DropBox: No Install No Nautilus

DropBox is a great way to store files and be able to access them anywhere. It has all kinds of potential uses ranging from keeping tomboy notes and firefox profiles synchronized across machines, to backing up your home directory. If you are not familiar with DropBox you should take a look at: https://www.getdropbox.com/tour. Unfortunately, Bodhis dropbox package has all kinds of dependencies and pulls in the Nautilus File manager. While I actually love Nautilus I am trying to keep my Bodhi machine rather slim and minimal within limits and I find nautilus a bit too heavy weight for my taste.

So the purpose of this guide is to cover how to use DropBox without installing a lot of dependencies and how to force DropBox to use PcManFm instead of Nautilus.

-Download and Extract Drop Box
-Create a fake Nautilus
-Create a DropBox Menu Item
-Make DropBox start at login
-DropBox Notifications
-DropBox Security

1. Download the package at http://www.getdropbox.com/download?plat=lnx.x86
2. Then extract the package to ~/.dropbox-dist

Open Leafpad and copy and paste the below code into it:

#!/bin/bash
exec pcmanfm $@
exit 0

save the file at ~/bin (create this directory if necessary) and name it nautilus. Make the file executable.

Copy and paste the code below into Leafpad and save it at ~/.local/share/applications with the name DropBox.desktop

[Desktop Entry]
Hidden=false
Exec=(sleep 60s && ~/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd) &
Type=Application
NoDisplay=false
Version=1.0
StartupNotify=false
Terminal=false
Name=DropBox
Name[en_US]=DropBox

• Go to the Main Menu (the leaf) → Settings → Settings Panel.
• Navigate to the Apps menu by clicking the right arrow key and select Startup Applications.
• Click on the Applications menu and choose DropBox. Click Add and then click Apply.
• Reboot.

After login and about one minute (or so), a window will pop up and you will be able to log in at the Dropbox server space. You can right click the DropBox icon in your system tray to see or set some more options.

DropBox Notifications, notify other PCs set up with the same account when any files are added. This is usually enabled by default, so to disable it.

• Right Click on the DropBox icon in the systray.
• select Preferences.
• In the General tab deselect Show desktop notifications

You can also disable LAN sync here, should you wish to

For any sensitive Data, such as documents that contain Bank Details etc it is recommended that encryption is used. However it is probably better not to store sensitive Data in the 'public realm' unless absolutely necessary.

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