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Dropbox Is Dropping Support For All Linux File Systems Except Unencrypted Ext4 (dropboxforum.com)
New submitter rokahasch writes: Starting today, August 10th, most users of the Dropbox desktop app on Linux have been receiving notifications that their Dropbox will stop syncing starting November. Over at the Dropbox forums, Dropbox have declared that the only Linux filesystem supported for storage of the Dropbox sync folder starting the 7th of November will be on a clean ext4 file system. This basically means Dropbox drops Linux support completely, as almost all Linux distributions have other file systems as their standard installation defaults nowadays
-- not to mention encryption running on top of even an ext4 file system, which won't qualify as a clean ext4 file system for Dropbox (such as eCryptfs which is the default in, for example, Ubuntu for encrypted home folders).
The thread is trending heavily on Dropbox' forums with the forum's most views since the thread started earlier today. The cries from a large amount of Linux users have so far remained unanswered from Dropbox, with most users finding the explanation given for this change unconvincing. The explanation given so far is that Dropbox requires a file system with support for Extended attributes/Xattrs. Extended attributes however are supported by all major Linux/Posix complaint file systems. Dropbox has, up until today, supported Linux platforms since their services began back in 2007. A number of users have taken to Twitter to protest the move. Twitter user troyvoy88 tweets: "Well, you just let the shitstorm loose @Dropbox dropping support for some linux FS like XFS and BTRFS. No way in hell im going to reformat my @fedora #development station and removing encryption no way!"
Another user by the name of daltux wrote: "It will be time to say goodbye then, @Dropbox. I won't store any personal files on an unencrypted partition."
The thread is trending heavily on Dropbox' forums with the forum's most views since the thread started earlier today. The cries from a large amount of Linux users have so far remained unanswered from Dropbox, with most users finding the explanation given for this change unconvincing. The explanation given so far is that Dropbox requires a file system with support for Extended attributes/Xattrs. Extended attributes however are supported by all major Linux/Posix complaint file systems. Dropbox has, up until today, supported Linux platforms since their services began back in 2007. A number of users have taken to Twitter to protest the move. Twitter user troyvoy88 tweets: "Well, you just let the shitstorm loose @Dropbox dropping support for some linux FS like XFS and BTRFS. No way in hell im going to reformat my @fedora #development station and removing encryption no way!"
Another user by the name of daltux wrote: "It will be time to say goodbye then, @Dropbox. I won't store any personal files on an unencrypted partition."
And it is not fat sweaty neckbeards, so they did this
why would you trust a cloud storage provider to keep a copy of it?
First thought was appeasement of the TLAs (NSA/FBI/CIA and their British/Chinese/Russian equivalents). But that makes no sense either since Dropbox itself has the files and they're not encrypted with a key known only to the user.
Laziness, I guess?
I'm glad I never listened to people who told me what I was "supposed" to do. Obedience is for sheep.
ecryptfs was dropped from the Ubuntu installer and deprecated in 18.04 LTS in favor of full disk or manually using fscrypt (work is ongoing to make this easier) - because it does have various issues.
See this bug for more: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubu...
https://www.tarsnap.com/
Though I guess if people used Dropbox for the easy sync option maybe Tarsnap isn't what they want, but so far I've been happy with it.
Start a competing service! What's their business model? I'm thinking they don't get a lot of revenue from people running Linux...
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Isn't dropbox sync a userland application? Why does it care about the underlying FS?
Okay. So question: why can't one use the web interface?
Finding God in a Dog
But, but... every year for the last 15 years has been "The Year of Linux on the Desktop"!!!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
...does the Dropbox App even care about the low level details of the file system? Shouldn't they all look the same to it from an API perspective?
They should open source their linux client then. I bet this boils down to them thinking that it cost them more money to maintain the client then the number customers they will lose by not having it. I know for me their linux support was one of the reason why I have been a long time user.
Anyone know of a good way to automatically sync photos taken on Android and Apple phones to my NAS at home? At this point that's about the only super handy feature from Dropbox that I use.
You're not supposed to use a desktop at all anymore, you Luddite. You need to use a touch screen device so that you can app the appety apps. Apps!
