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timidpimpin

Suspended
Nov 10, 2018
1,121
1,315
Cascadia
IMO Google Drive is a better alternative to Drop Box. And you get 15GB on the free account, and while the Google Drive app doesn't have a PPC version... you can just use the web interface.
 

eyoungren

macrumors Penryn
Original poster
Aug 31, 2011
28,831
26,944
IMO Google Drive is a better alternative to Drop Box. And you get 15GB on the free account, and while the Google Drive app doesn't have a PPC version... you can just use the web interface.
Right now, I'm using my very first solution and the reason for this thread originally.

My PC laptop is running Dropbox and sitting on top of my G5. I connect to the Dropbox folder on the laptop with my G5 and just make my changes there.

Google Drive is good. I have it, but I don't use it. I use Box too. All three are running on my PC laptop. But mostly I use Dropbox.

I've got 50GB in Box though, free.
 

eyoungren

macrumors Penryn
Original poster
Aug 31, 2011
28,831
26,944
@Czo

Do you see yourself updating the app or is the project unofficially abandoned?

I am asking, because unless there is a forthcoming update, I do not believe this thread warrants being stickied anymore. Can you let us know?
 

eyoungren

macrumors Penryn
Original poster
Aug 31, 2011
28,831
26,944
Today, I asked for this thread to be unstickied. If there is any content and ideas you can still use that's great. But we have reached the end here.

It was a good run and we had at least two years of extended life (thanks @Czo !).

Post #1 updated to reflect this change.
 

bobesch

macrumors 68020
Oct 21, 2015
2,134
2,212
Kiel, Germany
First: many thanks to @Czo, @eyoungren and everybody else, who kept Dropbox alive on PowerPC for such a long time!
---
After starting to use webDAV as a Cloud solution for all of my Macs, a few webDAV services became more and more important for my workflow using the following clients:
- os9: Goliath
- OSX (PPC/intel): Finder-Menu "Go To" / "Connect with Server"
- iOS: iFiles

For Dropbox at home I use Erik's method mentioned in the #1 post:
FileSharing with a Dropbox-folder on a Dropbox-capable machine. (Thanks for mentioning the trick, to create an Alias of the remote Dropbox-folder - Dropbox on PPC now feels more like being located locally on the PPC-machine)

On the go I use iOS/iFiles to get access to my Dropbox and to move files between Dropbox and the PPC via AFP-protocol. (It's also faster than trying to access files on Dropbox via browser/web-page ...)

After all not too bad and the show can go on!
 

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Czo

macrumors 6502
Dec 30, 2008
433
267
Debrecen, Hungary
@Czo

Do you see yourself updating the app or is the project unofficially abandoned?

I am asking, because unless there is a forthcoming update, I do not believe this thread warrants being stickied anymore. Can you let us know?

Sorry guys, but i am lost the interest about this. Nearly a year ago, Dropbox terminated the compatibility with 10.8 too, and i'm lost the spirit, to try to workaround this (my PPC's are stucked on 10.5 (not turned it on in the last 1.5 years), my iMac4,1 stucked on 10.8, and that machine still used by my father).

Because of the new system requirements of 10.14, i replaced my MacBookPro4,1 with a brand new MacBookPro15,2, and waiting for a new iMac to replace my current iMac12,2. My current iMac12,2 will be transferred to my father (to replace iMac4,1). When Dropbox terminates support on 10.13 in the future (maybe i have 2-4 years), i will bring back this project to keep alive Dropbox on 10.13 (but only on 10.13).

Sorry, but the times keep moving, and more and more things will left PPC's behind.
 

eyoungren

macrumors Penryn
Original poster
Aug 31, 2011
28,831
26,944
Sorry guys, but i am lost the interest about this. Nearly a year ago, Dropbox terminated the compatibility with 10.8 too, and i'm lost the spirit, to try to workaround this (my PPC's are stucked on 10.5 (not turned it on in the last 1.5 years), my iMac4,1 stucked on 10.8, and that machine still used by my father).

