Installing the Dropbox client on Ubuntu, via Vast.AI.

Question

Hi ! I'm a CG filmmaker trying to use Vast.AI (Ubuntu on demand virtual machines, with very powerful GPUs) to render commercial & personal short film. (instead of overpriced render farm services.)
It seems it can work like a charm, but I've been struggling for three days to install the Dropbox client/app.
I managed via line of code found on Dropbox website/install page for Linux (I never used a console in my life, as an artist.) but this install always says only Ext4 file system is supported. There's other ways to install Dropbox I guess, but I just can't do it, always some dependency issue ect..
I also tried to install Resilio synch as an alternative to Dropbox, but it also refuses to install no matter what.
If someone has some expertise on this matter, I would be willing to pay to make sure I can reproduce the method, and stop bleeding both time and sanity like this week, for something that I expected to take me around 27 seconds.
If some simple solution exists I would be extremely grateful, but I think it does not, so some screen-sharing via Discord or so might be in order, if someone is interested in this bounty haha.
I hope asking for help potentially paid/via discord isn't against the rule, let me know if I need to edit my post.

Thanks !

liok · Answer

Hi Jay, yes I managed to get someone from Vast to look into it, and apparently Dropbox app cannot be installed on any of their instances as their file system is not Ext4, but XFS. And the linux Dropbox app always says it's only compatible with Ext4, although Dropbox overall says the app should be compatible with XFS (but maybe not on linux ?)

For now they're working to add SynchThing to the docker, so that when creating an instance we can simply paste a code to a dropbox folder we flagged in our Local PC, that's then synchronized P2P super fast between the two desktops, just like if blender was installed. I also will aovid any security concern to log into dropbox onto what's technically a shared distant computer. (even if probably not as risky as it sounds, I have no idea.)

So this should solve my issue to have a distance desktop read & write into my dropbox projects in a few clicks, totally securely.

Jay · Answer

Hi @liok, thanks for messaging the Community!

It's possible that the virtual machines in question might not be supported fully, since you would need to install the app each time you login to it.

Have you tried contacting the site you're using for further assistance on setting it up?

Keep me posted!