What Linux user uses drop box? You're doing it wrong.
If you are smart enough to use Linux why bother with this shit?
I thought ext4 was still pretty much standard.
Why does a synchronisation system even concern itself with filesystems?
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
Encrypt the volume using dm-crypt and then put an ext4 filesystem on top of that. To everyone concerned it will look like a clean ext4.
Done.
But still let them have it for being lazy.
First, don't store your data with dropbox. It's not encrypted.
Second, why would dropbox care if the underlying volume is encrypted if the ext4 fs supports their extended attrs? Clearly this is BS.
Third, don't use fucking cloud storage providers that don't allow you control over the encryption of the storage, or with 0 encryption like dropbox.
Not a dropbox user but is Cryptomator an option here?
Dropbox just re-creating functionality, built into Linux/Unix. Badly.
We have sshfs mounts, One-click "cloud" solutions, dynamic dns clients, etc, available in our package managers. And <$5 rentable web hosting. Hell, put a Linux "cloud server" image onto a microSD card, stick it in a Rasperry Pi, add a USB disk, enable dynamic DNS, and you haer your own Dropbox. With blackjack and hookers.
Dropbox was always a solution for a problem that never existed under Linux/Unix in the first place. (Excluding Ubunu-likes, obviously.)
Get a smarter spouse?
Though an email client's a client and a browser's a browser. If she has a problem doing so in Linux, how would a Mac be much different.
I wonder if it's possible to mount a virtual ext4 filesystem for your Dropbox folder using FUSE. So, even if you have an encrypted home folder, you can have an unencrypted filesystem mounted inside of it.
Far easier, to milk the hipstard morons and manager dads.
By selling them something for money, that is available in Linux out of he box. (There are Dropbox-like "cloud" server images that you can put on any computer, including routers and $5 vservers, and which include dynamic DNS, so you can even run them from your home line for free.
Why are you using a remote storage server? A USB3 one TB drive is less than $100. Keep your files local using rsync.
This looks like a politically correct decision. Liberals do not like encryption and this seems to be what is behind it. Government pressure might be in it also.
The people I know who use DB access files from or on their corporate network, when they're not supposed. The no USB, but want to share these pics and docs crowd.
Litmus test to tell whether or not Linux is a viable desktop OS:
Me, on phone: "Hey wife, can you log into my laptop and email me a file?" ... :/
Wife: Mmmm
I can understand, I mean the process in Linux would be:
1. Turn on computer.
2. Enter password at login prompt.
3. Open mail client.
4. Open new email compose window.
5. Add attachment.
6. Address email.
7. Click Send
Meanwhile, it's so much different in macOS. You have to:
1. Turn on computer.
2. Enter password at login prompt.
3. Open mail client.
4. Open new email compose window.
5. Add attachment.
6. Address email.
7. Click Send
Bonus: You can have the exact same email client on both platforms -- Thunderbird. Making the process identical even in detailed "here's how you move a mouse" level directions.
Get a smarter wife is right. My 6 year old daughter could figure this out.
I have been using Linux on the Desktop since the mid '90s.
Did you go and marry the "just whack it in half" girl?
Your wife knows your credentials? Man, your security's shit.
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
Either this isn't the real reason they are dropping support, or the person who made the decision is incompetent or ignorant.
If it's the first, fine, just come clean with the real reason. "We'd rather spend or resources improving the product on other platforms" would at least be a reason I couldn't call bogus.
If the decision was made incompetently or in ignorance, then it should be revisited.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
The fact is that "Linux as a Desktop" is never going to happen. It's always going to be Windows and a lesser extent MacOS that will get support.
Linux had a golden, GOLDEN opportunity during the backlash of Windows 8 to try and convince people. But they didn't and that time has passed and Windows 10, despite all the flaws it has, has washed any chance of that happening away forever.
