0 release notes can be found HERE.

Important: the latest Syncthing 0.11 is not compatible with older 0.10.x versions. Also, if you're running an older Syncthing version, it won't update to the latest 0.11 version automatically - to update to v0.11, you'll either have to press the update button in the Web UI or run "syncthing -upgrade" from the command line.

When upgrading to Syncthing 0.11.0, the app will rehash all the files the first time it starts. That's because the database format has changed with the latest release. The old database will be removed two weeks after it was last written so if for whatever reason you want to downgrade, you'll have two weeks to do so.

To support these changes, Syncthing GTK 0.7 was released (and is already available in our PPA) today and besides Syncthing v0.11 support, this release brings the ability to download recent daemon version if the current version is no longer supported, as well as reduced CPU usage thanks to the new Syncthing API.

For those not familiar with Syncthing GTK, this is an unofficial GTK3 & Python GUI for Syncthing which adds extra features like an Ubuntu AppIndicator / tray icon for Syncthing, running the Syncthing daemon in the background, filesystem watching and instant sync using inotify, file manager integration (Nautilus, Nemo and Caja are supported for now), speed throttling, can automatically install and update Syncthing and more.

Download Syncthing

Download Syncthing (binaries for Linux, Windows, Mac OS X FreeBSD, Solaris etc. and source files available)

You can also find packages for various Linux distributions HERE.

Alternatively, you can use Syncthing GTK to install and keep Syncthing up to date.

Geeknote: Command-Line Evernote Client

Geeknote is a command-line client for Evernote, useful to add notes to Evernote via Bash scripts, cron, applications that can't directly use the Evernote SDK or to simply manage your Evernote notes from the command-line.

The tool supports all basic Evernote functions: it can create or delete notes, create notepads and tags, search notes (with filters) and of course, edit existing notes, but that's about it. The application doesn't support advanced features like adding attachments to your notes or downloading/opening existing attachments.

The default editor used by Geeknote is Nano, but you can change it to other console editors such as Vim, Emacs and so on and you can even use GUI text editors, like Gedit for instance.

Furthermore, Geeknote comes with a tool called gnsync, which allows synchronizing a folder containing text notes (it only works with text data!) with Evernote. This can be used to sync various logs or reports with Evernote under certain notebooks and add various tags automatically, but of course, there are many use cases for this.

Here are a few simple Geeknote examples (to simplify it, I didn't add tags or notebooks):

$ geeknote create --title "Testing geeknote"
Note has been successfully created. 

$ geeknote edit "Testing geeknote"
Note has been successfully saved.       
$geeknote create --title "Testing geeknote 2"
Note has been successfully created. 

$ geeknote find geeknote
Search request: intitle:geeknote        
Total found: 2
  1 : 22/09/2014 15:23  Testing geeknote
  2 : 22/09/2014 15:24  Testing geeknote 2 

$ geeknote show geeknote
Total found: 2                          
  1 : 22/09/2014 15:23  Testing geeknote
  2 : 22/09/2014 15:24  Testing geeknote 2
  0 : -Cancel-
: 1
################## TITLE ##################
Testing geeknote
=================== META ==================
Created: 22/09/2014 15:23
Updated: 22/09/2014 15:24
----------------- CONTENT -----------------
A simple test note created using Geeknote.

And a screenshot:

For how to use Geeknote, see its documentation.

Install Geeknote

Before proceeding, please note that Geeknote doesn't work with Ubuntu 12.04 / Linux Mint 13 because of an issue with the Evernote SDK for Python.

Debian / Ubuntu / Linux Mint (and derivatives) users can install Geeknote by using the commands below:

sudo apt-get install git python-thrift python-bs4 python-oauth2 python-html2text python-sqlalchemy python-setuptools
cd && git clone https://github.com/VitaliyRodnenko/geeknote.git
cd geeknote
sudo python setup.py install --record installed_files.txt

(the first command installs the required dependencies - there are 2 dependencies which aren't available in the Ubuntu repositories, but Geeknote automatically downloads and installs them)

To be able to remove Geeknote later on, make sure you don't delete the installed_files.txt file.

