How to install Dropbox on Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala)

I’m not sure why but Dropbox’s .deb file made for Jaunty is not working, so I had to find an alternative solution. This is a rough guide how to get Dropbox to work on your Karmic Koala

Step 1: Go to Dropbox web and download the source. Here is a direct link to it

Step 2: Unpack the source code

Step 3: You will need the following packages (or equivalent):

libnautilus-extension-dev
libnotify-dev
python-docutils

So fire up Synaptic Package Manager and install them.

or  install them via terminal using this command:

sudo apt-get install libnautilus-extension-dev libnotify-dev python-docutils

Step 4:

Go the nautilus-dropbox dir (the one that got created when you unpacked the source code). Configure, compile and install the Dropbox. In the nautilus-dropbox dir just do:

$ ./configure
$ make
$ sudo make install

After installing the Dropbox you must restart Nautilus. You can do that by issuing the following command (note: if you’re running compiz, doing so may lock up your computer – log out and log back in instead):

$ killall nautilus

When all that is done go to Applications -> Internet and you see Dropbox there. Select it and it will finish installing Dropbox. When that’s done set it up by providing your credentials or registering and getting a new account.

PS! This guide was written using Alpha 2.

Edit: Thanks sanbor for your comment, I corrected it.

-Eric

How to add Vista/Windows 7 partition to Grub 2 (Ubuntu 9.10, Karmic Koala)

Today I decided to give Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) a try. I’m using my old laptop for testing purposes. At the moment I have there Windows 7 and Ubuntu 9.04 installed and I can use them both with dual booting. I had no vital documents on my Ubuntu partition so I decided to do a clean install. Karmic Alpha 2 was just released and compared to Alpha 1 it was now using GRUB 2. Install went smoothly with no particular issues so I booted to Karmic and messed around a bit. Then logged off again rebooted, ready to use Windows. Imagine my surprise when there was no boot to Windows option in GRUB.
Here’s what I did to add it. I booted up to Karmic again. Now I only had 1 hard drive, but several partitions. I needed to find out which one was my windows partition. To do that I started a terminal and used the following command:

# sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda

According to this my Windows partition is hda1. To continue with my plan to add Windows boot option I typed in the following line:

# sudo nano /etc/grub.d/11_Windows

This created a new a new file. I then added the following lines:

#! /bin/sh -e
echo “Adding Windows” >&2
cat << EOF
menuentry “Windows 7″ {
set root=(hd0,1)
chainloader +1
}
EOF

Now save the 11_Windows file.

Bare in mind that in earlier version of GRUB, if your Windows was installed on first partition then you need to give root=(hd0,0). Thats how GRUB used to number partitions. Starting from GRUB 2, you need to give root=(hd0,1), if your Windows is installed on first partition. So under GRUB 2 it looks like this:

First partition (/dev/sda1): root=(hd0,1)

Next type the following command:

# sudo chmod a+x /etc/grub.d/11_Windows

Next type in the following command:

# sudo update-grub

You should be able to see something like this:

# sudo update-grub
Generating grub.cfg …
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.30-9-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.30-9-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.30-8-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.30-8-generic
Adding Windows
Found memtest86+ image: /boot/memtest86+.bin
done

Now close all the open programs and type in the following command to your terminal:

# sudo reboot

If all went well you should see Windows 7 option in your GRUB2.

-Eric