Because of the new system requirements of 10.14, i replaced my MacBookPro4,1 with a brand new MacBookPro15,2, and waiting for a new iMac to replace my current iMac12,2. My current iMac12,2 will be transferred to my father (to replace iMac4,1). When Dropbox terminates support on 10.13 in the future (maybe i have 2-4 years), i will bring back this project to keep alive Dropbox on 10.13 (but only on 10.13).

Sorry, but the times keep moving, and more and more things will left PPC's behind.
There is nothing to apologize for. We all appreciate the fact that for two or more years we were able to use Dropbox beyond the time that they cut us off.

As things go for PowerPC, that was a gift and we're grateful. Thank you for the extra time you gave all of us.

Good luck to you!
 

slaxatl

macrumors newbie
May 6, 2019
2
0
ATL / C'ville / 'Murrica
Dropbox is a saucy minx, determined to kick off folks who HATE Apple's latest OS architecture (I among them). it's my hope we can develop a new patch that overrides them bitches so we can keep syncing our files. I have a ScanSnap sending files to a Dropbox folder but I may have to switch if we can't find another workaround. help!

1-27-2019: This thread has now been unstickied. When I started it, my intent was to provide a workaround for the fact that Dropbox abandoned us. Well, others stepped up and we found alternate ways to get around this problem. Eventually @Czo even went to work for us in reverse-engineering the app.

Unfortunately, there has been no update to the app for over a year now and since quickly finding a current Dropbox app was the sole reason to keep the thread stickied there is now no longer any justifiable reason for it.

Like all things, there is a time. Dropbox for PowerPC came to an end over a year ago. We had a good run and I wish to thank Czo for keeping us relevant for at least two years past the time Dropbox cut us off.

I can only hope all of you are finding your own way to continue to use Dropbox. For myself, it's the original solution I posted this thread for. I have an always on PC laptop that sits as a bridge for my PowerPC Macs. I've even placed a direct Dropbox shortcut to my laptop in my Home folders.

Good luck to all of you and thanks for participating! Dropbox for PowerPC is dead. Long live Dropbox!

******************************** END ****************************************************************************

TIGER USERS, THE PROVIDED POWERPC DROPBOX APP DOES NOT WORK WITH TIGER. IT IS LEOPARD/SNOW LEOPARD ONLY.

***How this works.***
Go to post Post #168. Download the app from the link. Unzip the app and move it into your apps folder (overwriting the old app).

Czo updates the app periodically but the link to the update remains the same. Just redownload and recopy whenever there is an update.

You can track new updates below as I update Post #1 whenever Czo releases a new update.

---

EDIT: 6.2.2017. Updated. Post #168.

EDIT: 4.8.2017. Update! Post #168.

EDIT: 12.16.2016. @Czo has updated the Dropbox app yet again (Thanks Czo!). Post #168.

EDIT: 9.14.2016. @Czo has updated the Dropbox app. Same link as before, see edit below this one.

EDIT: 12.08.2015. @Czo to the rescue again! Post #168 for the updated version! Note that the link at post #118 should also work as it's the same.

EDIT: 11.14.2015. Beware! Dropbox now seems to be detecting older versions! Hopefully @Czo can fix this.
--ADD: 12.06.2015. @Salumbre reports in post #159 that the warning may be erroneous and that Dropbox keeps functioning past the deadline.

--ADD: 12.08.2015. @Salumbre reports in Post 166 that Dropbox has stopped working for him.

However @Czo is currently working to release a new patch. I will update when the patch is live. UPDATED: See above for link!

View attachment 600013

EDIT: 09.22.2015. NOTE! Dropbox is now censoring links to this thread in their community forums! Took them long enough

EDIT: 07.27.2015. TIGER USERS!!! None of these solutions seem to work for OS X 10.4.11! The APIs that Dropbox is currently using for Snow Leopard are close enough to allow Leopard (10.5.8) users to continue using Dropbox, but the differences between Tiger and Snow Leopard are such that the fix does not work under Tiger.

If anyone wants to help Czo with coding for Tiger they are welcome to do so, but for right now the fix only works on Leopard!

EDIT: 07.08.2015. Updated download of Czo's solution at post 118.

