[Lubuntu] Ubuntu One how-to for online backup/sync?

Wed Jan 2 17:09:06 UTC 2013

More research on the separate login for the default keyring:

Gnome-keyring-manager has been deprecated in favor of Seahorse for 4-5 
years, but Seahorse is not installed by default in Lubuntu, so I don't 
know if there is another intended tool for keyring management.

The libpam-gnome-keyring is a module installed by the package of the 
same name.  It seems that its sole function is to add a check-box to the 
default keyring login window, offering the option to automatically log 
in when the user logs in.  (It's not clear that there is any way to undo 
this choice, except maybe by uninstalling the package, but it does get 
me a bit of behavior I was looking for.)

[Worth mentioning is that the default keyring uses the same password as 
the user keyring. When I entered the password for the first time, I 
thought that I was *setting* the password.  But no, it turns out that I 
was merely authenticating against the already-established P/W.]

On 1/2/2013 11:28 AM, John Hupp wrote:
> OK, I finally got Ubuntu One (U1) installed.
>
> Some interesting notes: The first is what to install. As I posted
> earlier, I had not found any instruction about how to proceed. I first
> tried ubuntuone-client + ubuntuone-control-panel, but that did not give
> me any sort of GUI, and "u1sdtool -s" did not indicate that anything was
> running.
>
> So I needed something morein the way of a control panel.  Contrary to
> several now-obsolete instructions, ubuntuone-control-panel-gtk is
> nolonger supported.  That leaves ubuntuone-control-panel-qt as the only
> option, and indeed, if I had installed that first, it would have
> installed all the dependent packages as well.  Note, however, that this
> is QT and the dependencies amount to **40+ different packages**.
>
> Then you run Preferences: Ubuntu One for each user.  This starts a
> 4-step wizard.  After #1: Install, and #2: Sign In, a balloon appears
> ("Getting information, please wait"), but it will stall there
> indefinitely. You can simply close the window then and find that U1 has
> successfully set up an operational sync, but only with the default
> "Ubuntu One" folder.  Or you can click the Next button despite the
> stalled balloon, and get to the next step where you can select
> additional sub-directories to sync from your home directory.
>
> U1 sets up a new gnome keyring named "default" to store your U1 login
> credentials.  I think that a password is required, although I did not
> try entering a blank password.  Entering a blank password would be bad
> securityof course, but default behavior is that after your Lubuntu
> login, you have to separately log in to the default keyring so that U1
> has your credentials to present to the U1 sync server.
>
> So some people have tried to figure out how to eliminate that separate
> login.  Under Ubuntu, I think that you can use gnome-keyring-manager to
> set auto-login for the default keyring -- in much the same way that you
> can set auto-login for theLubuntu user login keyring. There may also be
> an alternate mechanism for "linking" the Lubuntu user login keyring to
> the default keyring, but if so, it does not work due to
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-keyring/+bug/1077289
> (libpam-gnome-keyring missing in the default Lubuntu install).
>
> _I don't have a work-around for the above, but would very much like to
> hear about one_.  [E.g. can I install gnome-keyring-manager or
> libpam-gnome-keyring for this extra configurability?]
>
> By the way, each user should have his own U1 accountunless you want U1
> to sync the contents of same-name directories from multiple usersusing
> the same U1 account.
>
> Default behavior is for U1 to notify you every time it syncs something.
> This can be turned off in a preferences check-box.
>
> --------------------------------
>
> So installation and setup is ugly. And the separate keyring login is
> annoying (again, a solution anyone?).  But as far as I can tell it will
> workafter that.
>
> It would be nice to hear from those who have set up Dropbox, Spideroak,
> or something else that is not in the main repos. Is there an alternate
> repo that we can install one of those from so that updates will come via
> Software Update, or does the program's own updater work smoothly? Is
> therean alternative that does not have QT dependencies? Do any of these
> have credentials storage that works better than U1's default
> keyringunder Lubuntu?
>
> On 12/31/2012 3:35 PM, Aere Greenway wrote:
>> John & all:
>>
>> Regarding "Ubuntu One was preinstalled?":
>>
>> I never installed anything to get Ubuntu One.  However, I may (my
>> memory is hazy on this) have installed Deja Dup when I switched to
>> Lubuntu 12.04, based on my experience with in no Ubuntu 11.04 and
>> 11.10.  Perhaps Ubuntu One got installed when I installed (if I
>> installed) Deja Dup.  Because of this, I am unaware of the package
>> name for Ubuntu One.
>>
>> Regarding "Given the way you use it (with Deja Dup),":
>>
>> I do not use Deja Dup with Ubuntu One, because of the difficulty in
>> causing it to limit the space used to 5 gigabytes.  It will keep on
>> expanding the space in the folder as long as there is space in the
>> partition the "Ubuntu One" folder resides in.  I would have to create
>> a separate 5 gigabyte partition for it, for the automatic space
>> limitation features in Deja Dup to work, which might actually be a
>> good thing to try.
>>
>> I use Deja Dup with my USB external hard drive.  Deja Dup is (to me) a
>> good way to automatically keep everything in my home folder -
>> configuration (hidden) files and all, backed-up, and to restore all of
>> it, if I have to re-create my system.  I have used it in that capacity
>> more than once.  I have also used it to copy all my files to a newly
>> installed system (of a newer level), and it has worked for that,