Arch Linux users can install Geeknote via AUR.

For other Linux distributions or Mac OS X, see the Geeknote GitHub page.

Once installed, authenticate Geeknote with Evernote by using the following command:

geeknote login

Note: Geeknote asks for a two-factor authentication code but if you didn't set this up with Evernote, simply press Enter.

Then, check out its documentation to see how to create/edit notes, change the default editor, etc.

How to remove Geeknote in Debian / Ubuntu / Linux Mint

To remove Geeknote (assuming you installed the app using our instructions and you didn't delete the "installed_files.txt" file), simply use the following command:

sudo xargs rm -v < ~/geeknote/installed_files.txt

(if you moved the installed_files.txt file, make sure you edit its path in the command above)

Sync And Collaboration Tool `Seafile` 2.0 Beta Brings New Desktop Syncing Client

Seafile is an open source cloud synchronization and collaboration tool which you can install on your own server. The tool uses a version control model somewhat similar to GIT but with some differences such as: automatic syncing, no history stored on the client side so the data is not stored twice (GIT is not efficient with large files), resumable transfers, more user-friendly file conflicts and more.

Seafile features:

file libraries which can be synchronized separately;
users can create and join groups;
wiki module;
group discussion module;
online rich document / markdown editor;
file revisions;
file preview, comments, event notifications;
library encryption;
share files;
audio / video playback support;
Seafile server available for Linux (including Raspberry Pi) and Windows
clients available for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux (for both the desktop and command line), Android and iOS.

Seafile 2.0 beta has been released, introducing a new desktop syncing client written in Qt. The new desktop client can be used to create new libraries or download existing libraries, view the sync status, upload/download speed and various other info:

Other changes in the latest Seafile 2.0 beta:

improved library encryption:

support encryption/decryption files in the web browser;
support change of password;

improved server backup/restore - a detailed guide on how to backup / restore the Seafile server can be found HERE.

It's also worth mentioning that even though Seafile 2.0 is in beta, it's quite stable and ready for use, says its developer.

Here are a few Seafile screenshots (with the latest 2.0 beta version running on my server):

Download Seafile

Before installing Seafile on your server, you can give it a try by using THIS online demo.

The Seafile server for Linux runs on Debian, Ubuntu (11.10, 12.04), Centos 5.8, 6.0+ and Raspberry Pi and is very easy to set up thanks to a script that does everything for you. For the server installation instructions, see the Seafile wiki.

For upgrading the Seafile server, see the instructions from HERE.

Download Seafile server / clients (clients available for Windows, Mac, Linux and mobile: Android and iOS).

Insync 1.2 Released With New HTML5 UI

Insync 1.2 was released today, bringing a new HTML5 UI along with improvements such as an ignore list, improved nested selective sync and more.

For those not familiar with Insync, this is an unofficial Google Drive client which "extends Drive's web functionality to your desktop by integrating tightly with Windows, Mac and Linux so you can get work done". The application is not free: it costs $20 per Google account (one-time fee), along with plans for 3 Google accounts and for business.

Insync features optional Google Docs conversion, selective sync, desktop notifications, proxy support, multiple accounts, option to share files via file manager, support for external and network drives, recent changes feed and more. It's also worth mentioning that on Linux, Insync integrates with most file managers: Nautilus, Nemo, Caja, Thunar and Dolphin.

Insync Nautilus integration

Changes in Insync 1.2:

new HTML5 UI;
added an ignore list which can be used to disallow uploads or downloads based on file extensions;
Insync now shows nested folders in one view making it easier to selectively (un)sync deep directories;
conversion to both Microsoft Office and OpenDocument is now available on all platforms;
"Recent changes" has been renamed to "Feed" and now includes a "how long ago" timestamp;
syncing progress has an updated UI and can be seen in real-time;
various other improvements and bug fixes.