NOTE! EVERYTHING BETWEEN THIS LINE AND THE NEXT NO LONGER WORKS!!! YOU CAN CHANGE THE SYSTEM VERSION BUT DROPBOX NOW CHECKS FOR THE VERSION OF DROPBOX. SEE THE ABOVE UPDATES FOR A LINK TO THE CURRENT WORKING VERSION!

****************************************************************************************************************


Note that the link in Post 71 is corrupt, use the link in Post 118.
EDIT: 05.25.2015. See Czo's solution at post 71. Czo has created a version of Dropbox that directly fakes version information to fool Dropbox. This makes modifying the SystemVersion.plist file unnecessary. Note that this makes the interface reflect the newer version and therefore you will have some icons that are clickable but do not function. To get to Preferences hold down OPTN when you click on the Dropbox icon in the menubar. All regular Dropbox functions are unaffected.

EDIT: 05.20.2015. See NathanJHill's solution at post 43. Note that Dropbox only seems to check for system version if you have been disconnected. Reconnecting using NathanJHill's solution will survive quitting Dropbox and it will survive a restart.

You will only need to do this again if you disconnect your Mac from Dropbox.

As Dropbox says, Happy Dropboxing!

I am marking this as resolved.


EVERTHING BELOW THIS LINE WAS PRIOR TO THE SOLUTIONS POSTED ABOVE. I HAVE LEFT IT HERE FOR THE RECORD
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Before you shoot me and say that this is a lame solution and anyone could have thought of it - just consider that this post is not THE solution to the problem, but just one of probably many that can be tried.

Also, I'm not saying it's a GOOD solution but it does seem to be one that will work for me. It's also pretty simple, but you do need an Intel Mac in the mix.

First, get an Intel Mac that you are comfortable leaving on all the time, or at least most of the time. For me, it won't be my new MBP (it's not even part of this) but another Mac. Or you can use a PC with an OS that Dropbox still supports

That Intel Mac (or PC) needs to be hooked up to Dropbox. That means this Mac (or PC) has to have internet access.

Share the Dropbox folder so it's accessible on your network.

Forward AFP (port 548) to the Intel Mac in your router. This is so we can still access Dropbox outside of the network that Mac is on. If that network has a dynamically assigned external IP you'll have to keep track of the IP address. For PC, you want ports 137-139 and 445 for SMB.

Using the PowerPC Macs you want to still have access to Dropbox, connect to the Intel Mac (or PC), mount the Dropbox shared folder and make an alias to it. You may want to do this from outside the network so the alias is not referencing the local address.

If you have not figured this out by now, what's happening is that we are mounting the shared Dropbox folder from the Intel Mac (or PC) to our PowerPC Macs via file sharing. Anything we drop in there directly will reflect up to Dropbox through the Intel Mac.

Of course there are downsides. We'll probably have to use the web interface to get a Public sharing link for a file, but at least this keeps some syncing going on. And of course Dropbox won't be in the menubar anymore any you lose the functionality of that. But the primary purpose of Dropbox is maintained.

Again, I know it's not a perfect or even great solution but it works well enough for me (I've tested it).[/B][/b]
 

eyoungren

macrumors Penryn
Original poster
Aug 31, 2011
28,831
26,944
Dropbox is a saucy minx, determined to kick off folks who HATE Apple's latest OS architecture (I among them). it's my hope we can develop a new patch that overrides them bitches so we can keep syncing our files. I have a ScanSnap sending files to a Dropbox folder but I may have to switch if we can't find another workaround. help!
The one person who was able to help us is no longer able to do so.

I'm not a programmer so unless someone else who is comes along and is willing and capable of taking on this job, it's not going to happen.

But here's the thing. The longer we wait for this mystical person to arrive the more difficult it will become. I imagine a large part of the reason that Czo abandoned the project is that things got more and more difficult to backport. It's not a small undertaking.

It's unfortunate, but I just don't see it happening
 

slaxatl

macrumors newbie
May 6, 2019
2
0
ATL / C'ville / 'Murrica
The one person who was able to help us is no longer able to do so.

I'm not a programmer so unless someone else who is comes along and is willing and capable of taking on this job, it's not going to happen.

But here's the thing. The longer we wait for this mystical person to arrive the more difficult it will become. I imagine a large part of the reason that Czo abandoned the project is that things got more and more difficult to backport. It's not a small undertaking.

