Information Services

ownCloud Desktop Client for Linux

The following instructions describe how to use the ownCloud Linux client software in order to set up a bi-directional file synchronisation between the University’s DataSync service and a particular folder on the local Linux machine.

ownCloud Desktop Client for Linux

The following instructions describe how to use the ownCloud Linux client software in order to set up a bi-directional file synchronisation between the University’s DataSync service and a particular folder on the local Linux machine.

Download

To download the client, navigate to the following URL and, under the 'ownCloud desktop client' section in the Table of contents, click on the 'Linux' link for the Linux clients. This will take you to a 'Installation insructions' link for the latest client version for various Linux distributions. 

https://owncloud.com/desktop-app

 

Select the Linux distribution that you use, e.g. Ubuntu, and then choose to either download the binary packages directly or follow the instructions for a manual installation.

Configure

  1. On your Linux machine, navigate to your home folder with the house icon. Click on the ‘File’ menu at the top, choose ‘New Folder’ and give the folder the exact same name as the one you set up in the DataSync web interface. This will be the folder you will work out of locally and from which your files will synchronise.
  2. Search your Linux machine for the term 'ownCloud' and launch the client.
  3. Enter the server address as https://datasync.ed.ac.uk and press ‘Next’.
  4. In the next screen, in the 'Local Folder' section, click the path and navigate to select the folder you created. Press 'Connect' and then 'Finish'.
  5. The ownCloud desktop client should now connect and you should see that the ownCloud menu icon has a green tick on it, denoting the connection has been successful.
  6. You can now add files to the local folder you created and they should sync successfully up to the server location you specified in the DataSync web interface.

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