Here are a few screenshots with some of these changes:

Now that Insync uses a MEGAsync-like UI, the functionality was moved from the indicator to this new UI. As a result, the Insync 1.2 indicator has only two items: one which allows you to open your Google Drive folder and another one for opening the Insync app window (and of course, it continues to indicate the sync status):

Also, with the latest Insync 1.2, the price has increased from $15 to $20. However, Insync 1.2 is a free upgrade for existing customers. Existing Pro and Business customers can add new accounts at the same price they started with.

Download Insync

Download Insync (available for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux: Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Arch Linux, Raspberry Pi CentOS/RHEL as well as portable binaries)

Note that after installing the Insync package, the app will try to detect your desktop environment and offer to install a file manager extension. However, you can install any of the available Insync file manager extensions manually (for Nemo, the extension is called "insync-nemo", for Nautilus: "insync-nautilus" and so on).

Official Syncthing Debian / Ubuntu Repository Released

Quick update for Syncthing users: an official Syncthing Ubuntu / Debian repository was released recently and it provides builds for amd64, i386 and arm.

The app comes with an option to update the binary to the latest version however, there are new Syncthing releases every few days so using a repository to automatically update the app is a must if you're a regular Syncthing user (there's also an alternative: Syncthing GTK, which automatically updates the Syncthing binary).

The packages from the new official Syncthing Ubuntu / Debian repository are slightly experimental for now, as this repo was just released, but they should work on any recent Ubuntu and Debian version. Right now, the packages only provide the main binary and some README files, without any startup scripts, etc. but this may change.

In the future, this repository might also be used to host various third-party Syncthing packages, such as Syncthing GTK (right now, this can be installed from the min failsdownloads PPA).

Install Syncthing in Ubuntu / Linux Mint / Debian using its official repository

To add the official Syncthing (release) repository in Ubuntu, Linux Mint or Debian (and derivatives), use the following commands:

sudo apt-get install curl
curl -s https://syncthing.net/release-key.txt | sudo apt-key add -
echo "deb http://apt.syncthing.net/ syncthing release" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/syncthing-release.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install syncthing

Fix: Dropbox Fails To Start With "VerificationError: importing pylinux..." Bug

Some Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Debian and Arch Linux (and probably other Linux distributions) users are experiencing problems with Dropbox. It seems that some recent Python update breaks Dropbox (it doesn't affect new installations though), resulting in the following error:

Starting Dropbox...Traceback (most recent call last):
File "dropbox/client/main.py", line 13, in 
File "autogen_explicit_imports.py", line 13, in 
File "ui/common/selective_sync.py", line 6, in 
File "arch/__init__.py", line 28, in 
File "arch/linux/tracing.py", line 8, in 
File "hard_trace.py", line 6, in 
File "client_api/connection_hub.py", line 21, in 
File "client_api/kv_connection.py", line 23, in 
File "pylinux/__init__.py", line 71, in 
File "cffi/api.py", line 311, in verify
File "dropbox/overrides.py", line 398, in load_library
File "cffi/verifier.py", line 69, in load_library
File "cffi/verifier.py", line 154, in _load_library
File "cffi/vengine_cpy.py", line 124, in load_library
VerificationError: importing '/home/andrei/pylinux/__pycache__/_cffi__xa0c4f46bx1d95b4de.so': No module named _cffi__xa0c4f46bx1d95b4de

Simply reinstalling Dropbox doesn't fix this issue, but it is pretty easy to fix anyway.

To fix this Dropbox error in Ubuntu / Linux Mint / Debian, open a terminal and run the following commands:

sudo rm -rf /var/lib/dropbox/.dropbox-dist
dropbox start -i

This will remove the downloaded Dropbox binaries and redownload them. Once the download is done, Dropbox should start.