The only reason there are native Linux versions of Steam games was because Valve was pushing SteamOS and Steam Machines, and I expect with the failure of those that Linux support will eventually be phased out entirely. Very few big-name games have Linux ports today and even Indie games are starting to skip Linux (Into the Breach, They Are Billions, etc...). Some of them work just fine in WINE, but to get others to work is like performing brain surgery blind with a rusty knife. The devs of They Are Billions have all but said that there won't be a Linux version because .NET is too ingrained in the game's code. Some people have gotten it to work on WINE but it's really hit and miss... two people following the exact same directions often won't have the same results in getting it to run because WINE itself is unreliable and a single hardware or package difference can spell disaster.
People like and stick with Windows because "it just works". As someone wisely said here before, Windows is united while Linux is "50,000 nerds with their own vision of what UI and software you should use". I've switched from Windows 10 to Linux recently but I've come to realize very quickly that it's never going to be anything more than a niche OS and that various software I use might end up unsupported at any time.
Backblaze B2.
Or SpiderOak.
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
zfs create -V 10G tank/ext4
mkfs.ext4
mount
Plus you get snapshots, zfs-send, and all the other goodies that come with it.
I always thought Dropbox was just like a FTP service (except deliberately non-standard) for people who were too lazy (*) to install an FTP server. Don't you just send/receive files? How would they even know what filesystem you're using? How can they "support" any filesystem, even ext4?
* By "too lazy" I mean any excuse, like not having a static address. Whatever.
Except if you are the head of the "Linux Foundation" and your presentation is on a Mac. Traitor!!, to the wall, to the firing squad!
This is like forcing yourself to drive a car with a slushbox because your wife never learned to operate a manual gearbox. If you are basing your choice of OS on the ability (or inability) of another person to use it once every few years then maybe what you need is to make it easy to get into VNC. Then all your wife has to do is turn the machine on, and maybe log in for you. After that, it's yours to handle, rather than staging the Zoolander "the files are in the computer" scene a few times a decade.
How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
Why can't they? They were up until now.
How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
My text editor doesn't give a shit what filesystem I'm using. There's no real reason Dropbox should, either; they're doing file-level transactions, not block-level.
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
Sounds like a bunch of people need to stop supporting BigBrother companies like DropCox.
dd if=/dev/zero of=StupidDropbox.fs bs=4096 count=
mke2fs -t ext4 StupidDropbox.fs
mkdir StupidDropbox
mount StupidDropbox.fs StupidDropbox
Fuck them.
now people will wake up and move to mega
On windows it' s so much easier. You have to:
1. Turn on computer.
2. Enter password at login prompt.
3. Open mail client.
4. Wait for unscheduled system update.
5. Wait for system reboot.
6. Enter password at login prompt.
7. Open mail client.
8. Click refuse opt-in to store mail in the cloud.
9. Open new email compose window.
10. Add attachment.
11. Click refuse ad to install mail checker app.
12. Address email.
13. Wait for unscheduled system update.
14. Wait for system reboot.
16. Enter password at login prompt.
17. Open mail client.
18. Open saved draft.
19. Click Send
Get a smarter wife is right. My 6 year old daughter could figure this out.
Achmed, stop trying to get me to marry your daughter!
What, you didn't set up SSH and SFTP so you can remote into your laptop? What kind of geek are you? One who still uses email to distribute files?
You have to understand he's talking two decades ago. MIME was cutting edge!
Groovy, man.
P.S. Not only your wife shouldn't know your password, even if she knew it, your computer's default keyboard layout should be set to something she doesn't know how to type in.
https://syncthing.net/ works amazingly well as an alternative to Dropbox, and it also isn't managed by a board which includes Condoleeza Rice.
I don't know why they're doing this but as a separate yet related question:
Who would put anything sensitive into Dropbox, Google Drive... without encrypting it first?
Even if you have the "I use Linux but I have to share files with Windows / MacOS clients" scenario it's still perfectly feasible to use a TrueCrypt (or VeraCrypt) container to hold your files (from experience, it's better to use a lot of smaller ones rather than a big container as it's likely that any change will involve transferring the whole thing each time).
I believe that there are some Android apps that are compatible with a subset of TrueCrypt settings but I've not tried them.
bcrypt and ccrypt seem to be portable between Linux and MacOS [haven't tried with Windows].
