This is the first of a series of posts to help openSUSE users that started to use KDE 4, or are new to Linux. Why KDE? Well, I tried it just to see how it is, I went back to GNOME, and I was missing KDE already after a few hours, and only after two weeks of using it. KDE 4 is not finished yet: some part of the migration process from KDE 3 to KDE 4 is still going on, for example in the PIM (Personal Information Management) department, but the environment is fresh, clean, extremely fast and responsive even with desktop effects enabled. In other words, I think they are convincing me it is not the KDE I knew. In a certain sense KDE learned many lessons from GNOME, when it comes to the desktop experience. KDE devopers simplified the user experience significantly, without giving up on functionality and options. But they did more: they made desktop effect clean and working efficiently on Linux with kwin, which is much smoother and much less annoying than compiz, at least on my system. I’m sure GNOME won’t sleep. A lot of work is going on for GNOME 3.0, and I surely appreciate the fact they delayed the release of 3.0 to provide a stable release, which was not done by KDE with 4.0/4.1 creating a horrible experience for its users and causing a lot of troubles to the distributions which adopted it.
Let’s go back to the topic of this post. Dropbox has no client for KDE, and I use dropbox a lot. Installing nautilus-dropbox is not an option, because it pulls a lot of GNOME dependencies, and it uses nautilus. Luckily, the solution is simple, because dropbox does not actually need nautilus and can happily use konqueror or dolphin. How? With the following quick steps:
- Download dropbox proprietary daemon from their website (do not use the pre-packaged nautilus-dropbox for openSUSE)
- Extract the content of the file in your home directory (For example: /home/alberto). The directory created is called .dropbox-dist and it is hidden, so you won’t see it if your file manager is not showing hidden files
- Open a terminal and execute the command: ~/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd
- Follow the instructions on screen to configure your dropbox as usual. The remainder part of this procedure assumes you set your dropobox folder in the default position (~/Dropbox).
- Create a symbolic link to dolphin in order to have dropbox use it instead of nautilus, by giving the commands (you have to be root to do this)
- su
- ln – s /usr/bin/dolphin /usr/bin/nautilus
- exit
- Download dropbox-servicemenu-kde to have service menu functions in the dropbox folder
- Extract the file and enter the directory that the extraction created
- Open a terminal there and execute: ./install.sh
- Finally, make the dropbox daemon start on KDE startup
- Start KDE System Settings
- Go to the Advanced tab
- Select Autostart
- Press the Add script button
- Add the command: /home/<replace_with_your_username>/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd after replacing with <replace_with_your_username> with your username (For example, alberto in my case)
- Select “Pre-KDE startup” in the dropdown list
That’s all. Enjoy! 
Great, works perfect, thanks a lot!
Thanks for sharing this. I have been struggling this for a long while
Thanks, works great. Note that for someone new, KDE System Settings is also known as ‘Configure Desktop’
Thanks! I’m sorry for the misunderstanding that might have caused.
Thanks for this, I included a link to this page from my own blog for openSUSE as it really says it well! regards
Thanks
Tnx man!
Just started using dropbox today and absolute linux newbie.
Got everything working in 10 mins.
Nice guide, very clear!
Tnx again!
Great, thanks.
My Dropbox works fine otherwise, but it uses Nautilus despite of making the symbolic link for dolphin. And also, the special commands don’t work, ie the “copy public link”.
Hi, if nautilus is installed, the symbolic link won’t work anymore and nautilus will be used by dropbox. The special commands in nautilus require nautilus-dropbox installed. You find it on openSUSE buildservice.
Hey I wanted to say thanks. I was trying to figure out a way of using Dropbox without Nautilus (Using Mandriva 2010 – KDE) and actually I don’t even need all the steps you use. I just download the file save to home folder run the executible then create a symlink and it works perfect!! Thanks so much!!
Thanks! This worked well.
Thanks! Worked like a charm.
Hi Alberto, thanks for your tips. I have Dropbox working in my machines now
BTW, I’m looking for different options for online backup/sync service. I’ve used Dropbox for 2 weeks. Have you used spideroak (https://spideroak.com/)? It seems to have a more advanced interface and a lower price than Dropbox. 100Gb/10U$S/month.
Any advice?
I did not know spideroak. Thanks for the link. Indeed it seems interesting, and they offer a pre-packaged client for openSUSE too
Do you know if they allow easy sharing with links like dropbox?
Alberto
Alberto, I’ve not used spideroak yet. I’ll give it a try soon!
That’s another good reason to try it!!
I saw the package for openSUSE!!!!
I’ll tell you if I have any issue installing sipderoak.
Regards!
P
Alberto, I’ve used spideroak for a few weeks.
Yes, there’s a way for easy sharing. It use a different concept, It creates a Room you share with friends, so everyone who has a pass to that room can access that folder/file from a web browser.
I think that the major issue is the speed for up/download.
But It’s a useful tool.
Regards!
Pablo
I tried it too, and I found it very nice, cross-platform, with a good quality interface. In addition, it seems openSUSE developers are in touch with spideroak to include it in the distribution. If this is successful, spideroak support would come out of the box on our distro
I’m sure your clear description should work well, but I’m facing one small problem.
I don’t find any link or desktop launcher of Dropbox even after I installed scripts according to your guide.
I know I can use dolphin to view my own Dropbox folder, but how can I do that basically?
I’m sorry if this question sounds so stupid or incomprehensive.
Don’t have ‘KDE/System/Advanced’ tab on Suse 11.2 ??
You won’t have any launcher in the menu or on the desktop. If you followed the instructions, dropbox icon will appear in the notification area. Simply click on it and dolphin will open.
System settings -> Advanced is there. Simply click on “System settings” in the Favourite tab of the openSUSE KDE menu.