I'm not sure how to fix it for Arch Linux or other Linux distributions though, because the path is probably different but basically you must look for the .dropbox-dist folder (not the one in your home directory), remove it and run "dropbox start -i".

Fix via bugs.debian.org

Install Syncthing In Ubuntu Or Linux Mint Via PPA

Syncthing is a cross-platform peer-to-peer file synchronization client/server application written in Go. Similar to BitTorrent Sync, the tool can be used to synchronize files between computers however, unlike BitTorrent Sync, Syncthing is open source.

The tool comes with an option to update the binary to the latest version however, since we covered Syncthing back in June (check out that article for more information on Syncthing) there were almost 40 new versions released so using a PPA to automatically update the app is a must if you're a regular Syncthing user.

There's no official Syncthing PPA however, Niklas Sombert has created a unofficial PPA for Syncthing, so you can easily install / update the tool in Ubuntu 14.04 and 14.10. Note that unfortunately, Launchpad PPAs don't support ARM by default so this PPA won't work on ARM devices / Raspberry Pi.

Install Syncthing in Ubuntu 14.04/14.10 or Linux Mint 17/17.1 via PPA

To add Niklas Sombert's PPA and install Syncthing in Ubuntu 14.04/14.10 or Linux Mint 17/17.1 via PPA, use the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ytvwld/syncthing
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install syncthing

If you're looking for a GUI, check out: Syncthing GTK: GTK3 & Python GUI For Syncthing [Ubuntu PPA]

Dropbox UI Rewritten In Qt For Latest Experimental Linux & Windows Builds

The Dropbox Windows and Linux user interface is currently in the process of being rewritten in Qt and an experimental build (2.11.0) with this and other changes is already available for testing.

According to the forum notes, the reason behind the UI rewrite is to "fix a large number of issues/glitches you have reported over the years, improve performance, support high DPI on Windows, a new setup wizard on Linux, and more". It's also important to add that the new "UI is still rough around the edges so expect to see some things looking not quite right" for now.

Here are a couple of screenshots with the latest Dropbox Qt UI running in Ubuntu 14.04:

I tested the latest Dropbox experimental build on Ubuntu 14.04 (64bit) and it worked properly for me, but the memory usage was pretty high initially: about 200-210 MiB (it decreased to about 70 MiB of RAM after about 30 minutes - Dropbox was idle the whole time). Furthermore, some users on the Dropbox forums mention an increase in memory usage on Windows too. However, this is an experimental build and bugs are to be expected.

Besides the UI rewrite, the new (still experimental) Dropbox 2.11 series also brings:

file identifiers, which enable Dropbox to detect when files have been moved and renamed. In the future, file identifiers will be used to improve features such as Previous versions. For now, this change should be invisible;
Windows long path support: Dropbox on Windows now supports paths longer than 260 characters however, many applications such as Windows Explorer and Microsoft Word do not;
new Linux headless setup flow;
faster uploads for small files;
updated splash screens;
new Finder icon overlays.

How to test the latest experimental Dropbox with Qt UI in Linux

If you want to test the latest Dropbox experimental build (not recommended - if you want to revert this change, your Dropbox account will be re-linked and that make take a long time, depending on your Internet connection and the size of your Dropbox), you can update your current Dropbox installation on Linux by using the following commands in a terminal:

- 32bit:

sudo apt-get install wget
dropbox stop
cd && wget https://d1ilhw0800yew8.cloudfront.net/client/dropbox-lnx.x86-2.11.0.tar.gz
tar -xvf dropbox-lnx.x86-2.11.0.tar.gz
dropbox start
rm dropbox-lnx.x86-2.11.0.tar.gz

- 64bit:

sudo apt-get install wget
dropbox stop
cd && wget https://d1ilhw0800yew8.cloudfront.net/client/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-2.11.0.tar.gz
tar -xvf dropbox-lnx.x86_64-2.11.0.tar.gz
dropbox start
rm dropbox-lnx.x86_64-2.11.0.tar.gz

If later on you want to revert these changes and go back to the stable, non-Qt Dropbox version, use the following commands:

dropbox stop
rm -r .dropbox-dist/
dropbox start

Or grab the latest experimental Dropbox builds from HERE (available for Linux, Windows and Mac).

via Dropbox Forums & Linux und Ich

Cloud Sync Tool `Seafile` 2.1 Released

Seafile is an open source cloud synchronization and collaboration tool that you can install on your own server. It comes with desktop clients for Linux, Windows and Mac as well as mobile clients for Android and iOS.

