Dropbox on ADMIRAL

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Contents 1 Getting started with Dropbox on ADMIRAL 2 Managing files using Dropbox 3 Technical note on installing Dropbox daemon (of interest only to GK and DG) 4 Further work

Getting started with Dropbox on ADMIRAL

• The Dropbox daemon is by default installed on an ADMIRAL system (see technical note on installing it).
• If, as an individual user, you wish to keep your files synchronised between machines using Dropbox, you will need to log in to zoo-admiral-<machine> as described on the help page.
• When logged in, type the command dropbox start -i.
• The computer will ask if you wish to download the proprietary daemon. Answer y.
• The code will then be installed. It may say that the dropbox daemon isn't running. If so, type dropbox start -i again, and you will be given a URL to go to to link your ADMIRAL system account to your Dropbox account. It may be best to use your web browser on your desktop or laptop machine, as a text-only browser does not work very well with Dropbox's website.
• If you already have a Dropbox account, enter the email address and password you normally use to access Dropbox, otherwise click on "Create an account" and enter the required details.
• A folder called Dropbox will be created in your ADMIRAL home workspace. You can now type quit at the command prompt.
• Any files which you store in the Dropbox folder (e.g. when you are logged in via local network file access will automatically be synchronised with any other computers on which you have Dropbox installed. They are also available by going to www.dropbox.com and logging in using the email address and password associated with your Dropbox account.
• Any files which you store anywhere in your filespace other than the Dropbox folder will not be harvested by Dropbox.

Managing files using Dropbox

• You may at some point accidentally delete a file from your Dropbox folder, or you may later discover that you need a file from there which you thought you didn't. If this occurs, go to the Dropbox website and click on the tab "Show deleted files". If you click on the dropdown menu to the right of the name of the greyed-out (i.e. deleted) file which you wish to recover, it will allow you to undelete it (or to delete it permanently, so be careful when doing this).
• Similarly you may overwrite an important file with some data. If you click on the dropdown menu to the right of the file, you will be able to view all versions of the file, so you should be able to recover the particular version you need.

Technical note on installing Dropbox daemon (of interest only to GK and DG)

• Go to https://www.dropbox.com/downloading?os=lnx and select the "Ubuntu (x86_64 .deb)" link. The package will download.
• Copy it onto the desired ADMIRAL machine.
• Run the following two commands:

dpkg -i nautilus-dropbox_0.6.2_amd64.deb
apt-get -f install

(the second one fixes up missing dependencies from the first one).

• Dropbox is now installed and configured centrally, but must be set up on a per-user basis as described above.

Further work

• May be worth adding to the postboot.sh script at some point?
• What happens if two people are editing the same file at the same time? Answer: trouble!