Bonus points for renaming the file to hide any give-away info in the extensions; if you get a message saying 'mydoc.pdf appears to be corrupted' you'll know that someone's tried to spy and just hit a load of binary data :-)
So, for anything remotely sensitive, I'd do encryption under my control before using anyone else's remote storage.
All that being said - I'm considering moving what very little I have in off-site storage into an instance of ownCloud or NextCloud on a spare machine under MY control.
On yet another side issue (although still related to use of off-site storage):
For remote storage I'm looking for a good waterproof/airtight lockable box so I can keep my weekly rsync backup away from my house [current USB hard drive is wrapped in multiple plastic bags and seems to survive OK but I'd like to improve on this]. Anyone got any recommendations?
The Drop of the Drop Bo.X
Wow
I guess they want to see what you are storing and gather more information about you. cannot do it if it is encrypted.
You don't understand. They are scanning the contents of the data you upload. They can't do that if it is encrypted.
With a pathetic upload speed of less than 1m, I'm still trying to wrap my head around this cloud/dropbox thing. What's it used for?
No, I understand perfectly well. If it's encrypted at the filesystem level, it's not encrypted at the file level.
Do you think every application you use handles filesystem encryption itself?
You're the one who, clearly, does not understand.
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
Baby's first corporation. They change stuff and have the legal rights to do so.
If you want encryption and Dropbox on Linux, you can make a separate partition for the Dropbox folder that remains unencrypted. On that partition, store only files encrypted with a Fuse solution like encfs. When you need to edit, change stuff, mount the encfs partition in your regular home directory.
This prevents you from sharing stuff over Dropbox, though if you are sharing stuff, you might as well just keep the shared stuff unencrypted on the separate partition.
"What lies behind us, and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." Ralph Waldo Emerson
Litmus test to tell whether or not Linux is a viable desktop OS:
Me, on phone: "Hey wife, can you log into my laptop and email me a file?" ... :/
Wife: Mmmm
After two decades of having that conversation every 2-3 years I finally just got a Mac.
If you set up ssh on your Linux box, you won't need your wife (or anyone else) to log into your box in order to get the file.
Leave your geek card behind on the way out.
only Linux filesystem supported for storage of the Dropbox sync folder starting the 7th of November will be on a clean ext4 file system. This basically means Dropbox drops Linux support completely, as almost all Linux distributions have other file systems
As i happens I do have Dropbox on an ext4 partition - but I didn't think that made me a freak.
The gauntlet has been thrown down! We need a poll to survey /. readers for the file system they have on their Linux machine (you "other people" don't get to vote on this).
Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
Alexa, please send email attachment to Bobby.
Done.
-Unresolved symbol? Byte me!
What kind of Linux user trusts Dropbox? You asked for it.
Short attention span helper link:
https://www.pcworld.com/article/2455215/edward-snowden-dropbox-is-hostile-to-privacy.html
They have a vested interest in disallowing encryption, so they can peek at files and dedup them to save themselves storage. It's been many years since I used them but I recall hearing they can map blocks within everyone's files that are identical to a single copy.
Oh, and spying requests/copyright enforcement I would think.
Nextcloud/owncloud and cron jobs with rsync to a few 4tb usb external drives are easy/cheap enough now that Dropbox and Google Drive are sort of irrelevant nowadays.
I trust my wife and we do various things to each other, yet we still don't wear each other's used underwear. Keeping passwords to yourself is just a part of basic personal hygiene.
You also forgot click "attach a separate copy" instead of "share via one drive."
Chewbacon
The Bible is like Wikipedia: written by a bunch of people and verifiable by questionable sources.
Alexa, please send email attachment to Bobby.
Done.
Alexa silently sends email and attachments to Amazon.
Running with Linux for over 20 years!
My text editor doesn't give a shit what filesystem I'm using.
I'm sure there's got to be an emacs joke in there somewhere.
Macs run Linux very well.
Put it this way—if my wife must know my computer password, effectively letting her masquerade as me, she has trust issues, not me. Even between spouses, pretending to be other person (signing documents in their name, etc.) can constitute criminal fraud.