Seafile features file libraries which can be synchronized separately, wiki module, group discussion module, online rich document / markdown editor, file revisions, file preview, event notifications, library encryption, audio / video playback support and more.

The tool uses a version control model somewhat similar to GIT but with some differences such as automatic syncing, no history stored on the client side so the data is not stored twice, resumable transfers, more user-friendly file conflicts and more.

Seafile 2.1 was released recently and the main goal of this release was to make it easier for new users to get started with Seafile.

Changes in Seafile 2.1 (server):

improved web UI: redesigned navigation of the web interface;
easier for new users to get started: a default personal library is now automatically created for new users the first time they log in. The library contains a help manual and system admins can customize the contents of the default library;
an online help has been bundled with the server;
added FUSE support, currently read-only, can be used for data backup;
added WebDAV support;
redesigned notification module;
uploadable share links;
[login] added captcha to prevent brute force attack;
[sub-library] user can choose whether to enable sub-library;
improved error messages when upload fails;
set default browser file upload size limit to unlimited;
improved admin UI;
more flexible customization options.

The desktop client was also redesigned. On Windows, the new client will download the user's default personal library and create a virtual disk pointing to it. This makes users who're familiar with Dropbox easier to get started.

Seafile Desktop (Linux) client

Here are a few more Seafile 2.1 (server) screenshots:

Download Seafile

Before installing Seafile on your server, you can give it a try by using THIS online demo.

Seafile (server) runs on Linux (Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS and Raspberry Pi), Windows and Mac OS X while the Seafile client is available for Linux, Windows, Mac OSX, Android and iOS:

Download Seafile

See the Seafile wiki page for how to install Seafile Server | upgrade Seafile Server.

Syncthing: Open Source BitTorrent Sync Alternative (P2P Sync Tool)

"Syncthing replaces Dropbox and BitTorrent Sync with something open, trustworthy and decentralized. Your data is your data alone and you deserve to choose where it is stored, if it is shared with some third party and how it's transmitted over the Internet".

"Using Syncthing, that control is returned to you".

Syncthing Web GUI

And it's not just Syncthing that's open source. The P2P protocol used by Syncthing, called "Block Exchange Protocol", is open too. Read more about BEP HERE.

Unlike cloud sync tools such as Dropbox, Syncthing transfers the files directly between nodes (other computers on which you've installed Syncthing) which has several advantages: the files don't end up on some cloud server, the transfer speed doesn't depend on third-party servers and also, there are no space restrictions (except, obviously, the HDD space available for those nodes).

Main Syncthing features:

synchronize as many folders as you need with different people
responsive web GUI;
cross-platform: Syncthing works on Linux, Mac OS X, Windows, FreeBSD and Solaris. There's also an unofficial Android port;
Syncthing doesn't require advanced configuration and it should work out of the box, both over LAN and over the Internet;
secure & private:

the data is only stored on your computers, without using a central server;
all communication is secured using TLS;
every node is identified by a strong cryptographic certificate and only nodes you have explicitly allowed can connect to your cluster;

open source app, open protocol.

It's also important to mention that with Syncthing, you can select which nodes you want to share a repository with. So for instance, you can create multiple repositories and enable/disable sharing with some existing nodes on the fly:

Also, Syncthing comes with an option called master repository which, if enabled, protects the files from changes made on other nodes, but the changes made on the current node will be sent to the rest of the cluster.