>> though I am nervous about copying configuration (hidden) files to a
>> new system level.
>>
>> I use Ubuntu One for off-site backup purposes only.  By off-site
>> backup, I mean something I could use if my house burned down, or if my
>> computers (and the separate external hard-drive backup) were stolen.
>> For my creative work, I need off-site backup.  Losing it all in a
>> disaster would be too great a tragedy.
>>
>> Regarding "have you tried to custom-select folders":
>>
>> I do custom-select folders that are _excluded_ from the backup.  I
>> don't like it spending a lot of time backing up my browser cache, or
>> Google Earth cache, and my music library I could re-create from CD's
>> if I had to, except for my music compositions, which /are/ backed-up.
>> The downloads folder is not backed up, because that tends to be
>> transitory use, and I could download again, if necessary.  I wish it
>> were easier to select hidden cache files to be excluded from the backup.
>>
>> - Aere
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> *From*: John Hupp <lubuntu at prpcompany.com
>> <mailto:John%20Hupp%20%3clubuntu at prpcompany.com%3e>>
>> *To*: Aere Greenway <Aere at Dvorak-Keyboards.com
>> <mailto:Aere%20Greenway%20%3cAere at Dvorak-Keyboards.com%3e>>
>> *Subject*: Re: [Lubuntu] Ubuntu One how-to for online backup/sync?
>> *Date*: Mon, 31 Dec 2012 14:06:07 -0500
>>
>> Thanks, Aere.
>>
>> Ubuntu One was preinstalled?  If you do a Name search on "ubuntuone" in
>> Synaptic, what packages does it show?
>>
>>
>>
>> Given the way you use it (with Deja Dup), this may be a moot point, but
>> have you tried to custom-select folders that are backed up (or not
>> backed up) in Ubuntu One?  If so, any difficulties with that?
>>
>> On 12/31/2012 1:49 PM, Aere Greenway wrote:
>> > All:
>> >
>> > I have been (successfully?) using Ubuntu One on Lubuntu 12.04, and
>> > 12.10.  The question-mark after "successfully" is because I have never
>> > had the need to download from it to my machine.  I am using it for
>> > offsite backup purposes.
>> >
>> > I didn't have to install anything, but I did install the "cryptkeeper"
>> > package, so that I could create an encrypted folder within the "Ubuntu
>> > One" folder, that is automatically synchronized between the 'cloud'
>> > and your machine.  You simply copy the files you want to back-up into
>> > the encrypted folder, which encrypts the files you copy.
>> >
>> > You do have to create an Ubuntu One account, but it's free if you use
>> > no more than 5 gigabytes.  It would be easy to exceed the 5 gigabyte
>> > limit if you don't watch it, and take action to avoid using more space
>> > than you intended, so be careful.
>> >
>> > After firing-up cryptkeeper, I just copy the files I want to save into
>> > that encrypted folder within the "Ubuntu One", and the system
>> > automatically starts copying any new files to the web.
>> >
>> > Beware that upload Internet speeds are probably much less than
>> > download speeds.  When I had 1.5 megabit Internet speed, the process
>> > of uploading would totally use-up my Internet usage, and I couldn't
>> > use it for anything else while uploading, which also took a long time.
>> >
>> > So maybe with that speed, it really isn't practical.  But with my
>> > current 7-megabit Internet speed, it seems to work well (and I can do
>> > other stuff on the Internet while uploading).  The upload speed seems
>> > to be about what my download speed was back when I had 1.5 megabit
>> > speed, but it's adequate for uploads of maybe 20 megabytes at a time.
>> > It doesn't seem to bog-down my machine too much while it's running.
>> >
>> > One advantage of using Deja Dup, is that it automatically encrypts,
>> > and also compresses, so doing backups to your Ubuntu One folder is
>> > reasonable, as long as you don't have so much to backup.  The downside
>> > is that it will eventually automatically exceed your 5 gigabyte limit
>> > (making it cost you money), without taking uncertain manual steps to
>> > limit the space in your "Ubuntu One" folder.
>> >
>> > Ubuntu One seems to be implemented in Python (which is installed
>> > automatically on all 'flavors' of Ubuntu).
>> >
>> > It does work on Lubuntu (as well as Ubuntu, and Ubuntu-Studio
>> > (XFCE)).  I don't know if it works on Kubuntu (KDE).
>> >
>> > I apologize for the long-winded response, but I hope my experience
>> > using it is useful.
>> > --
>> > Sincerely,
>> > Aere
>> >
>> > -----Original Message-----
>> > *From*: John Hupp <lubuntu at prpcompany.com
>> <mailto:lubuntu at prpcompany.com> >
>> <mailto:John%20Hupp%20%3clubuntu at prpcompany.com%3e>>
>> > *To*:lubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com
>> <mailto:lubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com> >
>> <mailto:lubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com>
>> > *Subject*: [Lubuntu] Ubuntu One how-to for online backup/sync?
>> > *Date*: Mon, 31 Dec 2012 12:38:37 -0500
>> >
>> > I wrote earlier about online backup, but now I'm wondering in
>> particular
>> > about Ubuntu One, which is explicitly designed as a sync service rather
>> > than a backup service.  But that should serve well enough for many
>> > backup needs.
>> >
>> > Has anyone set this up afresh on Precise or Quantal?  What packages
>> do I
>> > need to install for full GUI usage?  Are there any work-arounds needed
>> > to get it behaving well?
>> >
>> > Questions I'm not asking: 1) I read that Ubuntu One stores are not
>> > encrypted, but for my current purpose I don't need it. 2) I already
>> > created an account and don't need to know about that.
>> >
>> > (I ask these questions because Ubuntu One is aimed at Ubuntu and
>> > Nautilus, and I read here, there and elsewhere about problems
>> setting it
>> > up and getting the various pieces to work right with LXDE and Pcmanfm.
>> > But I have not seen a recipe or how-to anywhere for Lubuntu.)
>> >
>>
>
>