Fine ... go to OwnCloud! They have Linux, Windows and Mac clients. And, if it matters, they're open source.
Why wait?
Obvious troll is obvious. "Two decades", sure buddy.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
It is common knowledge that the man of whom you speak is a poser with no traction whatsover in the community.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
Yet another reason to ban dropbox from our sales teams and execs.
This is an odd decision, given the high-quality Linux support that Dropbox has provided until now.
One question I want to ask: why would encrypting be an issue? Why would you bother to encrypt your files on your disk, if you upload them unencrypted to a cloud service outside your control? I have a lot of stuff in Dropbox, but I do encryption the other way around: Anything sensitive is in an encrypted folder (EncFS) inside my Dropbox folder. That folder is decrypted locally using Cryptkeeper or some equivalent. So my local disk is also unecrypted. This offers (imho) a lot of advantages, for example (a) my own ability to do data recovery in case of disaster, and (b) those encrypted files are also encrypted in backups.
I have used a paid Dropbox account for years now, because their service has been so reliable, and the Linux support so good. If they cripple Linux support, this will be the motivation I finally need to get OwnCloud (or similar) up and running locally.
Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
Of course it can. Once the data is mounted without encryption, applications that access it (via the mount point) care nothing for filesystem, raid, or encryption details. With some exceptions like extended attributes and other non-standardized features, which an application like Dropbox doesn't need.
A cat can't teach a dog to bark.
I trust my wife and we do various things to each other, yet we still don't wear each other's used underwear
You are missing a lot.
My text editor doesn't give a shit what filesystem I'm using. There's no real reason Dropbox should, either;
Your text editor isn't in the business of presenting files to users in a way that is not traditional to the system itself. Your text editor doesn't notify the user via the file explorer that files are currently in a certain state (open, locked, awaiting sync, experienced sync errors, etc). Your text editor also isn't in the cloud storage business, a business that is moving more and more to actual cloud operation rather than being a glorified copy of rsync. Your text editor is not presenting phantom files to the OS which are downloaded on demand.
In summary, your text editor works with text. Dropbox works with files on a very fundamental level. It stands to reason that they need to care about the underlying filesystem.
Now as to the actual reasons why they depreciated support, I'm sure it's far more nefarious than that, but there's actual technical reasons why a program like Dropbox needs to understand the abilities of the underlying filesystem and not treat it as a dumb pipe via some API.
I just migrated and closed my account. They will ask why you left.
The reason they want to avoid encrypted files is to avoid the issues around dedup and encrypted files.
The reason their service is so cheap is that they can use dedup very extensively, especially when people are storing the same documents.
This is way harder to do with encrypted files.
I have dropbox on both ext4 and xfs. This would force me to migrate to another solution on all of my computers. The technical reason is totally wrong, I suspect marketing, financial reasons.
Well, disobedience is for the donkeys, so if you consider your attitude badass, you are just being a bad ass.
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
What IS it with large companies always trying to shoot themselves in both feet?
Good decision by Dropbox as it's prompted me to have another look at SyncThing. I need sync across a couple of Android devices and multiple PCs, laptops, an x86 tablet and embedded devices, running variously Debian, Windows 10 and Armbian.
I tried Syncthing last year and it was frustrating to set up, didn't always sync, and didn't inspire confidence. Trying it again since getting the shitty Dropbox messages on my XFS based desktop and I am very pleasantly surprised. Set up has been easier and quicker and sync is working very quickly and reliably across WAN and LAN.
Am currently going through all my gear, uninstalling Dropbox and setting up Syncthing.
Goodbye Dropbox and fuck you very much!
I have slowly been moving away from "cloud" providers. This announcement has given me the nudge to take file sharing in house. Considering inotify to trigger rsync. I don't run Dropbox on any mobile devices and both my laptops and desktops are Linux although this solution won't be for everyone, I think it should work ok for me? Any thoughts?
Time to drop the Dropbox.
The whole point of Linux is that the wife doesn't know how to go through my shit.
I'm glad I never listened to people who told me what I was "supposed" to do. Obedience is for sheep.