It's unfortunate, but I just don't see it happening

thanks for replying! yeah lemme talk to my Tech Jesus and see if there's anything we can finagle. totally unacceptable IMHO
 

NathanJHill

macrumors regular
Oct 29, 2014
125
90
And further - Dropbox's service changes limits how many clients/computers can be connected to 5, so if you have more devices (counting mobile + computers), you'll be limited. At this point, I am thinking hard about switching to another service and leaving Dropbox behind. If I find any that have some PPC possibilities, I'll make a new thread.
 

sparty411

macrumors 6502a
Nov 13, 2018
552
499
Crazy...Dropbox for PPC? Not likely....Dropbox for Amiga? No problem....


To be fair, the Amiga guys are likely the most dedicated people in the world, when it comes to maintaining their platform. The community is second to none.
 

NathanJHill

macrumors regular
Oct 29, 2014
125
90
I want to publicly thanks @Czo again for all his work early on, and I understand his hesitation moving forward. However, I just found out about this new project which gives me hope: Maestral https://github.com/SamSchott/maestral ... wanted to share it in case others want to try it as well. (BTW, I grew up on Commodore, so I fully understand the Amiga enthusiasm.)

Hey, this is really intriguing. Have you tested it? I will give it a look tomorrow on my G5. It requires Python 3.6 and PyQT5, from initial glance. Not sure if we have PowerPC ready versions of that on Homebrew or MacPorts, but definitely worth a look.

(Last Python3 official version for PPC I see is 3.5.4.)

(And it looks like MacPorts has at least 3.6 available: https://ports.macports.org/port/python36/summary)
 
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wescpy

macrumors newbie
Sep 19, 2020
2
4
Silicon Valley, CA, USA
@NathanJHill : yep, I tried it this weekend, with mixed but possibly promising results:
  • I got it to sync my files (somewhat) on my btrfs Debian device (Dropbox only supports ext4 Linux filesystems)
  • Maestral unfortunately does NOT support symlinks, so now I have a bunch of "corruption" I need to clean-up.
    • Symlink corruption: 1) the file w/the original filename becomes a file of 0-length, 2a) on a newer still-supported MacOS machine, a symlink w/the conflicting file name is created, and 2b) on my Debian device, the file w/the conflicting name is a full copy of the file originally linked to
    • That was the extent of my experience using Maestral w/Linux & a newer Mac; as far as my older Mac goes...
  • As you already know, Maestral requires at least Python 3.6; I have 3.7 on all my machines. I prefer Homebrew, but for older Macs, you should use TigerBrew instead. They support up to Python 3.7; that's where I got mine.
  • Unfortunately, the Xcode on my Snow Leopard MBP only has gcc-4.2, and it can't install/compile Watchdog, a Maestral dependency, due to newer GCC flags it doesn't recognize.
  • If I can get a newer GCC that recognizes those compile-time flags, find the Makefile and remove those warnings, OR get a hold of a Watchdog binary to somehow get it working, that'll significantly get me closer.
  • I'm hoping y'all try it as well and that someone can get it working so we can finally close this long thread!
 
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barracuda156

macrumors 68000
Sep 3, 2021
1,736
1,270
Hey, this is really intriguing. Have you tested it? I will give it a look tomorrow on my G5. It requires Python 3.6 and PyQT5, from initial glance. Not sure if we have PowerPC ready versions of that on Homebrew or MacPorts, but definitely worth a look.

All Pythons through 3.10 are building and working on 10.5.8 and 10.6 PPC, at least for ppc32, no problems at all.

(Building Python universal as ppc+ppc64 on 10.5.8 is currently broken but possible: I have managed to build it in Macports, but some modules failed. At the moment, I am working on gcc, so fixing Python for ppc64 is on pause.)

However Qt5 does not build for PowerPC.
 

barracuda156

macrumors 68000
Sep 3, 2021
1,736
1,270
Unfortunately, the Xcode on my Snow Leopard MBP only has gcc-4.2, and it can't install/compile Watchdog, a Maestral dependency, due to newer GCC flags it doesn't recognize.
  • If I can get a newer GCC that recognizes those compile-time flags, find the Makefile and remove those warnings, OR get a hold of a Watchdog binary to somehow get it working, that'll significantly get me closer.
  • I'm hoping y'all try it as well and that someone can get it working so we can finally close this long thread!