Note that Syncthing is under constant development and new / improved features are added frequently. For instance, the current release includes a simple file versioning feature but in the future a more advanced file versioning should be added.

Here are a few more Syncthing (web GUI) screenshots:

I've been following the Syncthing development for quite some time (thanks to Alan Pope's tip), but the tool didn't work for me until now - apparently the local discovery was too fragile until recently -, and I don't like writing about stuff that doesn't work in my tests. That's why I didn't post about it until today.

Download Syncthing

Download Syncthing:

Download Syncthing - binaries available for Linux (32bit, 64bit, ARMv5, ARMv6 - so it works on Raspberry Pi, ARMv7), Mac and Windows as well as source code
Syncthing is also (unofficial port) available for Android
Arch Linux: install Syncthing from the community repository or the latest Git via: latest release | AUR

To run Syncthing on a Linux machine, simply download the archive, extract it and double click the "syncthing" executable from the extracted folder (or run it with "./syncthing" from the extracted folder). Once launched, a new tab should open in your default web browser with the Syncthing web GUI.

To use Syncthing with Syncthing GTK, make sure the "syncthing" binary is in your $PATH. You can do this by simply copying the syncthing binary to /usr/local/bin/ .e.g, by using the following command (assuming you've extracted syncthing in your home folder):

sudo install ~/syncthing*/syncthing /usr/local/bin/

You'll want to add some nodes - for how to do that, see the Syncthing getting started guide. You may also want to check out its documentation.

Report any issues you find @ GitHub.

Syncthing GTK 0.6 Released With Nautilus, Nemo And Caja Integration

Syncthing GTK 0.6 was released recently, bringing Nautilus, Nemo and Caja integration.

Syncthing GTK is a GTK3 & Python GUI for Syncthing, which includes a tray icon / Ubuntu AppIndicator. The app adds extra features on top of Syncthing, like filesystem watching and instant synchronization using inotify, system notifications for file updates and Syncthing errors, an auto-updater for the Syncthing daemon binary, speed throttling options and more.

In case you're not familiar with Syncthing, this is a cross-platform peer-to-peer file synchronization client/server application written in Go, similar to BitTorrent Sync. It can be used to synchronize files between computers however, unlike BitTorrent Sync, Syncthing is open source. More info in our Syncthing article.

The latest Syncthing GTK 0.6 adds support for Identicons, bug fixes, as well as a much requested feature: file manager integration and for now, this supports Nautilus, Nemo and Caja. This includes emblems (for states like syncing/online/offline/error) and a context menu option to synchronize or stop synchronizing a folder with Syncthing:

Nautilus with Syncthing integration - emblems

Nemo with Syncthing integration - context menu

To enable this option (firstly install Syncthing GTK, obviously - see below) you must install the python bindings for the file manager you want to use:

- Nautilus:

sudo apt-get install python-nautilus gir1.2-nautilus-3.0

- Nemo:

sudo apt-get install python-nemo gir1.2-nemo-3.0

- Caja:

sudo apt-get install python-caja gir1.2-caja

Note: for Nemo, if the Syncthing integration doesn't work, use THIS (step 4 only) fix to get this to work.

Then, from the Syncthing GTK "UI Settings", on the "Integration" tab, select your file manager:

And finally, restart the file manger:

- Nautilus:

nautilus -q

- Nemo:

nemo -q

- Caja:

caja -q

Install Syncthing GTK

Syncthing GTK is available in the main failsdownloads PPA, for Ubuntu 15.04, 14.10 and 14.04 as well as Linux Mint 17.1 and 17. To add the PPA and install it, use the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/failsdownloads
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install syncthing-gtk

Or, if you don't want to add the PPA, grab the Syncthing GTK deb from HERE.

Unfortunately, Syncthing GTK doesn't work properly under Ubuntu 12.04, that's why our PPA doesn't provide packages for this Ubuntu version.