Exactly what I told you to do. Just as you're supposed to behave. I command you to disobey!
I know Microsoft isn't the most popular company on Slashdot, but I've had great luck with an open source OneDrive client for syncing from Linux to OneDrive. It's available on github: https://github.com/skilion/one...
The dropbox native client sucks. Use https://rclone.org/
Dropbox does some slightly different functions than a normal file system application. It needs to know when a file has been modified so it can sync it, what was modified in the file so it can delta sync, and keep track of file locks for open files so it can track versioning accurately. They may very well have a legitimate use for extended attributes; it is not a safe assumption that they don't need them.
The checksums used for file change tracking specifically would be an excellent candidate for extended attributes. This is, coincidentally, one of the specific use cases cited in the getfattr man page.
The $64,000 question is "Most filesystems support these. What's special about ext4? Are you seeing bugs in the other filesystem implementations?" ...
Just use EncFs
Mine does it.
Granted, we both use Linux machines.
And to get back to the point here, we'll never use Dropbox anyway. We share on Nextclouds, on community-managed servers...
Herve S.
In summary, your text editor works with text. Dropbox works with files on a very fundamental level. It stands to reason that they need to care about the underlying filesystem.
Dropbox reads and writes files using the same filesystem drivers as every other application. It reads and modifies file attributes through those drivers, as well. Anything it does at the filesystem level can be achieved with the mv, rm, cat, chmod, touch, and mkfifo commands.
there's actual technical reasons why a program like Dropbox needs to understand the abilities of the underlying filesystem and not treat it as a dumb pipe via some API.
No, not really. Look at OwnCloud's sync app as an example of how all of the things DropBox does can be done on any filesystem, on any OS, treating the filesystem as a dumb pipe via some API. Including notifying users via their file browser that files are in a certain state (done via OS-level APIs that may or may not exist at the filesystem level). On Windows, you do this via Overlay Handlers, you use Finder Sync Extensions on a Mac. On Linux, the method varies based on window manager (not filesystem) but there exists at least one library for that; the bonus is that it's cross-platform. Phantom downloads are easily done using named pipes and filesystem monitors, which are used by every realtime-scanning antivirus, exist at the OS level, and are filesystem independent. With a little creativity, I'm sure you can figure out how it's done. Here's a hint: the named pipes don't exist until you open the directory.
For damn good reason, most operating systems prevent direct-to-disk modification of a mounted filesystem (e.g. bypassing the driver for writes), which makes much of what Dropbox does simply impossible on those systems unless it's done via the filesystem driver APIs. Since you can't mount a filesystem twice, Dropbox accessing the filesystem directly would require the OS to unmount it and cede control to Dropbox; which would leave the OS (and thus the user) unable to access the files contained therein. As additional food for thought: if Dropbox were accessing the filesystem directly, think about it, it wouldn't work on a Mac at all, as Apple filesystems are proprietary, meaning that the Dropbox team would have no way of writing interface code for Apple's filesystems. Yet it works on a Mac.
In short, Dropbox is very much accessing files the same way your text editor does. It does a few things with those files that your text editor probably doesn't do, but it's not reading directly from, nor writing directly to, your disk.
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
Ugh... that 3rd link should only be on the word "library".
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
afaik, you are allowed to sign anybodys name on a document so long as they tell you its ok to do so.
It does not sound like a good business plan if they have data on their cloud service that is not encrypted.
Is dropBox creating a paid service to FBI,CIA,NSA?
kewl story bra.
My text editor doesn't give a shit what filesystem I'm using.
I'm sure there's got to be an emacs joke in there somewhere.
That WAS it.
I have written a step-by-step tutorial for a workaround if you are not using ext4 for your partitions. You can even keep your encryption! https://metabubble.net/linux/h...
Litmus test to tell whether or not Linux is a viable desktop OS:
Me, on phone: "Hey wife, can you log into my laptop and email me a file?" ... :/
Wife: Mmmm
After two decades of having that conversation every 2-3 years I finally just got a Mac.
As at least one other person has already shown, the process is identical in both cases, so your actual problem appears to be something else. Exactly what that is, you will have to come to terms with by yourself, possibly together with your wife.
