Succesful use of Dropbox in a Frugal installation

[rmcellig]

Is there anyone out there successfully running Dropbox in a Frugal install of Puppy Linux 5.2.8?


I have posted elsewhere my problems getting Dropbox to work in a Frugal install of Puppy Linux 5.2.8. It was suggested that I put the Dropbox folder in the same folder that my Frugal puppy folder resides in. That didn't work. It was also suggested that I put a link to the dropboxd file in my Startup folder. That didn't work either.

What is happening is that after installing Dropbox, and doing a restart of my system, dropbox does not appear in the lower right hand side of the taskbar. I have to launch it from the menu/internet/dropbox location. When doing this, the Dropbox installation window appears prompting me to install Dropbox even though I have already installed it.

This is the only thing I can't get running and I am a heavy user of Dropbox for my work.

Just a note that I have never had a problem running Dropbox in a Full install, only a Frugal install (I would really like to be able to use a Frugal install instead of a Full install because of it's flexibility and various options.

[sfeeley]

I don't have dropbox installed on puppy (yet. . . --been using the website for my puppy computer) but have been planning to for a while, and been looking at related threads.

I noticed the following on this thread:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=37850

When I started dropbox from the menu I got the icon in the system tray but could not do anything with it. However when I changed window managers to IceWM and restarted dropbox I got not only the icon in the system tray (which opened a pop up menu when I right clicked on it) but also the configuration wizard.

Sound like what's happening with you?
But apparently there's a silly solution . . .

Eventually I came to the conclusion I had completely borked my frugal 421 so decided "what the heck it can't make things worse", changed window managers from IceWM to JWM restarted Dropbox and "blow me down" the damn thing worked. After running the config wizard and setting up my own Dropbox account I changed back in IceWM and restarted. Yes it was still working.

The moral of this story is: If Dropbox does not work when you install it. Change window manager and try again.

Also, how are you installing dropbox? On the forums there are instructions for a .pet, for a portable app, and for installing from source. All have been successful. It might be that if one method isn't working, you have better luck with another.

a final thought-- is the menu entry linked to the wrong executable? (i.e. for the configuration wizard, and not for dropbox itself)

[rmcellig]

Thanks! I will try switching WM's. I installed Dropbox from one of the Forum posts. Works on my other Puppy installs as long as they are full installs. I will post back with my WM change.

[fernan]

Hi, I'm running puppy linux 5.25 and had the same problem, but I've found an easy fix to run dropbox under a FRUGAL install:

I moved the .dropbox folder outside the /root folder (where is installed by default), and made a link inside /root pointing to the real location. In my case, I've moved the .drobbox folder to /mnt/home/.dropbox

PAY ATTENTION THAT I'M MOVING AND LINKING THE .dropbox FOLDER, NOT THE Dropbox FOLDER

I also have my Dropbox folder outside the /root folder and linked to that in /root so I don't need a hughe lupusave.3fs (or pup_save file)

to auto-start the dropbox daemon, I've made a executable file in /root/Startup/dropbox-start.sh

this is inside it:

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh

 ~/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd

It's working in my computer, I hope this can help other users with the same problem. It seems many people have this problem

good luck

[rmcellig]

Thanks for the info! I tried moving the .dropbox file to /mnt/home and received this error. What should I do?

My actual Dropbox folder is in sda7/randy

[sfeeley]

I've been trying to help out with your other problem regarding finding and moving your savefile

http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... ca3b15b05e

Now I'm doubly or triply confused. On that other thread, we were beginning to think that the confusion w as because you _might_ have a save partition rather than save file.

Confusion #1:
And so I was wondering if your problem moving dropbox from root to home was because of that. (just a stab in the dark really . . . )

Confusion #2:
From your picture though it looks like you do have a savefile called lupusave_randypup528 (the file ending is not visible, but assume its .2fs)

Is this your "missing" savefile?

Thoughts:

1) is your dropbox in use while you are trying to move it? Make sure its turned "off"
2)I had similar trouble moving wine to a fat32 formatted drive a month or two back. It turned out the problem was that fat32 formatting didn't allow some of the symnlinks inside the .wine file. It may be a similar problem for you?

