Thunar Dropbox: Enable Dropbox Context Menu on Thunar File Manager

I have written about step-by-step post on how to get Dropbox "Copy Public Link" works on Thunar File Manager. I have found easier way to do that by installing Thunar Dropbox. Thunar Dropbox is a plugin for Thunar file manager which adds Dropbox context-menu.

Unfortunately, the plugin doesn't come with Dropbox itself and there is no PPA or any repository yet. So you have to download and compile it manually to get things done. So, please follow this guide to install Thunar Dropbox on your system. I assume that you have installed and configured Dropbox properly. Grab the ZIP archive of Thunar Dropbox here. Once downloaded, extract the file and open Terminal.

Installing dependencies

• sudo apt-get install libthunarx-2-dev

Now, it's time to compile Thunar Dropbox:

• ./waf configure --prefix=/usr
• ./waf build
• sudo ./waf install

Thunar Dropbox uses Python 2 as its interpreter. So, please make sure to use Python 2 when compiling.

Once installed, login and log out back in order to change to takes effect.

This plugin has been tested on Xubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal and everything looks well :)

How To Install Dropbox In Xubuntu And Get Thunar Integration (Xfce)

 

The Ubuntu deb package available for download via the official Dropbox website requires Nautilus. But if you're using Xubuntu (Xfce), you'll probably want to use Dropbox with Thunar, the default file manager, instead of Nautilus.

So here's how to install Dropbox in Xubuntu/Xfce without Nautilus and get some basic Thunar integration (you won't get file emblems, but you'll get options to browse the file on the Dropbox website, get shareable link and view previous revisions, like in the screenshot above).

Install Dropbox and a Dropbox Thunar plugin in Xubuntu

1. Firstly, let's install Dropbox without the Nautilus dependency:

In Ubuntu Oneiric, Precise and Quantal, the "nautilus-dropbox" package available in the official repositories (it's not the same as the deb downloaded from the Dropbox website) doesn't depend on Nautilus, so you can install it on Xubuntu too:

 

sudo apt-get install nautilus-dropbox

 

That's it for Xubuntu Oneiric, Precise and Quantal users. Now simply open Dropbox from the menu (it's under Internet) and follow the setup wizard, then skip to step 2.

For those who are using an older Xubuntu version or another Linux distribution, you can manually install Dropbox without the Nautilus dependency using the commands below:

 

32bit:

 

cd && wget -O - "http://www.dropbox.com/download?plat=lnx.x86" | tar xzf -

64bit:

cd && wget -O - "http://www.dropbox.com/download?plat=lnx.x86_64" | tar xzf - 

To start the Dropbox daemon (and the setup wizard if this is the first 
time you're installing Dropbox), use the following command in a 
terminal:

~/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd

2. Install the Dropbox Thunar extension.  



Crunchbang provides thunar-dropbox deb packages that work with Xubuntu 12.04 - download the debs below:

• 32bit
• 64bit

I've tested the above packages with Xubuntu 12.04 and they work, but they may not work with other Xubuntu versions, so if you're not using Xubuntu 12.04, grab the Dropbox Thunar extension source from HERE (you'll have to compile it). Obviously, they also work if you're using Thunar in another desktop environment, like GNOME (Unity).

Arch Linux users can install thunar-dropbox from AUR.

Note: Dropbox needs to be running for the Thunar context menu items for Dropbox to show up.