What is your problem with gcc? Macports supports up to gcc7.5 for PowerPC “out of the box” on 10.5.8 (requires a simple fix to build on 10.6 PPC). Outside of Macports you can bootstrap gcc10 using just Xcode tools and use gcc10 to build gcc11. This works on 10.5.8, as well as on 10.6.8 (Rosetta).
 
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gotobc

macrumors newbie
Nov 3, 2023
1
0
I made a more elegant workaround for this.

I wrote a small dynamic library (dylib), that replace osx internal file open system call (fopen) with a faked version, that redirect any read from systemversion.plist to another file. Then replaced Dropbox launcher, with a prepared launcher because we need to inject the modified fopen to dropbox.

Source code, and modified .app, available here: http://homokozo.czo.hu/dropboxfixppc/
Hi Czo,
I know this post is old but i'm interested in this subject : i just achieve to reinstall an old powermac G5 with 10.5.8 Leopard but i'm in despair about how install any version of Dropbox on it. Can you help me please ? i already downloaded what is on your dropbox folder... but don't really know what to do with... (sorry for my english, i'm a french guy :)
 

Tankerthebuberz

macrumors member
Nov 3, 2023
79
45
I mean you could always install Debian and just duel boot what doesn’t work in Mac OS anymore since Linux is modern if you do make a client though I’d be interested to try it out…I’ll definitely check back in if you make progress…this seems like a cool idea!
 

barracuda156

macrumors 68000
Sep 3, 2021
1,736
1,270
Unfortunately, the Xcode on my Snow Leopard MBP only has gcc-4.2, and it can't install/compile Watchdog, a Maestral dependency, due to newer GCC flags it doesn't recognize.

On a side note, it might be possible to force a Unix-style build, bypassing all ObjC garbage which breaks it :)

UPD. An alternative may be to use an earlier version. You could try picking those from the history: https://github.com/macports/macports-ports/commits/master/python/py-watchdog/Portfile
 
Last edited:

barracuda156

macrumors 68000
Sep 3, 2021
1,736
1,270
I want to publicly thanks @Czo again for all his work early on, and I understand his hesitation moving forward. However, I just found out about this new project which gives me hope: Maestral https://github.com/SamSchott/maestral ... wanted to share it in case others want to try it as well. (BTW, I grew up on Commodore, so I fully understand the Amiga enthusiasm.)

Okay, I have installed maestral.

A caveat: the last watchdog to build is 0.10.3 (possibly 0.10.7 can be fixed by adding fallbacks or reverting a few commits, I did not try).
This seems to correspond to maestral 1.3.1. Which is what I have installed.

It seems it will need some patches to work (if it will at all): https://github.com/samschott/maestral/issues/997

Not sure if any luck with GUI. May not be, since corresponding version of maestral-qt asks for Qt5, which is broken: https://github.com/samschott/maestral-qt/issues/28
I would not expect maestral-cocoa to work at all. Though it does not hurt trying, of course.

Building this in Macports will require a number of PRs merged. I hope it will not take too long.
 

barracuda156

macrumors 68000
Sep 3, 2021
1,736
1,270
Okay, I have installed maestral.

A caveat: the last watchdog to build is 0.10.3 (possibly 0.10.7 can be fixed by adding fallbacks or reverting a few commits, I did not try).
This seems to correspond to maestral 1.3.1. Which is what I have installed.

It seems it will need some patches to work (if it will at all): https://github.com/samschott/maestral/issues/997

Not sure if any luck with GUI. May not be, since corresponding version of maestral-qt asks for Qt5, which is broken: https://github.com/samschott/maestral-qt/issues/28
I would not expect maestral-cocoa to work at all. Though it does not hurt trying, of course.

Building this in Macports will require a number of PRs merged. I hope it will not take too long.

These will get to building maestral without GUI:


NOTICE, while this should build and watchdog should work (all tests pass), maestral is likely not to work, since some compatibility issues have to be addressed (see above).
 
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