The only limitation is you can only have up to 2TB per account. The client uses fuse to remote mount the directory. Works great for most things.
They may very well have a legitimate use for extended attributes
And Linux filesystem drivers expose APIs for those...
This is, coincidentally, one of the specific use cases cited in the getfattr man page.
And getfattr doesn't care what filesystem it's reading those attributes off of, because it makes use of the APIs to read them.
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
I can recommend you and I stand with this, pCloud, they are one of the best Dropbox alternatives, and most important their Linux client doesn't care about your file system.
I think that the separate pCloud drive that can be mounted or dismounted and doesn’t take space on my computer is very big advantage for pCloud over other cloud storages. Drive is very convenient and easy to use for new users. Ability to sync any folder is also very, very nice.
My uncle died. He handled a lot of the bills, and this sort of behavior made it nearly impossible for his wife to handle anything afterward.
Your wife needs your password if you do anything of importance to normal life.
Some isps do shared ips, making outside access, even with dynamic updates, impossible.
No, my wife doesn't need my password for things of importance in "normal life". Your uncle should have been including his life partner in his financial matters and set up a proper estate plan. Neither of them involves password sharing, when done properly.
###SOLUTION###
For those who want encryption, even ext4 partition won't work, I test it and Dropbox kept telling me that in Nov. it will stop syncing. So, it is not only Ext4, it has to be regular partition and not encrypted using LUKS or home dir encryption. That doesn't work for me and for millions out there, my solution: Create a veraCrypt encrypted 15G Ext4 virtual drive, place it under XFS physical partition, if possible, and move Dropbox to that veracrypt partition after mounting. 2 things accomplished in this trick: 1) My drive where my dropbox info is encrypted, 2) Dropbox doesn't know that this drive is encrypted :)
P.S
Here is my laptop overall layout and setup if you are interested:
After few months of testing xfce 4.12 using different Linux distribution. I settled on LinuxMint 19 xfce which is based on the Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. I am big fan of Dark themes and LinuxMint 19 xfce just nailed this thing down! For new comers or Linux Pro, I highly recommend LinuxMint 19 xfce for faster, elegant, lightweight, and modern LinuxOS which will work on most hardware.
Besides, I’d like to share the following setup: I have Toshiba Satellite i7 CPU, 16G RAM, and 750G HD 72RPM. So I divided my HD as follows: 65G for root / using btrfs, 55G for /home using LUKS encrypted partition and btrfs (At my home, I store only light weight stuff such documents and private documents using Dropbox – No Videos, Pictures, Downloads, ISO, or any heavy data at home partition) and the keep the rest of the space to /var using xfs instead.
Note, I don't use swap, if needed I will create a swap file later on using the home partition. So, since I don't use that much of data under home env, I create /var/users/imad/ path to dump my pictures, videos, Music, and Downloads, ISOs, VMs, and all heavy files in there since this partition using XFS file system. I delete the original Video, Music, Pictures, and Downloads, directories and create them under /var/users/imad/ then created soft links of these directories pointing to my home. Your millage for sure will vary than mine.
Besides, I use also Home encryption for my personal user as well, hence, no one can penetrate my home dir either at the local or network level.
Finally, I use Timeshift to take system snapshot (locally at root partition) using btrfs snapshots and I use BackInTime to take Full-backup of my whole drive to encrypted USB drive.
Note: I save my Veracrypt drobpx drive under /var/users/imad/ since it's xfs file system which is good for large files.
So, I hear a lot of "drop box is for the weak"...
I was using Gdrive, but they stopped linux support..
I use it for syncing some files with friends externally, and sync between multiple computers; Windows, Linux, and mine is dual-boot (Dropbox is on the NTFS partition).
If there's a better way to sync Windows, Linux, internal and externally, please let me know...?
My text editor doesn't give a shit what filesystem I'm using. There's no real reason Dropbox should, either; they're doing file-level transactions, not block-level.
The question that begs to be asked is: Can we "fool" the Dropbox client into believing they are syncing from an ext4 partition?