[How To] Access Google Drive Via Nautilus

[cirrus_minor]

[How To] Access Google Drive Via Nautilus in Ubuntu
By Joey Sneddon,


Google’s newly-launched ‘Drive’ feature may have failed to give Linux users a client from the get go – but that doesn’t mean we need to go without entirely.

A temporary solution is available for those willing to try it. It’s not as elegant or featured as the clients Google provides for Windows and Mac users, but it may help bide the time for avid Google-users looking to make the most of Drive before something more official arrives.
Google Docs Drive FS

The package comes courtesy of Luca Invernizzi, and is based on the discontinued ‘google docs fs’ project that ”[allows] you to connect to Google Docs and treat it as a file system.”

Sounds technical, but put simply it means you can access the files and documents in your Google Drive as you would any other folder.

But there are limitations to this approach.

The majority of features billed in the Google Drive clients themselves are not provided in this fix – the most notable of which is the inability to add files, sync files or otherwise access the folder whilst offline; uploading additional files to the Drive also doesn’t seem to function fully.

With the disclaimers out of the way lets see how you get it all set up.

First you need to add the packages provided by Luca and available in his PPA (11.10 only at present): -

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:invernizzi/google-docs-fs
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install google-docs-fs

Once everything that’s needed has been installed log out and back in.

Open Nautilus
Create a new folder in your Home folder titled ‘Drive’
Open a Terminal and run: -
gmount Drive username@gmail.com
Input your password
Your Google Drive is now mounted in the ‘Drive’ folder

[ally]

hey joey

thanks for this useful tool

I have followed your instructions and now have a mounted 'Drive' which shows my google-drive files

I would like to backup data directly to this folder using mintbackup, although it sees the drive it is greyed out and shows "0 bytes Unknown"

any solution?

cheers

ally

[nomko]

Google Drive doesn't come with a Linux Client. However, it is possible to let Google Drive connect with Caja/Nautilus for full access.
Access your Google Drive using Caja/Nautilus:

- open a terminal and copy/paste the following command:

Code: Select all

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:invernizzi/google-docs-fs

- Copy/paste the following command:

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install google-docs-fs

Now comes the last part of adding Google Drive to Caja/Nautilus:

- Open Nautilus
- Create a new folder in your Home folder called Drive
- Open a Terminal, copy/paste and run the following command:

Code: Select all

gmount Drive username@gmail.com

After pressing Enter, type in your password. When your password is entered, your Google Drive is mounted and accessible.

[proxima_centauri]

* Two identical tutorial topics merged.

[donkeyhottie]

W: Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/invernizzi/goo ... ce/Sources 404 Not Found

W: Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/invernizzi/goo ... 4/Packages 404 Not Found

W: Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/invernizzi/goo ... 6/Packages 404 Not Found

E: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.
jarif@whirlwind:~$

[proxima_centauri]

There is no PPA for Ubuntu 12.04 so it will not work for Linux Mint 13.

[nomko]

There is no PPA for Ubuntu 12.04 so it will not work for Linux Mint 13.

Yep. version Karmic up to Oneiric is supported. No Precise.

[zen3]

Hello, it worked like a charm. Thank you.

How can this be done automatically at boot? Like adding an entry at fstab or something.