Arch Linux users can install Syncthing GTK via the Community repo or the latest Git via AUR.

For Fedora and openSUSE, you can use the official Syncthing GTK OpenSUSE Build Service repository.

To download the Syncthing GTK source code, download Windows binaries, bug reports and so on, visit the Syncthing GTK GitHub page.

ownCloud 6 Released With Online Collaborative Document Editing, More

ownCloud, a free software alternative to proprietary web services such as Dropbox, Google Drive and others that you can install on your own server, has reached version 6.

ownCloud 6

For those not familiar with ownCloud, this is a tool that you can install on your server (there are also desktop and mobile sync clients) which comes with a web interface that provides access to file management, calendars, tasks, image gallery, music player, document viewer and more.

It features file, contacts and calendar sync, quickly share files, calendars and so on, file versioning (you can easily revert the changes you make to a file) and support for external storage so you can mount Dropbox, Swift, FTPs, GoogleDrive, S3 and external WebDAV servers from ownCloud. More about ownCloud features.

The latest ownCloud 6 features an improved design, performance improvements as well as new features:

ownCloud Documents enables online, live, collaboration editing of standard documents - you can upload existing documents or create new documents from the ownCloud web interface and edit them inside the browser;
a new share API was added - this enables app developers and partners to externally access all ownCloud sharing functions;
the application API was enhanced for easier development of 3rd party apps;
a new framework was added which improves management of 3rd party apps and the installation of these apps into ownCloud;
Activity feeds: a real-time list of recent activity has been added, allowing users to see what's going on;
conflict handling: a new web conflict dialog provides multiple options if you try to upload a file that already exists on the server;
Share file notifications: optional emails are sent to users and groups when sharing a file or folder with other users of the system.

Other minor new features include avatars support, previews for various file types in the files app, public gallery sharing, example files and more.

ownCloud 6 Activity feed

Editing a document in ownCloud 6

Install ownCloud in Ubuntu

Ubuntu 13.10 users can install ownCloud (server) by using the commands below:

echo "deb http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/isv:ownCloud:community/xUbuntu_13.10/ /" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/owncloud.list 
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install owncloud

Then, launch http://localhost/owncloud and follow the instructions.

To install the ownCloud desktop client in Ubuntu, instead of the last command above, use the following:

sudo apt-get install owncloud-client

Note that while the ownCloud repository is officially only available for Ubuntu 13.10, it may work on other Ubuntu versions as well. I've tested it on Ubuntu 14.04 (under development) and everything seems to work properly.

Tip: by default, you can't upload files larger than 2 mb to ownCloud. To change this you need to edit /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini:

sudo nano /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini

In this file, search for:

upload_max_filesize
post_max_size

And change their value to whatever you want. Then save the file and restart Apache:

sudo service apache2 restart

Download ownCloud

Before downloading ownCloud, you can try an online demo available @ http://demo.owncloud.org/ but please note that at the time I'm writing this article, the demo uses ownCloud version 5.0.13 instead of the latest ownCloud 6.

Download ownCloud (server and/or desktop sync client)

Friday, October 30, 2015

Thursday, October 29, 2015

Download BitTorrent Sync

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Sunday, October 25, 2015

Using gdrive

Download gdrive

Install gdrive in Linux

Install Grive2 in Ubuntu or Linux Mint via PPA

Using Grive2

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Download Syncthing

Install Geeknote

How to remove Geeknote in Debian / Ubuntu / Linux Mint

Download Seafile

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Download Insync

Sunday, October 18, 2015

Install Syncthing in Ubuntu / Linux Mint / Debian using its official repository

Saturday, October 17, 2015

Thursday, October 15, 2015

Install Syncthing in Ubuntu 14.04/14.10 or Linux Mint 17/17.1 via PPA

How to test the latest experimental Dropbox with Qt UI in Linux

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Download Seafile

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Download Syncthing

Install Syncthing GTK

Install ownCloud in Ubuntu

Download ownCloud