[rmcellig]

Sorry for all the confusion!!! I was confused as well with all the stuff I was doing so now here is where things stand. I reinstalled Puppy 5.2.8 to sdb2 (My USB Thumb drive partition, fat32). I saved the newly created save file to sdb4, another fat32 partition on my usb thumb drive. This is the one you saw in the image I posted.

Regarding Dropbox, it is currently not running because I don't see the icon on my lower panel. My sda7 partition where I have the actual Dropbox folder is formatted ext4. It's the invisible .dropbox folder in the root folder I had trouble moving to mnt/home. I guess I can move it elsewhere and just create a link to it in my root folder. By the way, how do I create a link in the root folder to it?

[sfeeley]

how do I create a link in the root folder to it?

First move the folder by dragging it to the appropriate place. (it will ask move, copy or link-- pick move)

then drag the folder you just moved back to root. You'll get the same dialogue (move, copy, or link) this time pick link. (you'll have the choice between an absolute link and another (I foget which)--either seems to work, and I don't quite know the difference).

Hopefully that works, and isn't messed up by fat32's inability to handle symlinks (linux version of shortcuts)

[rmcellig]

Thanks! I will try that out and post back the results.

[rmcellig]

Still no luck. I want to mention that when I do a full install of Puppy Linux, Dropbox works great. Any idea why this is?

[sfeeley]

maybe it won't move because of the fat32 problem with symlinks? I wonder what would happen if you had both save file and the the location you are moving it to as ext2,3,4?

[DaveS]

I have been watching this thread from the start. What exactly is it you want to do?

[rmcellig]

Hi DaveS,

On all of my machines, Windows, Mac and various distros of Linux, I have installed Dropbox which I use every day. No problems at all. With a full install of Puppy Linux, Dropbox works fine as well. When I do a frugal install of Dropbox, everytime I restart my machine, I get the Dropbox setup wizard window instead of the dropbox icon loading on my puppy taskbar. This is the problem I am trying to resolve.

[DaveS]

Hi DaveS,

On all of my machines, Windows, Mac and various distros of Linux, I have installed Dropbox which I use every day. No problems at all. With a full install of Puppy Linux, Dropbox works fine as well. When I do a frugal install of Dropbox, everytime I restart my machine, I get the Dropbox setup wizard window instead of the dropbox icon loading on my puppy taskbar. This is the problem I am trying to resolve.

OK, that is a little odd and unexpected. My guess is Dropbox is loading before the system is aware of the location of the Dropbox folder. Is your dropbox folder outside your save file with a symlink? The most likely solution is to load Dropbox with a script which includes a sleep command. This stops it loading too early.

Try this:

Code: Select all

sleep 5
(path to) dropbox

You will need to make this into an executable script and put it into your /root/Startup file. Post back if you dont know how to do this, including the Puppy version you are using.

[rmcellig]

Thanks!

I am going to login into my Frugal install and see how far I get. I will also post details of what I have done.

[rmcellig]

I just installed a fresh Frugal install (Puppy 5.2. on my computer. The screenshots will show what I have done so far. I think the only thing left is to create the script which I am not quite sure how to do. Let me know if what I have done so far looks good so that we can proceed onto the script I need to create in my Startup folder.

If at all possible, I would love to make Puppy Linux my main OS. I seem to keep going back to it instead of other Linux distros and even my iMac!

Thanks!!!

[DaveS]

You seem to have the hidden folder .dropbox in your filesystem tree (/) and also in /root.
Surely it should only appear in /root, probably symlinked from the same location as your Dropbox folder?
My original guess still holds, I suspect dropbox is looking for the .dropbox and Dropbox folders on a partition that is not at that point mounted. Are you loading your frugal install from sda4?

[rmcellig]

I am mounting from sda5. I have my .dropbox folder symlinked in my root folder. The actual .dropbox folder is in my / folder.

[DaveS]

I am mounting from sda5. I have my .dropbox folder symlinked in my root folder. The actual .dropbox folder is in my / folder.

OK, but your pics show your Dropbox folder on sda4. Puppy will not mount sda4 automatically if loading from sda5. You must mount sda4 at boot with a script or .dropbox will not be able to find its data folder (Dropbox)

[rmcellig]

I get ya. What I will do is put a frugal install and the dropbox folder on the same sda partition. I just noticed that sda 7 has over 100GB of free space so I will put everything on this partition to make things simpler.