Ceci est une ancienne révision du document !
In Part 7 of this series, we looked at running Windows programs in Linux using Wine or Play on Linux. The primary example was installing my copy of Office 2010 which has a top-rated Platinum ranking in the Wine AppDB listings. In this same database, Office 2016 rates as Gold and so is eminently usable. However, Office 365, which is the current release of Microsoft’s office suite, is listed as Garbage – which means that it can’t be installed and run in Linux. But, what about the web apps? For example, can we run Word 365 as a web-based application in a Linux browser? Let’s find out…
One major problem that I have with Microsoft 365 is that it doesn’t allow me to open, edit, and save files stored in my preferred folder on my local hard disk, ie, it does not offer the usual File-Open and File-Save options. Rather, it tries to insist that files should be accessed from Microsoft OneDrive. It is possible to upload a file from a local drive, edit the file in Word 365, and then download the resulting file back to local storage but this is a very cumbersome process.
Using OneDrive in Linux is further complicated by the fact that Microsoft, in its undoubted wisdom, does not offer a Linux client for OneDrive. Nevertheless, the Linux development community has come to the rescue with not one, but two related applications that make using OneDrive in Linux a breeze, or at least a moderate gale!
OneDrive Client for Linux is described by its developer as a free Microsoft OneDrive Client that seamlessly supports OneDrive Personal, OneDrive for Business, OneDrive for Office365, and SharePoint Libraries. It is compatible with all major Linux distributions and offers both one-way and two-way synchronization capabilities. The companion application is OneDriveGUI which, as the name suggests, provides a graphical user interface for the OneDrive client.
The good news is that Linux Mint includes OneDrive Client for Linux in its repositories, so the package can be installed directly in the Software Manager. However, check the available version number to make sure that it is supported by the current version of OneDriveGUI. If the version of OneDrive Client for Linux available through Software Manager is too old, it will be necessary to manually install the current client. Instructions to do this are available on abraunegg’s website on GitHub: https://github.com/abraunegg/onedrive/blob/master/docs/ubuntu-package-install.md.
In a perfect world the easiest option is to use the Software Manager. Simply search for onedrive and install the package. Check that onedrive has been installed correctly by opening a Terminal window and typing onedrive –version. Currently, this command will return onedrive v2.5.5-1+np1+1.1.
To run OneDrive manually and authorize access to Microsoft’s OneDrive server, type onedrive in the Terminal window. The response is shown in Figure 1. Take careful note of the final set of instructions that (a) provide a URL that is to be entered into a web browser, and (b) indicate Enter the response uri from your browser.
While the instructions are correct, some users (me!) may find their implementation confusing. The highlighted URL calls up the web page for Microsoft’s OneDrive Login Service. At this point, it is clear that it is necessary to log in and that the user’s login credentials (username and password) are to be entered. However, once this has been done, at first glance, the result appears to be a blank page. But what has actually happened is that the URL in the address bar has changed. This is by no means obvious. However, it is important to note that this is the “response URI” that is to be cut and pasted from the browser’s address bar into the Terminal window *. With the pasted URL having been accepted, the Terminal window now indicates that The application has been successfully authorised.
* Take special note of how to cut and paste the response URI as we will need to repeat the process to configure OneDriveGUI
Rather than running OneDrive manually from the Terminal, we will use OneDriveGUI to provide a graphical user interface to the actual client. We can download OneDriveGUI as an AppImage, a special type of file that packages the application and any necessary dependencies into a single executable file. At the time of writing, the current version is OneDriveGUI-1.1.1-x86_64.AppImage.
With this file having been obtained and stored in the Downloads folder, we can right-click on the file, navigate to Properties, and set the execute permission (Properties > Permissions > Execute) by checking the box labelled Allow executing file as a program. Now, simply double-clicking on the AppImage file launches OneDriveGUI.
When OneDriveGUI is first run, a dialogue box indicates that the use of Microsoft’s OneDrive Login Service is once again required to provide access to OneDrive’s server. The process of logging in, obtaining and using the response URI, is exactly the same as described above – complete with the “blank” page, and the required response URI in the address bar!
The initial synchronization process can now be started manually by clicking on the white triangle in the window’s header. This provides a startup wizard that first checks the installed version of OneDrive Client for Linux, and then offers to add a OneDrive profile. Check the box labelled Create new OneDrive profile. In the next dialogue box (Figure 2), specify the name of the new profile (e.g. OneDriveMint), and browse for the folder that is to be used for synchronizing files between the local hard drive (e.g. /media/DataDisk/OneDriveFiles) and Microsoft's OneDrive server. Now, click on Create new profile.
One additional change to the configuration may be useful. Click on the person icon in the centre of the bottom edge of the OneDriveGUI window (Figure 3) to load the OneDriveGUI – Profiles window. On the Sync Options tab, check the box labelled Bypass data preservation. This prevents the application creating backups of files that are synchronized between the local hard drive and OneDrive’s server. This is an optional setting and my preference is to maintain a “clean” folder of synchronized files without any additional backups.
Normally, when OneDriveGUI is started, the application scans the two folders and automatically synchronizes the files present in both. By default, this is a two-way process, with new and modified files being copied between the folders, and files that have been deleted in one folder being removed from the other folder. This behaviour can be customized through an extensive set of options in the profile. If OneDriveGUI is left running, the application continues to monitor the folder pair and will copy or delete files according to the established profile.
Microsoft 365 doesn’t make it easy to use local files in apps such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, and is even less accommodating for those of us who use Linux. The availability of OneDrive Client for Linux and OneDriveGUI goes a long way to making the process of using the web-based apps from Microsoft’s office suite more efficient and hence much more useful to Linux users.
Bottom Line
OneDrive Client for Linux (Open Source) Version 2.5.5 abraunegg, Melbourne, Australia https://github.com/abraunegg/onedrive
OneDriveGUI Version 1.1.1 Boris Pozdena https://github.com/bpozdena/OneDriveGUI