How do I install dropbox on Ubuntu command line ?

[cjh39]

Hello,

We have a hardware device running Ubuntu which will be owned by our customers.

We want to mount the customers dropbox (specific directory) to a specific directory in ubuntu (/mnt/dropbox)

The customer will be able to create a "device configuration file" where they can specify their drop box account information (username , password).

We want to be able to use this information and automatically mount the drop box to our ubuntu device. There is no GUI interface, and the customer does not have access to the command line ubuntu. It has to be fully automatted.

Can you please provide step by step instructions for ubuntu. All the other things we have tried do not work. They require the customer to visit the dropbox website.

Thanks

[Walter]

Hey there @cjh39 - apologies for the tardy response; are you still having issues with this?

From what I understand you're referring to a headless install (via the command line) on a Linux device running Ubuntu. 

I am not sure what exactly you'd like to accomplish here: 

---

The customer will be able to create a "device configuration file" where they can specify their drop box account information (username , password).

We want to be able to use this information and automatically mount the drop box to our ubuntu device. There is no GUI interface, and the customer does not have access to the command line ubuntu. It has to be fully automatted.

Could you please elaborate on that?

Moreover, note that the Dropbox daemon works fine on all 32-bit and 64-bit Linux servers. To install it, run the following command in your Linux terminal.

32-bit:

cd ~ && wget -O - "https://www.dropbox.com/download?plat=lnx.x86" | tar xzf -

64-bit:

cd ~ && wget -O - "https://www.dropbox.com/download?plat=lnx.x86_64" | tar xzf -

Next, run the Dropbox daemon from the newly created .dropbox-dist folder.

~/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd

If you're running Dropbox on your server for the first time, you'll be asked to copy and paste a link in a working browser to create a new account or add your server to an existing account. Once you do, your Dropbox folder will be created in your home directory. Download this Python script to control Dropbox from the command line. For easy access, put a symlink to the script anywhere in your PATH.

For more information on our minimum requirements for the desktop application please take a look below:  https://www.dropbox.com/help/desktop-web/system-requirements

I hope this information helps to some extent and please keep me posted on your progress!

[cjh39]

Hi.

We are running on a Raspberry Pi. So the 32/64 bit binaries wont work.

Out device works from  a "configuration file". This file specifies settings for the device, and an option is to use DropBox. If they choose dropbox, they will need to put their username/password (or keys) so that the device can automount their dropbox.

Also about this "if you're running Dropbox on your server for the first time, you'll be asked to copy and paste a link in a working browser to create a new account or add your server to an existing account."

This "link" is created on the device, and the customer has no way of seeing this link.

We simply need a way to mount dropbox using either access tokens like AWS S3 does, or username/password.   We want to have dropbox as an additional option in lue of AWS S3.

[Walter]

Thanks for the additional information @cjh39 - much appreciated!

Unfortunately, this setup may not meet the minimum requirements for the Dropbox application.  Please review our recommended minimum requirements on the following page: 

https://www.dropbox.com/help/desktop-web/system-requirements 

In closing, I'd like to thank you for this feature request - the ability to run our desktop app on a Raspberry Pi that is. We are always looking for user input when creating the next version of the Dropbox app so I will make sure your comments are passed along to our development team.

If there's anything else I can help with in the meantime, please let me know. 

PS: There's already an active discussion about this under this thread if you want to take  a look and add your voice there (you can upvote it as well): 

https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Dropbox/Client-for-Raspberry-Pi/idi-p/57554

[cjh39]

I was afraid this was the case. I think it is in the best interest of DropBox to implement this feature as soon as possible. Due to the increase of IOT devices and the need to access data from anywhere it's hard to believe DropBox hasn't already got this done.   It's disappointing, AWS S3 took 4 minutes to set up.