UbuntuOne-Indicator puts sync status back into view

By , Published October 8, 2010

You wouldn’t believe how many times I have been left scratching my chin wondering if UbuntuOne has finished syncing or not. Hell, I’m not even sure if UbuntuOne is running most of the time!

I was pleased to learn today that I am not alone.

Roman Yepishev, also routinely annoyed by the lack of clear, accessible visual notification, has started work on an indicator-applet for displaying the sync-status of your UbuntuOne account.

Whilst the project is 'not an official part of Ubuntu One project' it is, nontheless, really darn useful.

ubuntuone-indicator-synchronizing

Download

Want it? Be aware it's early days for this utility but Roman has provided a .deb file

Which, once installed, you run using: -

  • /usr/bin/ubuntuone-indicator

Alternatively check out the branch from LaunchPad using:

  • lp:~rye/ubuntuone-client/ubuntuone-indicator

We love Indicator Applets here on OMG! Ubuntu! – click here to see many, many more.

Related posts:

  1. RSS-Aware puts feed updates on your panel (Indicator-RSS anyone?)
  2. Indicator-Monitor puts system stressing process in plain sight
  3. UbuntuOne KDE Frontend Coming Soon (PPA Inside)
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  • http://twitter.com/medg85 Matthew Goode

    So it’s not just me then? This is one of the reasons I prefer Dropbox over Ubuntu One. This indicator may persuade me to switch back…

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      I long thought it was just me, too. I feel some soft of ‘ubuntuone notification anonymous’ may need to be set up. On a serious note – I’m perplexed as to why something like this wasn’t made an ‘option’ in UbuntuOne; there’s being unobtrusive and thens there’s being totally invisible like UbuntuOne is currently.

      • Anonymous

        It makes it really difficult to tell if it’s safe for me to shut down or not, because I’m unsure if my document has been backed up. drives me nuts. thus, only dropbox for me.

        This may make me use Ubuntu One… but it’s still not totally likely.

      • Anonymous

        Totally agree! That did not make any sense to me either :S
        It was no obvious way of knowing what was happening.. It really needs to be default in 11.04, along with a bunch of other needed features…

        Can I ask a bit off-topic question? I really love those monochrome status icons, but there is one totally messing up that beautiful space, and that is the green Spotify icon.. Does anyone know if/where there is a monochrome one? Thanks :)

  • Anonymous

    Similar problem this morning – UbuntuOne actually /wasn’t/ syncing and I had no way to know.

    • Anonymous

      man u1sdtool

    • Anonymous

      man u1sdtool

  • http://interesting.co.nz Benjamin Humphrey

    Hi Joey, it’s your mother here to nag again.

    It’s “Ubuntu One” – not “UbuntuOne.”

    Two words.

    Be consistent or you won’t be getting tea tonight.

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      The indicator is called ubuntuone-indicator, doofus, not Ubuntu One-indicator

      • http://interesting.co.nz Benjamin Humphrey

        “You wouldn’t believe how many times I have been left scratching my chin wondering if UbuntuOne has finished syncing or not. Hell, I’m not even sure if UbuntuOne is running most of the time!”

        “scratching my chin wondering if UbuntuOne has”

        “if UbuntuOne has”

        “UbuntuOne”

        “…displaying the sync-status of your UbuntuOne account.”

        “of your UbuntuOne account.”

        “UbuntuOne”

        But then, shock horror:

        “Whilst the project is ‘not an official part of Ubuntu One project’ it is, nontheless, really darn useful.”

        “part of the Ubuntu One project”

        “Ubuntu One”

        There’s a space!! OMG!

        • http://twitter.com/conscioususer Conscious User

          To be completely fair, the last one was a quote.

          • http://interesting.co.nz Benjamin Humphrey

            Don’t get your knickers in a twist, I was just messing with him (I do it all the time) :P

          • http://twitter.com/conscioususer Conscious User

            Oh sure, when someone points a flaw in your argument then suddenly it was all a joke. ;)

  • Anonymous

    After almost six months with Ubuntu One on Lucid, I’d forgotten that it was even running.
    Grabbing this indicator now!

    I’m on Dropbox now, but I like the new plans for Ubuntu One. Possible switch.

  • http://twitter.com/conscioususer Conscious User

    d0od, this might sound pedantic, but for the sake of accuracy please stop referring to works like this one as “indicator applets”. This is just an “indicator”, more specifically an “application indicator”. “Indicator applets” are containers used to display indicators in the gnome-panel, and do not exist at all in non-gnome-panel environments like Unity.

    • Anonymous

      Aha! Thank you!

      This has been bothering me for some time as well. They’re indicators. I thought about this when first writing the Ubuntu Guide; I thought, “Wait! They’re not applets! They go in the indicator applet, but they’re just indicators!”

      It’s helpful if you’re consistent w/the official terminology, especially for n00bs.

  • Anonymous

    it’s nice but i think we need a better graphics interface provided by Canonical which includes synchronization status like the mock-up we have seen a couple of months ago!

  • http://marcosroriz.wordpress.com/ Marcos Roriz

    It says that it needs the ubuntu-sso-client, but it appears that this pkg is only available on maverick… is it safe to install it?

    • https://launchpad.net/~rye Roman

      Maverick version will not work on Lucid, I will prepare a package for Lucid soon.

      • http://twitter.com/Heimpjuh Heimen Stoffels

        That is not true. The Maverick-version of ubuntu-sso-client works fine on Lucid. I was using that package on Lucid till about a week ago when I made the switch to Maverick. But it worked without any problem on Lucid.

      • http://marcosroriz.wordpress.com/ Marcos Roriz

        Thank you Roman o/

  • http://twitter.com/dominikmayer Dominik Mayer

    Which theme are you using in the screenshot?

    • https://launchpad.net/~brettcornwall Chauncellor

      Looks like the stock Maverick Radiance

  • Anonymous

    I filed a bug a few months ago; apparently this is a planned feature for 11.04, but I can’t find that bug report anywhere O.o so I *might* of had a bit too much chocolate and dreamed the whole thing…man, I REALLY need to take a break from computers.

  • http://bruce-connor.myopenid.com/ BruceConnor

    In my dream OS, this gets integrated with dropdox into a single indicator. Possibly inside the upcoming network indicator.

    • Anonymous

      I can see this indicator being integrated within the Network Applet. The sound applet has got “Integration” so should the Network Applet :)

  • http://twitter.com/mikeziri mwm

    hmm it doesn’t work over here. gives a bunch of errors on the terminal, although the icon appears and has menu in the applet.

  • Anonymous

    I LOVED it!! So much better now I can know what is going on :) The icon is pretty, but I kind of wished those arrows were spinning :) Just a thought…

  • http://twitter.com/zc456 Zenon Tigerpaw

    I hope this becomes apart of the Ubuntu One project in the future.

  • http://twitter.com/hrhenry Rick Henry

    I actually completely removed Ubuntu One from my system because I found it pretty useless not knowing the sync status.

    I’ve been using Dropbox and Spideroak. I actually prefer Spideroak, because I can choose which directories/files I want synced. They don’t have to be put into or linked to the Dropbox folder.

 
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